Salta in my soup

The first thing that I really was surprised to notice after heading down from the Andes to Salta were in fact the trees. It is truely strange — if you haven’t seen real trees (not talking of shrubberies, bushes, or rock trees) for some time as they just don’t grow at these high altitudes, you kind of miss them in your subconciousness and are very happy to see them again.

The second thing is that no cars honk at you for no reason, though this might already have been the case in Chile… not that there were many cars in San Pedro, there were many more dogs indeed (hence the nick name San Perro de Atacama).

Ah, Argentina. It’s nice being back again (according to my passport, it’s the third time). I booked a hostel after recommendation of the couple in Potosi, and she emphasized the absence of bed bugs, which she said was not the default in Salta. After two nights in that hostel and two insect bites later, I am not sure that I can confirm this… (BTW: I still have those mosquito bites in the palms of my hands from the Amazon!)

The first day I again spent on organizing my tours and the bus to Mendoza. I had all forgotten about the Train in the Clouds, but fortunately, I had put up a note in Nomads Connected, so it sprung into my view when I updated my current location. The next train would only leave on Friday, so I booked it. I’m very much looking forward to the 15 hours train ride back into the high altitudes of the Andes. When Axel was in Argentina in December last year, the train was not going, but he booked a bus trip along the tracks and the photos looked amazing.

This left me with two more days I had to fill. I was thinking about renting a car, but Axel discouraged me of going alone into the mountains and he’s probably right about that. I didn’t find people to share the car in my hostel, so instead I booked two bus tours to Humahuaca in the north to see the beautiful seven or 14 coloured mountain ranges and to Cafayate to do some wine tasting over there, too. I had to skip Cachi though, that would have required an additional day.

The rest of the day I explored the picturesque city of Salta, the beauty. I went up with the (swiss) cable car to the hill of San Bernardo for a stunning view above the city in the basin amidst the mountains. If I hadn’t already bought a return ticket, I might have opted for downhill mountainbiking, if I knew it before.

Then I had a look at a contemporary arts museum with some good works, but nothing too impressive. Then I went to the MAAM museum to see the child mummies that also were not on display when Axel was in Salta. It was a bit weird. For the Inca, the mountains were their Apus (gods) and they sacrificed humans on their summits.

In the late 90ties, some archeologists found (excavated) three children (six, eight, and 15 years old at the time of death) atop of a mountain of almost 7000m. Due to the high altitude, the low temperature, the lack of humidity and bacteria, the three bodies, more than 500 years old, “survived” in perfect condition (despite one girl being slightly burnt when she was struck by lightning during those years). The facial expressions are scaringly well preserved. They only had one child on direct display (in a chamber of -20 deg C) and was both weird and morbidly interesting.

They also found a lot of cermonial gifts in absolutely perfect condition. If you see the puppets, the pottery and the coloured feathers, they look like they had been created yesterday. Amazing. Of course, it was not allowed to take photos.

In the evening, I had my long missed steak, but I have to admit, although it was good, it was not as tender as the ones I had in Buenos Aires. This only means I have to try again and again, haha.

The bus trip to Humahuaca was okay. The bus was filled with people long past their “best before” date and even I could lower the average age significantly. However, the landscape and scenery in and around Purmamarca compensated for this easily. The colours of the mountains are just surreal. Some shapes of the rocks reminded me of the Valley of the Moon in Chile though.

At the ruins of the Inca fortress Pucara de Tilcara there was a nice 360 degrees view upon the valley. But these ruins, really, I’ve seen and heard it all before.

Lunch was supposed to be in a rip-off-50-pesos-for-a-menu restaurant, but surprisingly nobody went for it and instead dispersed into different localities. I had a three courses low-budget (and low-taste) lunch for 13 pesos in a nearby place.

On the way back we stopped in Jujuy where I got the news about another job well done. Two out of five announced babies have been born. Congrats to the family. I was and am still very happy for that news.

Those were the first two days of Salta, the next two will follow inevitably.