Salta

On Sunday evening I arrived in Salta, which is another big city, and the most touristed spot in north-west Argentina. I decided to stay in the Youth Hostel Terra Oculta because it's close to the bus station, but unfortunately that's about all it has to recommend it. I probably should have moved elsewhere on Monday, but in the end I didn't.

On Monday I saw some of the sights of Salta, including the Catedral and the Iglesia San Francisco. I also went on a trip on a cable car up to the top of the nearby Cerro San Bernando, from which there were some great views of Salta.

On Tuesday I decided to go on an organised tour to Cachi, which is a small town about fifty miles to the south-west of Salta. I wasn't too happy when I saw that almost all of the other people on the tour were middle-aged Argentinian couples (plus there was one young couple from Sutton Coldfield), but the trip was actually a lot of fun. The road to Cachi is known as the Cuesta del Obispo (Bishop's Slope), and it's a windy one. Here's a picture of me alongside it at an altitude of about 3500m. We saw a few condors along the way, and I also got my first glimpse of the high Andes.

During lunch we were talking about my trip, and one of the Argentinian ladies advised me strongly not to go to Bolivia - she said it's dirty, there are too many flies, the food's terrible, the people are unfriendly, and there are thieves everywhere. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Well I'm going to go anyway, and I'll make up my own mind.

On the way back from Cachi we passed through the Parque Nacional Los Cardones, which contains thousands of cardons (a type of cactus). Here's a photo of me next to one of the bigger ones.

We hit a delay a bit further down the road, because a lorry pulling a trailer had got itself wedged against the rock face, completely blocking the road. After the driver had spent about half an hour scraping the trailer back and forth against the rock, they eventually managed to free it by hammering off chunks of rock with a chisel.

In the evening I went for a meal and then for a few beers in the hostel's rooftop bar with Ethan (a Canadian student) and Ben (an Australian civil servant), who I met in my dorm. Ethan had just got the bus down from Bolivia that day, and he said he'd had a great time there, so I think I'm more inclined to listen to his opinion.

Today I had a fairly relaxed day. In the morning I went to the Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montana, which is one of Argentina's top museums. Their big exhibit is the mummified bodies of three sacrificed Inca children, who were found in 1999, perfectly preserved at the peak of the Llullaillaco volcano. Sadly I have no photos, because I wasn't allowed to take any.

Since I've been in Argentina, I've been living largely off empanadas, which are bit like a small Cornish pasty or calzone, although apparently they're Spanish in origin. Here's a picture of my lunch today.

This is way too many empanadas to eat at one sitting (and I'd already eaten one by this point). This is because the waitress misheard my order, causing me to end up with nine instead of six (and in fact five would have been enough). I kept the rest, so it will probably be empanadas for dinner again tonight.

This is my last post from Argentina, because tomorrow I'm catching an early bus to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.