Our plan was to travel through the interior of Uruguay to Salto and cross over to Argentina in order to make our way to Salta. This travel arrangement required a lot of bus rides of various distances and a couple overnights in Salto and Resistencia. Juan and I barely saw Salto, arriving at night and leaving very early the next morning. But we had a great meal of milanesa (I was so stuffed I could barely walk back across the street to our hostel!) and stayed in the most colonial and characteristic hotel I've been in, Gran Hotel Concordia.
Resistencia on the other hand wasn't quite what we expected. In Juan's words, "It wasn't so hard to resist." After a very long taxi drive from the bus station we arrived at our hostel only to find there was no availability. After many many blocks of searching we finally settled on the Hotel Colon. Although a bit outside of our budget we decided we were done walking with our bags...it was almost 10pm and therefore by Argentine standards - dinner time. The next day we had a bit of time to explore before catching our bus to Salta. According to the Lonely Planet, Resistencia has strong claim to the title "artistic centre of northern Argentina". There are supposedly around 500 statues around the city, mostly around the main plaza. We did find statues but not in the numbers we expected or of the artistic caliber. After walking around in the blazing hot sun, looking for statues and a place to have lunch, we finally took shelter in our hotel's restaurant and waited for our overnight bus to Salta.
Upon arriving in Salta we learned our lesson the hard way - you need to book a hostel/hotel far in advance. It just so happened that we arrived just before a national long weekend holiday, which also coincided with a famous rock festival starring their beloved Indio Solari. We spent a good four hours walking around booking a day here and a day there until we had the whole week figured out. After the hectic morning passed and we rested a bit we were finally able to take in the beauty and relative calm of the city. The leafy main plaza is surrounded by shops and restaurants with colonial architecture and a pink Cathedral. The holiday was in remembrance of the military coup that happened in the 70's and left hundreds dead or disappeared, and around the plaza there were temporary displays showing pictures of the deceased/missing and a description of them and when they disappeared. It was very moving. This is the same event - the Dirty Wars - that the Madres of Plaza 25 de Mayo (mentioned in a previous blog) remember every Thursday at 3:30pm in Buenos Aires by walking the plaza in their white head scarves.
Salta has some incredibly defining features, from their spicy empanadas to their brightly coloured fabrics and distinct indigenous heritage. It is beautiful and unique. Yet some of Salta's most defining features are made up in its unique surroundings, not just the capital. It took us a few days but we finally got ourselves out of the city and into the country side. First we travelled to Salinas Grandes (salt plains), northwest of Salta into the province Jujuy. The scenery was incredible as we drove higher and higher into the mountains. The colours changed and then became vibrant and varied. We passed the "painted hills" and watched cacti appear on the landscape. Being so high up, our guide recommended coca leaf to help with altitude...though I'm pretty sure it keeps your energy levels up more than anything else. Coca leaf is widely used in northern Argentina and is not considered a drug, since it has not been chemically altered to become cocaine. Once we arrived at Salinas Grandes we were at about 4000 ft above sea level and it looked like we were back in Canada in January - except that it was hot! It seems this white expanse just appears out of nowhere and it's quite a fun place to play with perspective as you can tell from our photos. It did occur to us afterward that we could probably do the same thing during our Winnipeg winters at home!
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| ... above sea level |
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| Guanacos |
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| Town of Purmamarca |
We took another excursion to the town of Cachi, where it is really the journey not the destination that is awe inspiring. The road meanders its way through dense jungas (jungle/forest combo in high elevations), coloured mountains, and incredible rock-scapes that eventually begin to be dotted by cactus, until arriving to Parque Nacional Los Cardones, a landscape covered with cactus, some 200-300 years old! Along the way we saw guanacos (llama-type animals) fighting for herd dominance, and the occasional group of donkeys roaming the landscape. Cachi left a bit to be desired, but to be fair, a 2 hour stay as part of a tour group doesn't do any place justice. The town was so small it felt like us tourists just infiltrated and trampled their pleasant and tranquil way of life. We did however enjoy a nice walk by a stream and I tried some dulce de leche ice cream at the plaza, while Kelly had her first taste of kiwi sorbet. It was interesting to learn that the high sidewalks were not a form of flood control, but a discrete and clean way for women with long dresses to mount/dismount their horses during the spanish conquest. We were incredibly lucky that the skies were mostly clear throughout our journey, and on the way back to Salta we made a stop at Valle Encantada (Enchanted Valley) that, with its crisp mountain air and spectacular views, truly made us feel like we were in a world more grand than ourselves.
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| Cachi |
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| Valle Encantada |
Back in Salta we were able to visit the Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montaña (Archeological Museum of the High Mountain) which is home to three mummified children sacrificed on the peak of Llullaillaco by the Incas. It was facinating. The bodies were discovered in 1999 and are on display - only one at time - at the museum. We witnessed the youngest girl who was six or seven, who sometime after her death was struck by lightning and burned part of her skin. The artifacts offered for the sacrifice were also on display, which included items they'd need for their journey such as extra shoes, food or coca leaves, or represented their status in gold or silver sculpted dolls dressed in traditional mini clothing. The display of the mummies and artifacts is very controversial amongst the native groups here, but we were glad to have experienced this part of Incan history.
Salta is also home to a variety of peñas, which are dinner theater performances of traditional folk dancing and singing. Peña restaurants offer all the traditional Salteña foods, such as locro (a stew of beans, meat, and veggies), humitas (mashed corn and goat cheese rolled and steamed in corn husks), tamales (mashed corn and meat rolled and steamed in corn husks), empanadas, and cazuela (stew) of goat or llama. Naturally, we tried the llama. It was actually quite good and tasted more like beef than anything else.
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| Locro |
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| Humita and Tamale |
After eight nights in three different hostels we decided to try something different and finally make use of our Wwoofing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) memberships. So it was off to Cafayate to work on a family run farm, making artisenal wine. That's right, we're heading into wine country!
Ciao,
Juan and Kelly
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| Kelly got her goat cheese! Yum! |
Resistencia on the other hand wasn't quite what we expected. In Juan's words, "It wasn't so hard to resist." After a very long taxi drive from the bus station we arrived at our hostel only to find there was no availability. After many many blocks of searching we finally settled on the Hotel Colon. Although a bit outside of our budget we decided we were done walking with our bags...it was almost 10pm and therefore by Argentine standards - dinner time. The next day we had a bit of time to explore before catching our bus to Salta. According to the Lonely Planet, Resistencia has strong claim to the title "artistic centre of northern Argentina". There are supposedly around 500 statues around the city, mostly around the main plaza. We did find statues but not in the numbers we expected or of the artistic caliber. After walking around in the blazing hot sun, looking for statues and a place to have lunch, we finally took shelter in our hotel's restaurant and waited for our overnight bus to Salta. 
Upon arriving in Salta we learned our lesson the hard way - you need to book a hostel/hotel far in advance. It just so happened that we arrived just before a national long weekend holiday, which also coincided with a famous rock festival starring their beloved Indio Solari. We spent a good four hours walking around booking a day here and a day there until we had the whole week figured out. After the hectic morning passed and we rested a bit we were finally able to take in the beauty and relative calm of the city. The leafy main plaza is surrounded by shops and restaurants with colonial architecture and a pink Cathedral. The holiday was in remembrance of the military coup that happened in the 70's and left hundreds dead or disappeared, and around the plaza there were temporary displays showing pictures of the deceased/missing and a description of them and when they disappeared. It was very moving. This is the same event - the Dirty Wars - that the Madres of Plaza 25 de Mayo (mentioned in a previous blog) remember every Thursday at 3:30pm in Buenos Aires by walking the plaza in their white head scarves.
Salta is also home to a variety of peñas, which are dinner theater performances of traditional folk dancing and singing. Peña restaurants offer all the traditional Salteña foods, such as locro (a stew of beans, meat, and veggies), humitas (mashed corn and goat cheese rolled and steamed in corn husks), tamales (mashed corn and meat rolled and steamed in corn husks), empanadas, and cazuela (stew) of goat or llama. Naturally, we tried the llama. It was actually quite good and tasted more like beef than anything else. 
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