Salta: A city honestly we almost skipped over

As we had been planning our trip through Argentina, we have known for the most part what we were going to do in each place.  Yes, sometimes we learned more things about a place a day or two before from fellow travelers.  But when it came to Salta, in the Salta Province, we really knew nothing until a day before we left, when we learned from the group of American students we met during our wine tour of what exactly to do in Salta.  Before we learned this, we just kind of assumed it was just a place to go through on our way to Bolivia.  However in the end, like most things we  have done on this trip we were glad we went.

The entire downtown plaza had similar architecture

The city was much different then anything else we have seen in Argentina so far.  We read that once you start getting this far Northwest, you start to feel the influence of Bolivia and also the native population.  The first day in town we decided to explore the city itself.  The main highlights of the city were the main Cathedral (which had an interior that was bordering gaudy), the city square (which was heavily influenced by Spanish Colonial Architecture), and The Church of St. Francis (which its exterior was amazingly decorated both in color and stone carving).  After walking around the town we decided to head over to the cable car that woud take us up St. Bernardo Hill (which gives a great overview of the entire city).  When we got to the cable car there was a sign on the entrance saying that they will be closed for the next two days for repairs.  We had read in Lonely Planet that it was also possible to walk up the 1458 meter hill.  When we got to the begininning of the stairs to go up the hill, there was a sign stating that there were 1,070 stairs.  At first I thought about counting every single stair, but that in the end fell to the way side after about number 30.  As there were no indications of how far you were getting up the hill, the only way we were able to tell if we were getting close or not was along the path they had monuments depicting the story of the Crucifixion of Jesus.  The only problem was, we weren´t too fimilar with that one so it didn´t help us out too much. When we finally reached the top we spent a bit walking around and looking at the different views of the city.  The city was much larger then we expected.  After some time on the top we headed back down the 1,070 stairs and decided to go out for some pizza.  It was the first oppertunity we had to eat peace in a week plus because of passover (we did break passover the day before on the bus to Salta, we had purchased some bread before we left Mendoza). 

C

Cities main Cathedral (even more gorgeous inside)

Church of St. Francis at night and day

 Overview of Salta from atop (after 1,070 stairs)

The next day we woke up at 6am go on an all day tour of the villages north of Salta in the Province of Jujuy, which is one of the poorest areas of Argentina.  We spent most of the day in a minibus traveling from small village to small village along the Quebrada de Humahuaca.  It was completely different from anything else we have seen in Argentina.  The majority of this region (which borders both Bolivia and Northern Chile) is almost completely desert and mountains, and the population is mostly indiginous.  I´m going to give a short description of every place but like most things throughout South America hopefully the pictures can do better justice.  The first stop was to the town of Purmamarca (sorry no English wikipedia site), which was an extremely small town but at the same time had a feeling to it that made it special.  The streets were almost completely unpaved, all the houses were made from adobe bricks.  Next to the town is the Mountain of Seven Colors, which you can easily assume by the name is made up of several colors (they claim seven, but it is really only four I think with different shades).  We took some great landscape pictures and I finally got to see a real giant cactus (and gave it a hug, check out the pic).  Next we headed to an Incan Fortress called Pucará de Tilcara.  Even though we couldn´t tell how much of the site had been rebuilt for the purpose of tourism, it was cool seeing a small Incan town.  The site had several small houses, courtyards, communal areas, and a main ritual/sacrifice area.  After visiting the ruins we headed to the nearby village of Tilcara.  While we were there we were able to visit a musuem which is connected with the ruins.  They had on display artifacts from both the ruins and the entire region dating back thousands of years all the way through the Incan period.  It was a nice brief history and introduction to the Incan culture, which we know we will get a better taste of in Bolivia and Peru.  Also in the town was a huge market of woven and knit goods mainly from alpaca wool.  It was pretty touristy stuff, although some of it was nice, but we expect to see the same stuff throughout Bolivia and Peru.  At one village we stopped for lunch and I had my first experience with eating llama, I had a nice llama steak with quinoa, overall pretty delicious but tasted a lot like lamb.  We also visited a few other small villages, one in particular (I forgot the name of) had a small church which besides the entire alter being covered in gold, the seats and alter were all made out of cactus wood.  Overall the trip was a great expierence and really showed us a different side of Argentina outside of Buenos Aires and Patagonia.  Additionally, it gave us our first experience with altitude sickness.  The trip went all the way from 1,152 meters above sea level to well over 3,500 meters.  By the end of the day I felt a little light headed but nothing bad overall. 

 Mountain of 7 Colors

Hugging Cacti not always recommended (not as enjoyable as hugging Emily)

Incan Ruins (rebuilt)

That night when we got back to Salta, as it was our last night in Argentina, I went out for steak once again.  As always it was absolutley delicious and cost basically nothing (under $10 a person including a beer) compared to what someone would pay for this quality steak in the States (which honestly I have never had anything close to this quality in the states, not even a $40 sea salt encrusted prime rib).  The next morning we woke up and headed to Chile for the third time, leaving behind an amazing time we had in Argentina.  Honestly we were only planning a month in Argentina and it ended up being closer to 6 weeks, but I will write more about that in another blog about our overall experience in Argentina (and Chile).