Salta, Argentina
A 23 hour bus ride from Iguazu to Salta left me feeling a little drained, but it was still good to see a familiar face in Jay when I arrived. Through some fluke we both ended up there at the same time, and were planning to travel north in roughly the same direction at the same time too. high five
Salta was warm, fairly tranquil and generally a nice city. We stayed at one of the HI Hostels (the one in calle Buenos Aires) which, as well as having a bar, breakfast and a good feel also had a pool and dinner included most nights as well. This was a great opportunity to meet people and have some good food while saving that precious ca$h.
My accomplishments in the week I was in Salta were few. Jay and I climbed the nearby hill – by the steps, not via the pansy cable car doohicky, mind you. 1070 steps up, 1070 back. It was a good walk, though it did remind me how unfit I am! I sampled many a coffee in the areas around the main plaza too – nothing too memorable there.
We met some other guys and gals on a day tour to Cafayate, which took us through some beautiful countryside as well as a short walk in a few gorges and finally to Cafayate itself where we sampled wine at two vineyards, had lunch and lazed on the grass in the sun in the main plaza. We also got to have photos with the “World Famous” llama named Thalia. Thalia selected Jay as the only member of our tour to spit upon, which he narrowly avoided due to quick reflexes. It was a great day.
One memory I will keep from Salta: The night before the Cafayate tour I wasn’t able to sleep, so I got up at 5.30am or so and went for a walk. Continuing with my trend of speaking with homeless people, I started talking to a vagabond (Fernando) who had some stories about how he lost his daughter and how he had been living on the streets for years, as well as a bit of poetry here and there. He shared some gin with me while a working girl came up and started talking to us as well. There was an awkward silence at one point which was then filled by Fernando’s (impromptu, I think) recitation in Spanish. I can’t remember the exact Spanish words, but the gist of it in English was:
I have no words for you, friend
Only the warm sun on my face
And the gentle breeze at my back.
I’m sorry.
After which he gave me a hug and wandered away into the early morning light, almost-empty gin bottle dangling loosely in his fingertips.
We went out to the clubs a few times – all the clubs are on one street, and were OK. While walking home one night with Jay and Claire, we saw what appeared to be a working girl sauntering towards us, dressed in the expected revealing attire. As we passed this person, they let out the biggest, most masculine grunt imaginable – as if to prove the point that “she” was in fact a “he”. We all looked at each other as we kept walking, and finally burst out laughing uncontrollably. It was so unexpected, and, while I am not capable of describing it well, was hilarious.
On our last night we went to a traditional restaurant that is not well known by tourists, but is popular with locals. The food was great, and there was a group of 3 guys (with guitar and cajon) singing Andean music which was excellent.
Eventually Jay and I bought our tickets to La Quica (the town on the border with Bolivia) and caught a bus up there. We had heard about unrest in Bolivia (it turned out to be only parts of it). We had even been told by the information desk at the Salta that the Bolivian border was closed and we couldn’t enter. They were wrong.
We slept through our 6 or 7 hour bus ride to La Quiaca, stayed the night in a random hostel and then walked across the border to Bolivia without incident the next morning.
Dennis and I went to Valparaiso again for a weekend and were lucky enough to be there when the weather was perfect. It was sunny, a very slight breeze, warm (about 18 degrees or so) and we walked a lot and took some very cool photographs. Dennis is a great person to spend time with (very relaxed and easy going) and I really enjoyed this experience at Valpo.
We went to the old prison at the top of one of the cerros, which is now a public space for art and music. The vibe there was so strong and unique. A very special place. We also went out dancing on Saturday night in Valpo which was cool too.
We left San Pedro a little late (one of the guys had his new iPod stolen and exchanged for a crappy damaged one without music in San Pedro and needed to go to the cops about it for insurance). We stopped by a ruined town in the middle of the desert which was sorta cool.
We stayed two nights here… the first night we went to Mamalluca observatory which was pretty cool. This observatory is not a research observatory – rather it is for tourists and education only. We listened to a presentation on the origins and formation of the universe, the lifecycle of stars etc. Then we went up to the dome and had a peek through the big telescope at such things as Jupiter, the Moon and some star clusters. Afterwards we were able to take pictures of the moon through some smaller telescopes outside.
So I stayed in San Pedro de Atacama from Thursday night, Saturday morning my group left on the tour and I moved with a friend to another hostel a bit closer to the centre of town and a bit warmer.
When my friend left for Bolivia I decided I would actually do something… I went to a tour office to arrange for a tour to the Geysers del Tatío, where I started chatting with a girl from Ireland named Grainne. We realised we were going to the same tour in the morning and that we were both travelling solo and got talking… we decided to go horse riding together too one day, and for dinner that night.
Grainne and I went to the Geysers del Tatío – a 4am start and -15ºC at the Geysers at sunrise, but beautiful. It was funny, on the way back you get to see cute llamas and then you stop in a village called Machuco and you get to eat them. Hahaha.
We also went horseriding in the Valle de la Muerte, again beautiful, though it was the first time I’d been on a horse in more than 10 years and I felt quite uncomfortable for the first hour. The saddles were also different to in Australia, and the horses were trained for single-handed control (I’ve no idea what the proper name for that is) which was weird to get used to.
Grainne, Rosemarie, Arturo, Pato and I decided to go for a walk to the Valle de la Meurte for some fun. We packed some water and a bit of food and trudged off into the middle of the desert. A combination of me being very unfit, walking on sand with bad knees, the heat and the altitude made for an easily exhausted Carly, so when Grainne and Pato (both marathon runners) decided to climb up the steepest part of the biggest sand dune in the valley, and Rose and Arturo decided they would clamber over the rocks nearby, I sat myself down in waved them on. It took them over an hour to scale the damn thing, and I could hear Pato repeatedly exclaiming “oh shit” as he and Grainne realised that they could no longer walk up the sand and needed to crawl the rest of the way… this was 1/3 of the way up.
We also visited nearby Quitor, a ruin of a native village and fort which was the location of the first Spanish defeat in the area. There was a great feeling there, especially at the top with such a broad view across the valleys.