Salta

Salta. The food is world renowned, the nearby landscape is unique and pristine. That all makes it a pretty classic destination for us to check out.

We entered Argentina via a 12 hour bus ride from the Chilean Atacama desert. The border crossing was relatively easy. Just some long lines, as our bus was the only public transport crossing that day. A quick bag check followed and then we were on our way. We were not in our 5th country in South America, and 10th overall on this trip!

The landscape on the bus ride was phenomenal. There was another salt flat. Many large valleys with hills we switchback ascended. We drove through the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a long deserty colored rock valley for a couple hours. Eventually, we started dropping in elevation. With the lower elevation came more vegetation, and water. And before we knew it, we were back the land of green. The Salta valley is full of trees, irrigation and farming.

When arriving in the evening, Salta was a busy but dejected town. The Copa Libertadores (Big South American football tournament) final was that evening, between Boca, a Buenos Aires club, and Fluminense, from Rio de Janiero. The winner of this match is crowned as the best football club in South America. Fluminense took the match 2-1. We grabbed dinner at a greasy spoon diner equivalent, having fries and a meat pizza sandwich situation, with an accidentally ordered massive beer. Turns out 1L bottles are the standard. The patrons at the diner were all sad, having watched their national best club hopes be dashed. The diner was all decorated in Boca colours too. Food was quite good though.

Our next day started a bit late. Slept in nicely. Breakfast was had at the hostel, then we went out for some sightseeing. The main plaza, Plaza 9 de Julio, is nearby our hostel, so we went there first. It has a lovely palm tree garden scape, with lots of benches for sitting. Around the plaza are many important and beautiful buildings, like the Salta cathedral, museum of archeology, and the cultural ministry.

We had lunch at an artisanal sandwich shop. They were adjacent to an artisanal goods store, which is the first one we have seen in a while. Cam got very excited about the jams and spice blends. The sandwiches and empanadas were delicious. We then headed out for the cable car.

Yes, Salta has a cable car! This one goes to the top of a nearby hill. We went up for the lookout, but as it turns out, there’s a whole park up there too. Man made waterfalls, Jesus stuff, a herb garden, its all there. A few restaurants as well. We took a walk around, using the water and shade to cool off as best we can (its 30C here!) while taking in the views. Salta is in a large flat arable plain, surrounded on all sides by rolling hills and mountains.

We planned to go out for dinner, but got distracted at Parque San Martin. This park is just lovely. There’s a large fountain in the middle of a man-made pond. You can rent little paddleboats to float around. A market is nearby, with the stalls selling all sorts of toys and jewelry. There are many food stands in the area, mainly selling popcorn, pizza and hot dogs. It was jam packed with a ton of people enjoying their day.

We got distracted though due to a dance. At he park is a medium sized covered amphitheater. Inside a woman was leading a few clowns (dressed up clowns) on stage, and a bunch of women in the audience, on some sort of aerobics training. Essentially, a clown led public zoomba class. We think this event is a fundraiser for paramedics, but are mostly guessing. There must have been near 200 people in the audience, but only 10% or so were up and moving. Eventually, the lead gal started a conga line finale, and the vibey aerobics ended.

A flamenco band started playing after, and a bunch of middle aged to elderly couples got up and started dancing! It was clear they all knew the songs the band were playing, and they were all doing very similar dances for it! A larger crowd had gathered at this point. The sun had set. And in this covered amphitheater, everyone was enjoying themselves. The dancers were people just having fun. The audience was clapping along to the music, with many of them sneaking in a quick video to show their friends. We watched in awe at the skill of these dancers, who were all just regular folks having fun on a Sunday.

Eventually the will of our empty stomachs overpowered the will of the groove, so we departed looking for dinner. A steakhouse caught our eye. Argentina is well known for their meats, so we gave it a shot. We got the steak for two, which was a massive slab of meat with some fried on the side. The lean meat was cooked perfectly, and seasoned very simply to let the mean shine. It was a fantastic steak, made even better by the mint lemonade that we got with it! A very delicious meal to remember.

We spent our next day on a day trip to Cachi! This mountain town had a very scenic drive out and back. It is its own blog.

For dinner we had street dawgs. There are a lot of hot dog stands all around Salta, so we tried a couple from some holes in the wall. You get your dog, whatever sauces you want, and hickory sticks on top. Fantastic idea, and good fun. Salta gets very lively at night as well. Lots of people out and about in the plazas and streets,

The day after got up to 39C. Ridiculous. Any plans we had went out the window pretty quick, so we just laid low in the hostel. We had some empanada’s for lunch. Dinner was at a different nice steakhouse. We had some grilled pork and vegetables. It was decent. The ginger mint lemonade was great again.

Our final day in Salta was again spent laying a bit low. It was quite hot again, and we had some errands to run, especially after our quick trip to Humahuaca. Again, its own blog. We went to the Archeological museum as an activity, where three frozen mummies are kept. These kids were sacrifices from over 500 years ago, found just 25 ago at the top of Volcano Llullaillaco. Mummies still weird us out. We think they should just be left where they are found. The Inca history in northwestern Argentina was cool though. This is about as far south as their empire stretched, before the Spanish showed up.

We also checked out Salta’s fine art museum. It became apparent pretty quick that Cam is not a fine art person. She messed with the long table drawing flowers pencil shaving piece, thinking it was an interactive. Nope. Luckily nobody noticed, so now the only evidence is us telling you all here.

Salta was lovely, but I think we’ve exhausted everything there is to do around here. I could definitely see us coming back to this city. It’s certainly one we could see ourselves living in. The food was fantastic everywhere, and the landscapes outside of the city are ripe for many days of exploring. But it is now time to depart the mountains for a bit. We will see you in the next city!