Salta

Time to update the blog I guess. So I made it to Salta from Cordoba after a quick 12 hr bus ride, which wasn´t that bad because it was overnight and I booked a Cama seat which is basically like a first class airplane seat. On the trip they even served us a meal which was basically a few sandwiches and desserts shrink wrapped on a styrofoam tray. I took a few bites of a few of the assorted sandwiches and desserts and then put the tray on the empty seat beside me and the highlight of the trip was when someone sat in the tray and I woke up to them swearing and then they apologized to me.

I checked in a hostel in Salta and looked for a plug adapter for my digital camera charger while my bed was being prepared. I having no luck finding this device, but a lot of fun trying to explain what it was to the spanish speaking hardware store clerks. I then took a much needed nap then had a shower and went to explore the town properly. Salta itself is a pretty nice city, but it is mainly used as a base camp for the dozens of tours in the surrounding area which was evident in the number of tour companies on the main tourist strip. I was approached many times and I realized i´m still not blending in as an Argentinean local as I hoped. When I got back to the hostel I booked a tour of Cachi and a wine tour of Cafayte, both of which are close to Salta.

The next day I explored Salta, including a gondola ride up into the surronding hills, a visit to a museum dedicated to a group of mummified people found at high altitude in the Andes and some warm clothes shopping for the upcoming tour of the salt flats. That night I attened an all you can eat asado (argentinean BBQ) that one of the affiliated hostels was putting on.

The tour of Cachi was good we stopped to see a lot of cactii and some interesting rock formations along the way. We actually only spend 40 min in Cachi which was okay because there wasn´t a lot to do there, but it was an interesting town. On the tour I met two israeli guys and an english couple and it turned out we were all heading for Tupiza, Bolivia the same day so after the tour we when the bus station and booked some tickets for a few days later.

The next day I went on the wine tour to Cafayate. The scenery along the way was very similar to the previous day´s tour with the exception of a few impressive gorges we were able to explore. We only toured two wineries, but the two we saw were quite nice and a little mid day wine sampling always makes the day go smoother.

The next morning we woke up at the absurd hour of six and headed made our way to the bus station for the 7am bus on our way to Bolivia. You can´t actually get a bus from Salta to Tupiza, as there is a border between them. So we arrived at the border and walked across into the Bolivian town on Villamonte. We traded in our remaining pesos for bolivianos and then searched, without any luck, for an ATM. We then hoped on a bus headed to Tupiza. This bus was quite the experience as it was approximately 40 years only, standing room only and driving quite swiftly down a very bumpy dirt road. We all felt like we had truly arrived in Bolivia.