SALTA (ARGENTINA)

As Northern Argentina's largest city, I found Salta to be a pretty cool place to visit and quite different to many of the other centres I visited in the southern and central regions of the country. However, because of my time limitations I wasn't able to stay in Salta particularly long, just a couple of days. During this time I busied myself wandering around the city and taking in some of the impressive architecture and multitude of churches and cathedrals. Once again I did feel that the majority of the city interior was not much different to other cities in Argentina. Despite this, the location of Salta in almost desert like surroundings meant that outside the city I found the landscapes and scenery to be markedly different to that I had seen elsewhere.

On my second day I took a very long day trip which was essentially a tour based on the famous 'tren a las nubes' (train to the clouds), except that I was guided around with two other girls in a small car. This excursion was definately one of the best day trips that I took during my time in South America. The barren landscapes and variation in the scenery with altitude (we rose from 2500m to more than 4300m over the course of the trip) was incredible ! Also, the tour included visits to a number of small villages and markets, where one could buy anything from hand crafted clothing to goats cheese ! Probably the most eye-opening experience for myself occurred in the small town in which we stopped for lunch. As a result of the high altitude and fierce sun, the air in the town was so dry and the temperature so high that everyone in the town had dry, wrinkley skin, even the small infants. Apparently a great number of preventative measures had been trialled to avoid this happening and none had worked. Whilst the local people seemed to have become accustomed to their somewhat disfigured appearance, it certainly made me feel uncomfortable inside.

Another of the highlights from the trip was our visit to an ancient trading place used by the native indian tribes of Argentina, Peru, Bolivia and Chile, many centuries previously. From our elevated vantage point in the remains of the city building foundations seemed to stretch for kilometers into the distance and it was very interesting to observe the amount of bone and pottery fragments lying all over the sight.

On our return to Salta we briefly passed by the famous 'Seven-coloured mountain', so named because of the differently coloured minerals making up this geological feature. Also on our trip back, although certainly not as interesting, was our run in with a bunch of mafia hired protesters who blocked the road back to the city by basically seating hundreds of people in the middle of the road and burning whatever they could lay their hands on. This was by far the most extreme actions I experienced whilst in Argentina and was probably my first glimpse of what life was like for some of the less well off people of the country, most of which seemed to be situated in the province of Juy-Juy. It came as little surprise to learn that the level of education in the province was well below that of other regions in Argentina and just from the actions of the protesters it was clear they had little idea of what exactly they were protesting about, only that they knew they would be paid for their actions.

Photo 1: City cathedral.
Photo 2: Incredible, almost electric sunrise on my tour of the surrounding area.















Photo 3 - Small village passed just out of Salta
Photos 4&5 - local animal life - donkeys with colourful ear-tags and the much prized Vicunas.
Photo 6 - Ancient indian market place.
Photo 7 - 'Seven coloured mountain'.
Photo 8 - World super heavyweight boxing final on a small salt pan not too far from Salta.