Salta

After nearly missing my bus in Cordoba I had a nice 12 hour ride to Salta. I slept most through the night and got fairly fresh to Salta in the early morning. I walked from the busterminal to my hostel which happened to be about 15 blocks away. Once arrived I had some breakfast and went to check out town. I was in luck, as every saturday at noon there is this ritual which involves the changing of the guards. It was quite nice to see with a whole orchestra and guards on horses in traditional clothing. Afterwards I went to meet 2 }english girls I met back in Mendoza. They were planning to go up to a big hill that gives nice views over the city. I decided to join them. The views were not particularly brilliant, but it is one of those must-do things. Afterwards we went to a museum where 500 year old sacrificed children are being preserved. They had been sacrificed 500 years ago to the gods and burried alive on the top of a volcano. Due to the extreme cold weather up there the humans were perfectly preserved and were completely intact with clothes, skin, hairs and some other stuff they put in the graves for the gods. That night we went out for some dinner in town and afterwards for some drinks at a bar.

The next day, sunday, I decided to walk a bit through town and explore the city. The town is pretty dead, like every city in Argentina on a sunday. Afterwards I walked into the tourist office to book me onto a tour to check out the surroundings of Salta in the province called Jujuy. That night I signed up for some pasta in the hostel. There I met some other dutch people with whom I had some nice chats.

The next day I had to wake up early to get onto my tour. The tour started at 7 AM. We were picked up by a nice argentinian guy who happened to be our guide for the day. It was a long day, going all the way up to Humahuaca, a town 200 KMs from the Bolivian border. We went to visit Inca ruins and drove for hours through mountains and the desert. It turned out to be a nice day. Once I got back from the tour, around 20:00 I decided to buy a busticket to make my way up to San Pedro de Atacama, a town in Chile next to the bolivian border from where I am going on a tour to the salt flats later this week. After getting back to my hostel I found out I had lost my wallet including ATM card, busticket and 20 euros worth of pesos. I had been searching throughout the whole hostel and even went back to the busterminal to find it, but no luck.

The next morning I was due to leave to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile – without a busticket. As they registered my name I thought it wouldnt be much of a problem, but was I wrong. The guy merely said I couldnt enter the bus without a ticket. After a long discussion and having to pay a fine of 20 Euros I was allowed on the bus. At least I was able to continue my travels. And fortunately I have been keeping my ATM card and Creditcard seperated. The busride was a real tough one. The ride took 12 hours, but went all the way through the mountains reaching heights of 4200 meters. You can definitely feel your body having trouble to deal with these extreme heights, with headaches and being out of breath. In the late afternoon we arrived to San Pedro de Atacama. A real primitive, but touristy town. We wanted to get some money out of the ATM machine, but both of the ATM machines only work from time to time. We had some dinner at a restaurant where we could pay with Creditcard and then had a strawl through town. Around 22:00 I was really tired and went to bed.

May 10th 2008 – May 12th 2008