July 03, 2008
Salta's Surreal Surroundings
written by Spencer Alexander on July 03, 2008 at 12:11PM in Traveling
Today is Nicole and I’s last evening in Salta, Argentina. The town has treated us quite well, and we’ve had a great time exploring the surrounding area; it is hard to imagine that one place could be surrounded by so much beauty and history1.We started our time in Salta by exploring the town for a couple days, and then a quick trip to San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo was gorgeously green and very beautiful. We went on a hike for a few hours, and managed to pick up a pack of dogs along the way.
After our time in San Lorenzo, the road trip ensued. We met up with a friend of ours that we met in Cordoba, and rented a car for three days (yey Gol!) to travel the surrounding areas.
We started by traveling down to Cafayete, which is the wine production capital of Northern Argentina2. The drive to Cafayete was one of the most beautiful drives I have ever experienced; it was a type of arid, desert beauty that I’m not accustomed to in Colorado, but at the same time, the scale of the mountains and valleys is comparable to those of Colorado. We saw a number of large rock formations, ranging from frogs and monks to the sunken titanic (I’m putting my vote for sleeping dinosaur, not titanic), along with huge cliffs and towering mountains.
After spending the afternoon in Cafayate, we decided to endure the 5 hour drive to Cachi durring the night, which was a good choice as the drive wasn’t as beautiful as our other drives, but we still had to do it. On the way, we saw an erupting volcano3, but decided not to approach (after much heated discussion), and instead did some rally racing through the Andes. We stayed the first night at an interesting hostal in Cachi, which felt much more like the owner’s home than it did a hostal. After a good nights sleep, we woke up at the crack of 11:00 4 to contiue our journey through the country.
The drive from Cachi to Salta was incredible! A good majority of the drive was in the Parque Nacional Los Cardones (Cactus National Park), and was filled with cacti that towered up to 10 meters5 high! After passing through the cacti fields, we descended the 3,300 meter6 mountain to the city of Salta (situated 2,000 meters down).
When we arrived in Salta, we spent some time at a cafe (eating and using the internet, usual cafe activities), and then prepared for another departure to Purmamarca. Sean, our road trip buddy, was feeling very ill, and decided not to join us; Nicole and I secretly (well, now that it’s written here it’s not much of a secret) think that he just got sick of us.
Nicole and I journeyed alone to Purmamarca, and spent the night in a lovely hostal next to the town center. We were able to chat with a the owner of the hostal regarding a variety of topics, ranging from how to correctly pronounce the name of the town to the political situation in Argentina7; she wasn’t a fan of the political talk.
The next day, we drove through the Quebrada de Humahuaca (Valley of Humahuaca), and visited quite a few sites. One of the most memorable was the Inca ruins in the town of Tilcara. Ontop of a hill in Tilcara, the weather-worn, 600 year old ruins of the Inca tribe have been rebuilt into a mock village, where a visitor can truly feel how it would be to live in the ancient civilization. It included many stone houses (which I think my younger brothers needs to give a shot at constructing… I expect a full Incan village by the time I get home!), a church (an Incan church, not a Christian church), and Incan style monument to all of those involved in the excavation and construction of the village.
Another memorable moment was getting a traffic ticket in Humahuaca for driving the wrong way on a one way street (it’s impossible to know which way to go on these silly streets). After much arguing with the ‘officer’, and making a few elegant changes back and forth between being able to speak fluent Spanish and not knowing a word, I accepted the ticket. The turning point in my decision really came when I saw on the ticket that he had my first name as “Colorado”, and my last name as “Driver’s Licence”. He even managed to write down the license plate of the car incorrectly. I don’t think that’ll pass in a court of law, or even a friendly conversation.
After visiting a few other small towns, we ended our trip through the pseudo-civilization surrounding Salta (and celebrated by going to a movie theater and watching a movie in English).
1 Northwestern Argentina (and most of Chile) was the home of the Inca tribe from early 15th century to mid 16th century. The Inca tribe considered mountains to be a holy refuge, a home to the gods. Salta, being full of huge mountains and close in proximity to the Llullaillaco volcano, was one of the most settled regions of the Inca tribe.
2 Northern Argentina, due to the extremely warm climate and low humidity, is known for it’s white wines, where as mid-Argentina is known for it’s reds.
3 This has not been confirmed, but I’m pretty freaking sure.
4 We were tired, and we were up late into the night driving. Give us a break… geez.
5 Don’t use meters, huh? Well, too bad, you should learn it… 10 meters = 32.8 ft. Want to have some real conversion fun? Try to figure out what $2.85 pesos/something (something is unknown… I’m guessing a liter) is in US units.
6 Learn it already! 3,300 meters = 10,825 ft.
7 Way too much political stuff happening here… just look at the news.
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