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Published: January 26th 2012
Our first internal flight within South America was to Salta, we booked a cab the night before and told the driver our flight was at 9.30am he therefore recommended we leave the hostel at 6am to allow for traffic and the hour drive to the airport. What we realized that night was that our plane departed from the
other airport in Buenos Aires 15 minutes down the road. So having arrived with plenty of time to spare I got the coffees while Em found out what time we could check in, she came back 5 minutes later looking somewhat confused to tell me our flight had been changed and had left at 6am! Fortunately we were able to get on the next flight to Salta departing at 12.20, so only 5 hours to kill. You can imagine what sort of a mood we were both in when we finally landed in Salta only to find it pissing down.
Our hostel on first sight looked pretty rough as well, so we headed straight to the bus station to book our onward journey to San Pedro De Atacama in Chile. Our day continued to get worse when we found out there were
no seats available until the following Thursday, 8 days away!! I think at this point Emilie could have quite easily punched me in the face, as I had said to her before there was no need to book ahead. After a lot of pleading however the guy said he may have 2 cancellations and to come back at 7pm that night to confirm. With the 2 cancellations coming up trumps I was out of the dog house and we had an enjoyable dinner in our not so rough hostel.
Things were looking up even more when we awoke to brilliant sunshine the next day and made the most of it by taking a cable car up the top of one of the mountains surrounding Salta. Being Salta's only real tourist attraction worth talking about we went expecting much, but the views were pretty cool and at the top we enjoyed our first coca tea! For those of you wondering yes that is the same plant they make cocaine from, but no unfortunately you don't get a buzz or high from it! The local people of the Andean region chew it or make tea with it to combat altitude sickness
and promote health, the same we do with green tea.
I even persuaded Em to go White water rafting the next day, so with this in mind we went to have few drinks to celebrate and calm her nerves. We found a nice little place in the main square and had the best Empanadas ever!
The view on route to the rapids was pretty spectacular as we drove round a huge lake with loads of different birds (only the flying variety unfortunately!) to look at. We got kitted up and met the other 4 we would be paddling with for the next two hours then carried our raft to the water. It started off pretty tame, although I soon found out why you have to wedge one foot hard under the seat in front, when we hit a rock no one had seen. After a few of the harder rapids it was clear Em had ditched her fears and was loving White water rafting. We had an amazing time made even better by the Parrilla (BBQ) after.
Once we gotten over our initial disappointment with Salta it actually turned out to be an alright place
with some great cafes in the centre of the old town, if your there when the sun is shining its a nice place to walk around but the definate highlight for us was the grade III white water rafting.
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Noel & Sandra
non-member comment
Hi
Hi Tom and Em How will ever come back to the real world? It all looks so fantastic. Sandra is totally impressed with Em doing white water rafting! Looking forward to seeing you soon? Love Noel and Sandra