Tucuman and Salta

South America » Argentina » Salta
November 8th 2006

Published: November 22nd 2006

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Long awaited journey

Light Building

After our 22 hour bus journey to Tucumen we found a small hotel for our cheapest nights accomodation so far, 40 pesos - equivalent to approx 6 pounds 70 pence (no pound signs out here).

We had a walk about the town which had a friendly atmosphere. Locals tend to sit about it the Plazas snogging.

Tucuman has some historic buildings and the Bargies seem to love lighting up their buildings as you will see from the photos.

Tucumen was only really a stop over on our way to Salta.

Salta

Salta is a nice city, again a very friendly atmosphere and you do feel very safe. Both Tucuman and Salta have a very European feel to them.

On our first day in Salta Stacey was not feeling too well - Salta is at 1,200m and we were not sure how the altitude was affecting us. In the afternoon Stacey was much better and we went on a Gondola up Mount San Bernardo at 1466 m which overlooks the city and provides a great views of the surrounding area. Salta itself sits in a sort of basin surrounded by mountains.

Our first night in

Salt we stayed in a dorm with 2 Czech girls which was not as entertaining as one would hope...

The next day we met Mieke (Bel), Diane (Fra) and Murray(Aus).

A famous train ride from Salta - Train to the Clouds, involves an amazing scenery over many bridges rising up to the viaduct ''La Polvorilla'' at 4200 m. We enquiired about this and were told that the train was not working until the spring. Rumour has it that this train hasnt worked for years.

We booked a tour for the next day which follows the train route up to the viaduct.

That night the clowns in the next dorm decided to make more noise than was decent and as a result I didnt manage to get much sleep. Up at 6am trying to find some shop for brekkie around Salta all the clubbing revellers were returning home. I didnt manage to get any food so we were picked up at 7am by our non-English speaking guide (we paid for an English speaking one) without having had any breakfast with Stacey recovering from the day before and me having had no sleep... not a good recepie for

a tour incorporating 5,000 m.

Anyway the guide did his best and we enjoyed many of the sites before it all got a bit much for me and the stomach was proving troublesome. At about 1pm we decided to return home early as i was deteriorating. Stacey was much better from the day before and when we got back to Salta i spent the next 17 hours approx in bed.

Anyway I think we both had the same stomach bug and the altitude did not help.

Next day we visited a local market and decided to push on through into Bolivia with Diane and Murray.

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