Blogs from Salta, Argentina, South America - page 61

As the title suggests it was a rather hellish journey. We left Iguassu at 6.30am on the 10th September and then had to take three different buses to eventually arrive here in Salta (the northwest of Argentina) at 14.00 on the 11th September. With stops at Posadas and Tucaman on the way, though we only saw the bus station at these stops (and a supermarket where we brought prescious supplies)! As I am sure you will not be surprised things did not go altogether smoothly on our arrival in Salta! Having been throughly organised and booked a hostel via the renowed site hostelbookers. We arrived, duly got a taxi and turned up at said hostel to discover they spoke absolutely no english. We got shown our room, which though our standards maybe high was pretty skanky. ... read more

Crossing the border into Argentina was very exciting but also very laborious. Typically, Bolivian organisation was limited and a line of approx 60 people continuously queued at the passport control where one guy sat, alone, typing with 2 fingers, entering in all passport details... We were both really excited to see Argentina though as we knew the food was going to be great and cheap (we hadnt even attempted fresh fruit or veg for ages and we were looking forward to a good feed!), the wine tasty and world-renowned... We travelled through beautiful scenery and past stunning lakes, felt the termperature rise as we eased back down to only 1,187 meters above sea level and on arrival in Salta, everything was as expected... The Hispanic architecture of the city was outstanding. The colonial spirit from the ... read more

Well we went for a little drink after my last posting to reach a verdict about Bolivia or not. The pub was just lovely, out in the middle of the desert with an open roof and a fire. We both had bus tickest for Sunday morning, so that kind of swayed our opinion, plus the jeep trip seemed to cover much of what we'd seen already, lakes, geysers, mountains, salt plains. So we got up earlyish on Sunday morning to catch our bus, there was confusio over my ticket so I was told to be there for 11 as the bus was at 11.30. Got there, got my new ticket, lady in office muttered something in Spanish, with my wonderful grasp of Spanish I thought she said we had to go around the corner for the ... read more

Hello! I just arrived in Buenos Aires after a long 20 hour bus ride (somehow the window of the bus shattered so we had to take about a 2 to 3 hr stop to try to cover it in cardboard). I have arrived here for the afternoon and leave for Colombia to meet nicole in Medellin and then fly to Cartegena as well. Salta was absolutely lovely. It was a charming little town and while I was there I went for a two day backpacking trip in the Junga forest, which I thought was the jungle, but in reality was a dense forest in the Andinos, which are the mountains before the Andes. I spent about a day and a half exploring salta, all of the convents and little streets (I wish i could have taken ... read more

The trek north from Malargue, Mendoza province, to Salta City, Salta province, was epic. I opted for 1st class, and comfortably appreciated the beautiful drive along the andes to the north of Argentina. I arrived 2 ½ days later in Salta, found a decent hostel and took a nap. Salta is the best preserved colonial town in Argentina, with beautiful streets, parks and café´s. I visited two museums, the best being the Museo de Archologia de Alta Montagña, which has on exhibit three mummified children from a 500 year old Inca burial site, found in 1999, 6,000 meters up on the side of a volcano (www.maam.org.ar). It´s very cold in Salta, requiring all the clothes I brought even in the early afternoon. Salta is a bustling city of 500,000 and the largest city in northern Argentina. ... read more