Argentinian Outback.....Salta & Cachi


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May 23rd 2010
Published: May 24th 2010
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Iguazu to Salta


We ventured on another nice long bus ride from Iguazu to a smallish city in the north of Argentina called Salta. There is not a lot to Salta except a small old town, good steak and wine and lots of motorbikes. This was our first sight of the crazy motorbike riding that happens in South America - the most concerning bike we saw had a guy driving and a woman on the back holding a brand new baby!!

We spent on afternoon up the top of one of the mountains surrounding the city admiring the view and watching the tiny sparrows plummet towards the ground after insects.

The people in this city were so so friendly and did not seem to stop grinning !!

One thing that was special about Salta was the abundance of sandwich and hot dog stalls! Every street corner had at least one liitle temporary trolley that sold huuuge sandwhiches and the locals would just move onto another corner if business was a bit slow.

We were again trying to live on the cheap so unfortunately we did not sample much of the local food and ate boring dinners of packet pasta sauce
Desert between Salta & CachiDesert between Salta & CachiDesert between Salta & Cachi

these cacti grow 5mm a year....
in the hostel and then chilled out reading and catching up on sleep from the bumpy bus ride. I am seriously craving some fresh fruit and vegetables by now so was delightled to find a supermarket that had some capsicums that looked reasonably fresh so we added them to our very boring dinner for a bit of nutritional value. Aaron is enjoying the meat orientated diet that is rampant throughout S.A!

Apart from the views of the city from the mountain there is not a lot at all in this town so we decided to do a day trip to a tiny tiny little town called Cachi. We piled into a very cozy mini bus at the crack of dawn and soon realised we were not dressed for the early morning desert in shorts and thongs.....

At one point we reached 3,500m via a very very quick ascent, so we started sucking on the coca leaves to try avoid any nausea or headaches from the rapid change in altitude.

You will see from the photos the type of countryside we drove through, basically huge colourful mountains and lots and lots of cacti.

The rocks were pretty amazing - particularly the one where there is a definite line that splits the red piece of rock and the green part. The different colours are caused by the variety of minerals in the mountains and show where the mountains were formed the layers have clashed together.

We drove along a road that was originally built by the Incas and went for 100's of km in a dead straight line. It now alters it's course by 1.5 inches and that is only due to the movement of the earth. How they managed to build a road so perfectly is amazing!

The road up and down was so windy, narrow and had sheer cliffs right beside it that the driver actually touched his religious talisman that hung from the rear vision mirror, crossed himself and kissed his hand when we reached the bottom! And this guy does this drive every day! There was a particularly hairy moment when we had to pass a big grader that was coming towards us.....there was a big sigh of releif when we made it past!

We really enjoyed the trip but were happy to leave the mini van at 7pm that night!

Onto Chile the next morning to San Pedro de Atacama for sandboarding, desert, sunsets and amazing food.


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beautiful little girlbeautiful little girl
beautiful little girl

this little girl was in charge of giving you your plastic bag when you bought some herbs or spices....gorgeous!!
CachiCachi
Cachi

these high steps at the edge of the roads are used to help women and children get on the horses...
Salta churchSalta church
Salta church

and some powerlines


24th May 2010

Can't believe you said that!
Did I read correctly???? "The rocks were pretty amazing" ??!!??!! Bit of a change from Catherine aged 10 on our return from a holiday in NORTH America. Quote follows... ME "So kids, did you enjoy your holiday?" CATHERINE "It was ok apart from you and Daddy wanting to spend FOREVER (lots of eye-rolling at this point)looking at rocks"
25th May 2010

yes but now I am old and wise :)

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