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Published: October 22nd 2007
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Posadas, Tucuman and Salta - 1 October to 22 October 2007
See our route map here! Well, on the bus from Iguazu to Posadas, our bus was only stopped twice by drug control officers with dogs and guns. Apparently marijuana is a successful crop around Iguazu. But happily, we decided not to join any Argentinian smuggling rings that day, so we were fine.
Posadas is the capital of Misiones, the province that also has Iguazu. However, not many people actually go to Posadas, so there are not many hostels. Both feeling a bit sick, we stayed for two nights in a off-season resort that had dorms. On our sickday/day off from travelling, we sat by the pool while the construction workers busily worked around us on a new rec room. Hey, it was cheap!
We then moved to a hostel right in the city called ´Vuelo el Paz´, literally ´Flight to Peace´, which turned out to be a bit of a hippy commune affair with no door keys. We couldn´t tell who worked there and who was staying there but we got along with everyone fine, pretty much because they all spoke Spanish and we just nodded.
Posadas turned out
Hiding in a Crypt
During a thunderstorm at the Jesuit ruins, we took shelter in this (previously robbed) crypt. Note the open baby casket behind us! That wasn´t the half of it... to be quite a nice city, although our memories are a little clouded by head colds! Our main reason for visiting was to go to the ruins of some Jesuit missions (hence the name of the province, Misiones) at San Ignacio. After Chela got over her amazement at the fact that their could be ruins from colonial times (all colonial buildings in Australia are still pretty much fully functional...!), we had a great time learning about the way that the missions worked. In fact the Jesuits operated pretty much independently of the colonial forces, converting the locals and creating huge agricultural and even military enterprises. The Jesuits (translated to ´The Jesus Company´ in English!) were eventually expelled by the Spanish, who didn´t really appreciate their independence. Definately an interesting order, even today.
In Posadas, we also came across a huge festival one night in which groups of teenagers competed on the waterfront in a Carnivale-type event, with drums, dancing and outlandish costumes. It was really fun to watch and we didn´t even notice that we´d been standing up for hours (until the next day...). A new group would march up to the central judging area every twenty minutes or
so, and it went from 7pm until 2am, on a school night. They don´t seem so worried about bedtimes here. Ahh, people of Chela´s own heart!
Tucuman was our next stop, with a more ´normal´ hostel! Tucuman is the heart of Argentina´s independence from Spain, where a group of Argentinian nationalists met and where independence was declared. Also in Tucuman, we were able to fully experience the true art of siesta, in which everything, except restaturants, shuts down from 12pm or 1pm to 5pm everyday.This meant that, even after spending an hour eating a snail-paced lunch, there was still a good chunk of the day when all you could really do was go back to the hostel and end up sleeping. Being a telented sleeper, this suited Chela fine, but Matthew was driven a bit nuts. He got through a few books.
In Tucuman we took a tour of a sugar factory, looking stylish in hard hats. We also took a day trip through a 3000m high mountain pass to the Ruins of Quilmes, a fortified town/city that was able to keep the invading Incas at bay and was the last to fall to the Spanish in the
17th century. We climbed all over them, really enjoying ourselves. The sentry positions had great views of the whole valley.
By far, the highlight of Tucuman (for Chela at least) was when we stumbled upon a an eatery across from the bus station by the name of ´Chela´s Bar´! This drugstore/bar made quite nice empanadas and chips and is now Chela´s favourite restaurant in all of the world! Other bizarrely named people may understand the high thrill of Chela´s experience.
We arrived in Salta and were immediately impressed by the white colonial-style buildings and the bright sun. On recommendation from a British guy we met in Tucumán, we headed to a place called Terra Occulta and were lucky to get a room as it was full most nights of the week.
We had become incredibly frustrated with our inability to communicate effectively with the vast majority of the population, so we organised to do some Spanish lessons. Over the next few days, we were tutored in the dark arts of the conjugation of verbs, the declination of adjectives and the correct use of gender indicators. However, with three hour Spanish lessons plus homework taking up our days
and lazy nights at the rooftop bar taking up our nights, we ended up staying for a week and a half to make sure that we saw all that we wanted to see before moving on to Bolivia.
One of the first things that caught Matthew´s eye was a horseriding excursion into the mountains. The ride started at a tobacco farm outside of town. We rode for about three hours with a French girl, two gauchos (South American cowboys), three dogs, four bottles of wine and several cows worth of meat into the mountains. There we were stuffed full with meat cooked asado style (BBQ´d over hot coals) and, well, there was more than enough wine.
Also on the wine-front, we went out to Cafayate a key wine producing region. We went on a whistle-stop winery tour and tasting but the highlight of the day was most definitely the drive out there. We went past spectacular rock formations and wildly coloured desert landscapes. Chela especially enjoyed feeding a llama. Also at Cafayate, we went to a goat farm where they make delicious goats cheese.
Our third trip out of town took us north through the Quebrada de
Cactii
On the way to the Ruins of Quilmes. Humahuaca (hint: ´h´ at the start of a word is silent in Spanish) a narrow mountain valley where we saw even more colourful formations in the mountain-side and climbed around and over an ancient native pucará (fortress). One of the more touristy experiences was the daily emergence of a wooden San Francisco from the side of a church like a cuckoo clock to bless the people thanks to mechanisms. This was a tool that the Fransicans used to convince the locals when they arrived after the Jesuits had been expelled. Part of the fun of this was watching the crowd of tourists and the ritual-like ´raising of the cameras´ followed by the almost choreographed exodus of people as soon as the show was over.
The city of Salta itself was a lot of fun and really nice to hang out in. We had a lot of fun just walking around. We even walked up the 1070 steps that took us to the top of a hill overlooking the city. Needless to say, we decided to get the cablecar down.
Another highlight of Salta was the food, which has been awesome. The hostel puts on a BBQ two times
a week at the rooftop bar. Huge slabs of seasoned meat were accompanied by a wide selection of vegetables, potatoes, bread and wine. We thought we should stock up on the meaty goodness before heading north into Bolivia and the gastronomic uncertainty that lay before us.
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Shem
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You guys are having so much fun!
Looks so great.