Salta, city of culture, art and sport

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When we arrived in Salta one of our concerns was that it could be a bit of a cultural desert! After Buenos Aires with is huge choice of theatres and cinemas, it was obviously going to be a bit different, but we haven’t been disappointed.

Indeed, before we even moved into the house we had made our first visit to the theatre. The Teatro Huerto lacks the atmosphere of, say, the Colon in BA, but it is a nice little provincial theatre. We went there to see Angel Mahler’s musical Dracula which we had just missed in BA. It was a great show but, in true Salta style, it began very late and finished at a ridiculous time, something like 1.30am!

In contrast, we were very lucky to see Argentina’s ballet star Julio Bocca on his farewell tour. This started prompt at 9pm, much to the consternation of the locals who had paid good money to get seats near the front. As the show began, half of the seats were empty, but much to our annoyance the posh guests in their posh clothes were allowed to noisily take their seats. Make them stand at the back, that’s what I say!!!! The show was surprisingly good as we were really not sure if it would be our thing. It was!

Talking of ballet, we have now seen the Salta provincial ballet perform twice. The first time was in the Casa de la Cultura where we saw a video of their history and selected highlights of their repertoire performed by some of the dancers. Unfortunately there wasn’t room for an orchestra too, so it was all done to taped music. Luckily we were still here when the new city theatre opened in November. We got to see some beautifully performed ballet with the city orchestra playing live in the pit under the stage. It was wonderful, but we felt so sorry for the lead male dancer who fell in the first act and was not able to get up again. He never reappeared and we never heard what happened to him.

We have seen some live music in Salta, but not as much as we would have liked. There are loads of bars and nightclubs that regularly feature bands but we haven’t made the most of it. We went to see a young Cuban singer, Axel Milanes, and he was very good, but not quite to our taste. Most of his songs were very political, about his homeland, and extremely pro-Castro. Our last night in Salta will see us return to the Delmi where we saw Bocca. This time it is to see Diego Torres, one of the more famous names in Argentine popular music.

Some of the best live music comes with your meal. If you go to any of the Peña restaurants you will be treated to music, song and dance from all the northern regions of Argentina. In our opinion though, the quality of the food deteriorates somewhat in these places. The price you pay for entertainment I guess.

Of course, there’s far more going on than live performances. The museums of Salta are fabulous. Our favourite was Pajcha which shows the handicrafts and costumes of the people of South America from Colombia all the way down to Patagonia. It was a fascinating collection.

On the main plaza is the wonderful Museum of the High Mountains where you can see one of the sacrificed girls whose body was almost perfectly preserved in the ice. Spooky, but morbidly fascinating. Also on the plaza it is currently possible to see a collection of Pre-Colombian artefacts. It is very well presented and, more than that, free!! There are so many more museums in Salta but we haven’t really organised ourselves well enough to visit them. There are lots of opportunities to see photographic exhibitions and several galleries for modern and classic art. The painted cacti were great to see too, a little reminiscent of the painted cow parade or the hearts we saw in BA.

Even the governmental election was, at times, like a strange art display. Posters were often layered one on top of another. Clearly there are no rules about fly-posting here! Candidates tried all sorts to get noticed including cavalcades of motorcycles parading their image around, people at traffic lights with enormous boards to put in front of waiting drivers and, our favourite, inflatable figures emblazoned with their names and logos.

Let’s finish with sport then. Although the quality of the football hasn’t quite rivalled River, Boca and Lanus, Russ has enjoyed throwing his weight behind one of the local teams, Gimnasia y Tiro. There are two other teams to choose from though if you want to take in a game while you are here. Rugby thrives, although we didn’t manage to get to a game. The same goes for polo and even baseball.

We did manage to see some International Women’s hockey. The Argentina side, Las Leonas, are very strong and were just too much for the British Olympic squad who played a five match series in Salta. The series marked the opening of a new hockey complex which it is hoped will host the Hockey World Cup in 2011. For the two of us it was a new experience watching hockey. It was great though, but it felt a bit lonely singing “God Save The Queen” surrounded by Salta’s girls junior hockey teams who laughed, giggled and pointed!!

Russ is gutted though. Diego Armando Maradona is coming to Salta the day after we leave. His International Showbol will be at the Delmi on Saturday when Argentina take on Paraguay. This is like a glitzy version of 5-a-side football and El Diez (Maradona, Number 10) regularly demonstrates that, whilst old and fat (in footballing terms anyway!!!), he still has an enormous amount of skill with a football.

Salta is indeed a city if culture, art and sport, and is far from being a cultural desert.

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Photos

Dancing
In the peña restaurant

Andean Band
In the peña restaurant

Photo Display
A series of photos commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas conflict.

Electioneering
Fly-posters galore!

Electioneering
Inflatables!

Las Leonas
The girls were swamped by autograph hunters after the game

Comments

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that pottery
this pottery is awesome