Around Salta, Northern Argentina

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Hello to everybody, it is Nitzan and I am going to tell you about our first days in Argentina.

We did not finish to visit Chile, what we are planing to do is Zig-zag beetween Chile, and Argentina, because if we do all of Chile and only then cross to Argentina, we kind of go back all the way - if you look at a map of South America you will understand why.

Ok. We crossed from Chile to Argentina in a morning bus and arrived to a big city called Salta. In the bus there was an Israeli couple and they said they have slept in Salta in a good, and nice hostel, so we took a taxi to there with them and it was good , so we stayed there. We went out for dinner at a restaurant that was recomended to us, and ate there good Argentinian BBQ meat - because that's what eat all the time!!!

The next morning we Looked for companys that rent cars. There were no cars available. We searched in like 6 companys and finally we found a company that had one for us. It was not the best but we had no other choice so we took it for 4 days to travel around Salta, in the north and in the south. We started the way the next day. My dad was not used to drrive because he did not drive in the last 3 months, but he got used to it very easily. We drove like 10 hours that day and the view was pretty. We saw a lot of colourful mountains and rock formations. We were very close to Cafallate, but suddenly we had a flat tire. Luckily, 15 minutes before there were a couple of french guys that had a flat tire as well and we helped them, so now they helped us. At the end of the day, we arrived to Cafallate. It is known as a wine center.

So the next morning my parents made us go to one of the wineries. It was a winery with a museum about old ways of making wine, and they also gave to taste wine. Only after my parents had some wine, they were willing to continue travel. Westarted our way back north to Salta and on the way we stopped couole of times to see some beatiful special things. The first thing was amazing red cliffs. We had some fun over there trying to take pictures of all of us with the auto mode of the camera - my dad had to run a lot, until we made it. The next stop was in a place called 'amphitheater' because it looked alittle bit like a theater and because of the big cliffs above it, there is good echo. We passed Salta to the north in the afternoon and drove next to a river in a very beatiful forest drive. When we finally started looking for a place to sleep, it was already dark and it started to rain. We looked for a place to sleep for almost 3 hours, my brothers already fell asleep in the car. We almost decided to sleep in the car all of us, before we finally found a hostel were we could sleep in a room.

In the morning we woke up to a lovely sunny day. We had a very relaxed and late breakfast, we played with the cute pupies that were in the hostel, we spent some time on the internet and then started our way north again. We went first to aruins from the inca times - it was pretty boring (because we already saw many inca sites, much better, in Peru and Bolivia), but there was a very good view of the area from the top. Then, we drove in a hard road to see a special colorful mountain - with colorful layers. In the picture of the paper of the site, it looks much much nicer than the view we saw. I think it was a little bit waste of time to go there (but don't tell my parents). We spent the night in Purmamarca in a nice Cabana (which is like a little house with a kitchen etc.) and so we coocked dinner on our own.

Next morning we first saw the 7 colors mountain next to Purmamarca. The colors were hard to count, but I know there were purple, yellow, red, orange, green, blueish and grey. Then we started our way back south to Salta on a different road. This time it was through a small Salar and through some "bolivian" towns, that means ugly and poor towns. The last part of the road, was next to a railroad tracks that is called the "cloud train" because it goes very high through the mountains. It is a desert type of place. We ended in Salta, returned the car and took a night bus to Cordoba.

There is nothing much for us to tell you about Cordoba, we had a few relaxing days in the hostel mainly. We had to seat and have some schoolong time, we spent a lot of time on the internet and ate in good meat restaurants, or cooked in the hostel. My parents have tried to see if they could buy a caravan for us, but could find anything.

From Cordoba, we continued toward San Augustin, through San Joan. We will tell you about our visit there, in the next blog.

ll our pictures from Salta and area

Miss you all,

Nitzan

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Photos

First day view
The road through the colorful mountains

Red cliffs
Auto photo of us in the red cliffs (take #6...)

Red cliffs
A Pretty Panckake Pile

Flat tire
My dad replacing the flat tire

wine museum
The giant barrel with me and Omer

Comments

[Pam]

Nitzan y familia Sapir- Since it seems we will not go to Mexico this Holiday season we will have to live vicariously through your travels! Boo Hoo! Feliz Navidad y prospero Ano Nuevo (Hannukah Greetings as well ) Suerte - Pamela y familia Reyes

[savta raya]

dear nizani and all my SAPIRS!!!! i,m very glad hearing you have a good, funny/times and alot great adventures!!! Be carefull ,care your brothers.! waiting next entry . miss you all!!! alot of hugs, savta raya