Salta the Fair
Trip Start
Dec 28, 2006
1
53
135
Trip End
Dec 2007
Salta,
Argentina
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
After a plesant morning on the bus just snoozing and watching the world go by we arrived in Salta around 2ish. Unfortunately it was raining here as well so we quickly jumped in a taxi and headed to our hostel. The hostel is basic - our room was just a box with a bed and it was a bit damp. We thought about going elsewhere but in the end couldn't be bothered.
The rain did eventually stop so we headed out on the town to have a look and book some tours
01 - It's a hard life on the road
. Salta is called "Salta the Fair" but with grey skies and slightly run-down buildings it didn't seem that fair but it was stil nice. We had a decent lunch then shock-horror! at the first tour agency we went to we found out that the train to the clouds, our main and probably only reason for coming here, is not running and has not been running for nearly 3 years! We were gutted. Sometimes it's hard to get good info in South America and we thought we had got used to that but still, we were really disappointed. We looked at other tours but nothing grabbed us so we decided to head to San Pedro de Atacama ASAP. Not a good day and made worse by our hostel with it's loud music and bad setup keeping us awake most of the next. Poor Sara fell a wee bit ill in that damp room. We should have gone somewhere else but as we were leaving soon it didn't seem worth the bother.We spent the next couple of days organising things, having a look round the town and suffering form the flu. But we did manage to take in some of the sights including a huge blood-coloured building with yellow designs locally known as San Francisco Catherdral, and another catherdral on the main square which was pink with a blue dome. At least they stand out. The sun came out and we hung around the pretty square and visited the Cabildo, a 17th centuary white building which was once the colonial headquarters now used as a museum, then headed to the central market which was a bit dodgy and disappointing so we cheered ourselves up with the best ice-cream in town.
The last night was an early one as we had to get up at 5.30am for the wonderful bus journey over the Andes to San Pedro. It's so sad to leave Argentina but we feel ready to do so. We're looking forward to a new place and a trip into Bloivia.
