Salta, La Linda

Well, it´s been a long time since I´ve written.  It’s always in the back of my mind, but I seem to never get around to it.  This time I´m going to write so much and post so many pictures that I think it´ll help make up for some I´ve missed J

My dad, Harrison and Karen recently came down to visit us and we took a trip to the Northwest of Argentina, most specifically to the town and region of Salta.

Before going to Salta I read lots of blogs and used tripadvisor quite a bit, read guidebooks, etc.  I was excited and thought it´d be pretty but I really had no idea HOW pretty it would be.

Unfortunately, about 3 months ago a volcano erupted in Chile that was right on the border of Argentina.  It spewed ashes into the air and has caused serious trouble for air travel in Argentina because basically the whole country is covered in ash clouds.  We sadly lost a day of travel because of cancelled flights due to ash, but luckily it was only one day-for many travelers it´s been way more of a headache!   



On our first day in Salta we walked around the town a little (the picture to the left is one of the emblematic churches in Salta).  We decided that day to rent a car. For us this was a really tough decision because we thought maybe the roads would be impossible, we´d be nickel and dimed at the rental agencies, etc etc. For us, it worked out SO smooth and just like a dream.

Having the freedom of our own care was invaluable. We were able to stop when we wanted (which happened to be every 5 minutes to take pictures), be on our own schedule, and were able to see things and places that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to see.

I´m going to be throwing in names of towns, etc. that won’t mean much…but say them all the same.  The drive from Salta to Purmamarca is winding, and by far the hardest roads we encountered, it´s very small and very winding but beautiful. I expected Salta to all be red clay and rock, and this was going through the lush green forest!!  At one point we got out of the car and Harrison and I stood fingertip to fingertip and spanned the WHOLE road!

We were the only ones on the road, I think we only passed two cars the whole drive!

 

Mountain of seven colors



We stayed the second night in Purmamarca which is a small little pueblo with probably 500 inhabitants. We stayed at a hotel that had a room on the second floor with a view of a  mountain called the mountain of 7 colors.  We got up early enough to watch the sun come over the mountain, every 5 minutes or so a little more of the mountain was exposed and was illuminated like nothing I’ve ever seen before- really really spectacular.  After watching the sun rise we went to the local market and "ood and ahhd" over all the local artisan goods.





  





That day we went to the Salinas Grandes which are huge salt flats.  Evidently at some point long ago there was a salt body of water that has since dried up.  It basically looks like a huge desert of salt-it´s also really interesting because depth perception is way off and if you run only 100 feet away you look really tiny!


The thin strip of white is us coming up on the salt flats

The next day’s plan was to go to a place called Cafayate-Well, we didn’t make it to Cafayate because the drive was much longer than expected but it didn’t matter, we ended up staying in a little town called Cachi, which was really nice and charming.  Right outside of Cachi we drove through “National Cactus Park”.   The park was UNREAL, if you were to turn your head in a 180 degree perspective you would see anything from flat, grasslands to red mountains, to snowcapped mountains, to cacti…it´s hands down one of the prettiest things I´ve ever seen.

We stayed in Cachi that night-rented a cabin, cooked out on the grill, and went back to Salta the following day.

I´m attaching a few more random photos here below. Also, to give credit, all the pictures are taken by John.  He recently got a new camera and has become quite the photographer, he has some really nice shots and I think is really developing an eye for photography!