Date of Entry: January 2nd 2016
Date of Writing: January 12th 2016, Tango Hostel, Cordoba Argentina
We’re well into 2016 and in a little while I hope to write another year in review post recapping all the amazing adventures I had in 2015, the first year since 2010 where I spent the whole year on one continent. But for now we’ll continue with your regularly scheduled blog.
My flight from Puerto Iguazu goes smoothly enough on the 31st and I get into salta by taxi (100 ARS) Though there is a sporadic minibus for (40 ARS) which is the cheaper option and am warmly welcomed at Salta Por Siempre , a wonderful if slightely pricey hostel with an awesome cat and two tortoises. There I make myself sign up for there new years dinner to be social. It;s expensive at 250 ARS (25 Canadian) but the food is good and the company better as I make friends with lots of lovely dutch, german, and Australian tourists and as the new year commences it seems like every family in Salta, a town of 1 million is out on the streets lighting small collections of fireworks and I feel stupid for not buying some myself.
The first almost everything is closed so it’s a day to relax and blog but on the second I’m up early having booked an expensive tour 550 ARS (55 Canadian Dollars) to Grand Salinas which takes you up into the Andes mountains, through small Argentinean towns and what I’ve heard are lovely landscapes in this region sometimes known as the 7 coloured mountains.
I booked with Salta por siempre and am picked up at 740 about 50 minutes later than they said, for the start of what is going to be a very long but pretty good day.
Honestly, I’m exhausted from not seeping enough the past few days and, after buying some water and chatting with my british friend for a few minutes I pass out in the back of the minibus for a good long while catching some badly needed zee’s before waking up at our first stop already high in the andes beside one of the many picturesque train bridges which make up part of the famous tourist train Trein de los Nubes (Train of the clouds), a circuit which is not cheap but also currently closed, but certainly a journey worth taking from Salta if you have the money.
We quickly pile back up into the car, winding through the Andes again for a good long while passing countless beautiful views but never stopping. It’s the massive downside of doing tours from Salta, they try to take you to see so much in a day, that you end up with only short stops and not enough of them. It’s basically a lot of time on the bus and too heavy a price because of it. That’s why If you can I certainly recommend finding some people and renting a car to explore the multi coloured hills on your own.
Our next stop is beside a huge hill covered in cactuses but the more impressive views come from looking back the way we’ve come to the impressive mountains.
We keep going, stopping before too long in a small town for a bathroom break, instead I go running off to explore the scenery and the idyllic little church in the centre of this tiny town.
The next stop is lunch time but since I’m dieting (At time of writing down about 40 pounds) I decide to go for a wander through the town where we’ve stopped, San Antonio de los Cobres and find lots of friendly locals, and some interesting high altitude desert scenery. At it’s heart San Antonio de los Cobres is more mining town than tourist town, so instead of being swarmed the people (for the most part) go about there day to day life around me.
I eventually doze off back in the car and wake up with us almost all the way to Salinas, the whiteness all around us overwhelming me, and making me think back to Bolivia. Here is about our longest stop on the whole tour barring lunch but not long enough as we only get thirty minutes to go walk out into the vast whiteness, dotted with thin canals of water used to harvest the salt. Locals visit too, some of them playing soccer with me, and some dipping parts of their bodies into the water which supposedly can heal many ills.
Eventually we climb back into the bus and start an ascent up to about 4200 meters above sea level, a significant difference from Salta’s 1400 Meters. The air gets thin and everyone chews there coca leaves, but luckily I don’t seem prone to altitude sickness having been up close to 5000 meters on my Uyuni Salt Flats tours without issues. We pass by lots of incredible viewpoints but don’t really stop at many until finally pulling off on the way down at one viewpoint for a few minutes of photos.
We continue down and the scenery doesn’t get less impressive, and the fact that we’re not stopping only gets more and more frustrating. We’re coming up to the home of the seven coloured mountain, a small tourist town of Purmamarca and the peaks and rock formations all around us only get more and more impressive.
As we pull up to the little town I’m amazed by the mountains all around me and decide I definitely have to find my way back here. As I climb out of the bus and get told we only have 20 minutes I quickly buy a barbecued tortilla with ham and cheese inside to sate my desperate hunger, before hurrying through the tourist packed town to try to get some nice glimpses of the famous seven coloured mountains. I also get some information about bus timetables in the region, including the buses to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile which at least from Purmarca do not run every day or at convenient times.
I find my way to the base of a hill offering terrific viewpoints but sadly I don’t have time to climb it even though a group of locals says it’s totally normal to ignore the no climbing signs and go up (turns out you just go around the hill and pay a 5 peso (50 cents) entry fee for an easier path. Luckily the pictures of the others up on the lookout hill work out pretty impressively as well.
Here comes the biggest problem of the tour, we get back in the bus and are hurried all the way back to Salta only stopping at a gas station along the way, a three hour ride and after all day in the bus just too much time. For this reason I’d only recommend doing tours from Salta if it is the only way for you to see the amazing scenery in the Northern Argentinean Andes. If it’s at all possible rent a car with other backpackers (more to come on that soon) or failing that use the local buses, stay in small towns like Purmamarca, Cachi, Cafayate, Tilcara, or Huamamarca. You’ll enjoy your time a lot more than on these tours, though they do take you to incredible places. Just all too briefly.
