SALTA, ARGENTINA

After our nightmarish border crossing, when we arrived at our hostel in Salta at midnight we hoped the trend of the day wouldn't continue – and thankfully it didn’t'. We were greeted by a friendly and welcoming Diego at the hostel bar where we shared a well deserved beer with him. This became a regular occurrence during our stay here at ‘Salta Por Siempre’. As we chatted over beers in the evenings with Diego we soon became good friends!

Over the next few days we fell in love with the city – well as much as you can love a city anyway! We got to know it’s block style streets – all central around the beautiful, bustling main square – which was the only part of this city that didn’t shut down for the daily 4-5 hour siesta (from 12/1pm – 5pm), and a mixture of modern cafes and beautiful Spanish era buildings & cathedrals.

 After we thought we knew the place we then ‘discovered’ a new part of town – “Balcarce”! This street is like an Argentinian version of Temple Bar but with sunshine and 10 times as big! Around 9pm each night typical Argentinian gaucho dance shows take place in most of the restaurants lining the street. We had one of our best meals during our 3 months here while watching a gaucho show – and our first steak in Argentina!

 When we left the restaurant around midnight, we entered an outdoor party! The street was completely buzzing and overflowing with people – it had transformed during our meal! So we went to meet Diego from the hostel for a drink at one of the bars here, but felling tired after our steak, didn’t quite make it to the nightclub (opens at 3am and finishes up around 5am!).

Looking for some adventure we visited some tour agencies and bumped into a small one near the square owned by the charming and giddy Ramiro. We signed up for a white water rafting day trip with him and in the meantime happened to get talking about his place in the mountains. So for a price, we then booked ourselves in for 2 nights in Ramiro’s house on top of a hill, overlooking a beautiful small lake, and surrounded by beautiful countryside, trees, and ranches.

 The first night, after a spin in Ramiro’s canoe followed by a swim in the lake, he cooked us steaks and black pudding on the BBQ, and invited some friends over who brought their guitars and entertained us for the night with Argentinian songs – mostly typical of Salta and Jujuy (the province that Salta lies in).

During our stay there we cycled all around the area – exploring; dipping in the pool at the house to cool down from the searing heat; chatted with Carolina about everything and anything; read books; and relaxed. Ramiro and Carolina really welcomed us into their home and made us feel at home. It was perfect!

The rafting was our favorite day activity that we had done so far and one of our favorites since. The river and scenery was beautiful and the rafting itself along with our boat crew was non stop excitement and fun!

On returning from the mountains we jumped straight into a 3 door VW “Gol” that we had hired for 3 nights and headed for Cafayate – about 100km south of Salta.
What an amazing drive – the entire 3 days! The scenery seemed to completely change every 50-80km – like a digital photo frame! From vast desert with rocks jutting up in huge valleys of yellows and reds; to farmlands of green and straw-yellow fields with farmers out working and passing tractors on the road; to gorges; mountains; vineyards; and moon-like landscapes.

'Gargantia Del Diablo' (The Devil's Throat)

Our first night in small Cafayate, after a stopover in a bodega for a tasting, was intended to be an early one.

After dinner though we found a place with just locals there and a band setting up – Saltena music. So we decided to have on drink but when the band finished and an Argentinian spontaneously jumped up on stage, grabbed a guitar and started a sing song, we just had to stay!

We finished up in the nightclub with 2 Argentinian tour guides, 3 of the barmen, a Mexican on his holidays here, and 4 Irish that we had all met in the bar earlier on! Strolling around Cafayate the next morning with 2 massive hangovers was easier than expected – it’s a small village with one small square and not much to see. The ‘Pulperia’ though that we accidentally walked into was a challenge to say the least – even without a hangover. There were 5 elderly men standing around a table in the centre of this apparent shop.

On approaching the table one of them started to tell me the story of a pulperia and it’s tradition years ago - a gaucho hangout, where they would buy cured meats or beer, and sit around a table comparing gaucho stories. The most notable thing about this place though is that on the table that they were standing around was an opened cooked cow’s head (covered in flies) sitting on brown paper which it was cooked in. While informing me of how it was cooked, one of them stuck a fork into the nape of the skull and pulled out a juicy piece of brain which he insisted that Niall try! The smell was putrid and judging by the now greenish white tint on Niall’s face, I guessed it didn’t taste so great either! After a quick exit, we skipped on down the street where he spat it out and bought an ice cream as quickly as possible!
We were on the road again en route to Cachi, on the famous Route 40 after our ice cream – this time onto a dirt road but still so scenic. We stopped off at some beautiful tiny quiet villages, ate empanadas (my favorite typical food of South America!), and changed a punctured tyre! All while having great fun along the way.

Cachi was another tiny village with one small square, streets that went no further than 500 metres from the square, and the typical pretty white wash old houses and buildings that we had seen all along our 3 day drive. We arrived quite late but it didn’t matter as we had enough time before dinner to stroll around the tiny village and again in the morning before we left.

The drive on our 3rd day was the longest, but again was so scenic that we really didn’t feel it. We arrived eventually in Jujuy, North of Salta, but it was much later than we had planned.

Our aim was to get to Purmamarca for the night and after asking a friendly hotel porter how far it was, we continued on arriving in time for sunset. The colours on the mountains as you arrive to Purmamarca are magical – they call it “an artist’s palette” due to its mix of different shades of greens, reds, and ochre. It was made even more spectacular with the colours of the sunset – throwing reds and yellows up on the mountains that shadow the tiny village. Purmamarca itself is awash with colour. One of the traits and attractions of this village, as well as it’s local folklore music and cobblestone streets, is the daily spread of artesenal fabrics, tapestries, and souvenirs on almost every street and all around the square.

 It was probably the most unique and picturesque town we had seen. Our hostel was set in a restaurant/bar where during dinner, the Argentinian version of Mary Black (also owner of the hostel), got up and sang some traditional songs along with some of her own stuff. We walked around the chilly village late after dinner and sat in the square star gazing with a couple of locals casually playing guitar in the centre. It was a perfect ending to our adventurous, memorable and fun road trip on Route 40!

We spent a couple more days in Salta since we loved it so much, chilling out before our next move as we knew that the next leg of the trip would be the beginning of the end and this would most likely be the last chance we had to really relax. It was time to move on but we knew we’d miss Salta, the best hostel we had stayed in, Diego & his weekly BBQs, and Ramiro & Carolina.