Salta - Sun, Salt (lots of it) and Killer Spiders

Currently writing this in Chile having just crossed the border. Have a couple of hours to kill before I catch my connecting bus and figured the blog was well overdue an update....

So second stop on the tour - Salta - and a very different feel from the capital.
It´s way up in the north of the country and has emerged as a key stopping off point for travellers coming to and from Bolivia. The place has the feel of a slightly run down chaotic Oaxaca (in Mexico) with some bright coloured colonial buildings and the mountains peeking out from the end of the streets.

The main shopping streets are pedestrianised and throng with locals, only calming down for the long afternoon siesta.
Cafes line the central square where you can knock back a few chopps of Quilmes while waiting for the summer sun to soften its rays.

Or you can go wandering the streets in search of one of the many street vendors filling the air with the scent of freshly made popcorn
- their stalls imploring you to let Jesus into your life.

The city´s most famous for being the starting point for El Tren A Las Nubes - one of the world´s classic train journeys - passing through the clouds on huge aquaducts into the north west of the country. Massively impressive on a technical level the huge cost involved in its creatin is impossible to justify as it only links the city to a series of dustball towns before coming to an end in the Andes. It was my original reason for coming to the town. So it was a bit unfortunate it was out of service.

The reason depended on who you spoke to. It was closed because this is the rainy season. Because the company running it was facing financial problems. Because it needed work. But no worries - the city´s entrepid tour operators all run excursions along its route.

So every week hundreds of tourists pile into small minivans and hurtle along mountain roads alongside a temporarily defunct railway that doesn´t go anywhere special. Bizarre. But there are some great views en route - and there´s no other way you´d be allowed to go running over the railway bridges doing your best to ignore vertigo and the temptation to leap far below into the dry river valleys running below.

It´s a long days journey. Leaving the hostel (which arranged all the tours) at around 7.30ish and not getting back around 9ish. Luckily you´re not just looking at railway tracks all day. In fact after a few hours we seemed to lose track of the track and made our own way through the landscape. And it varies hugely. One minute we were going through barren land, flat and featureless apart from the odd group of woolly llama picking their way across the territory. After a while we´d stumble across a village - if that word covers a small assortment of decript buildings and a cow. Though it might not look it this part of the Jujuy province is actually economically active with mines dotting the area rich in minerals and metals. But you´d be hard pushed to see where the money´s goes in these small settlements belonging to farmers who eke out a more basic existence.

Then all of a sudden the land pulls a whitey. Huge expanses of dried salt - all that remains of what used to be a sea. So bright it dazzles the eyes - stretching to the horizon in all directions. In the middle sits a group of craftsmen sitting in the middle of a now defunct restuarant made of salt, carving chess pieces and other sculptures out of salt. Though chemically identical to what you get served with your meal here the substance has been compressed to become stone hard. Walking on it is weird. It feels very cool and rough to the touch - but alongside the workers a few shallow pools have been carved out and filled with water into which we were able to dip our feet - which were then encrusted in the substance once they quickly dried out in the overhead sun.

Then we shot up to heights of around 4000 metres before heading to a village where I went hiking into the hills for an hour with an Argentinian girl from the group while the others stayed behind to enjoy the less strenuous activity of eating icecream in the shade. Finally we made our return passing through a rainforest slowing down to allow random assortments of cows and horses to make room as they chewed on the grass alonside the track.

Second day in town and another tour - this time to the south - this time passing through huge catcus filled landscapes - looking as if they were a massive army prepared for attack. "Don´t pick up any stones" - warned the guide. The reason - this is home to a huge colony of black widow spiders. One of which we got to get right up close to. Centimetres away it was slowly dissecting a wasp caught in it´s web. A tiny creature capable of killing a horse in minutes - or a tour group of over inquisitive gringos.

Lots more to fill the day including mulicoloured moutains, their soil stained by an assortment of minerals, a HUGE lunch in the mountains of marinated goat cheese and roasted meats, stunning views across deep valleys - home to condors (though they proved a bit shy), a climb thousands of metres above sea level to a tiny graveyard which nearly pushed some of us over the limit - and the chance to chill in Chachi´s beautiful town square.

As ever tours like these are also a great chance to meet other travellers. There were quite a few Argentinians about (the devaluation of their currency makes it v hard to travel abroad) and by this point my Spanish was good enough to understand the guide´s stories in Spanish. I also got friendly with an Italian from Milan whose company had recently been bought by Oracle, had cashed in his share options and was now spending the fruits on a S American tour. A great guy and drinking companion in the evenings.

Could go on for ages but going to limit this as am getting typed out!

So a few other observations - As you might guess travelling on these trips meant long days. So how did the drivers manage to keep alert day after day? The secret - cocaine!!!

Shops in the city centre openly advertise the sale of Coca and Bici. That´s the leaves from the Coca plant which produce the nose-candy and bicarbonate of soda which they are chewed with to release the drug. Of course it´s in far smaller quantities than that found in the powder. But the legal status of the substance is a bit ill defined. While it´s easy to buy police searches on buses in and out of the city can see it confiscated and don´t even think about trying to take it through the airports. It seems that any huge stash of the leaves will incur a police crackdown and jail time - but small quantities for personal use in the area are fine.

Hostal wise I stayed at Backpackers central (c/Buenos Aires 930, p. +54 387 4235 910, bktravel@backpackerssalta.com - booked on hostelworld.com) About a 20min walk from town but a great set up. The group owns 3 hostals in town and most evenings hosts an asado (bbq) at our building on the roof bar with loads of salad and the chance to mix with others. Then at about 11pm they get everyone together to explore the nightlife. Private room had a huge bed and loads of hot water as well.

It´s also worth leaving time to explore the town itself.
The place is overrun with schoolgirls (though bizarrely v few boys) but once you get beyond the central square things calm down to allow a pleasant walk along treelined parks - while a cable car let´s you rise high above to look down on Salta and realise it´s a lot bigger than it feels when exploring by foot. However one day is enough.

It had been my original plan to spend another night and tour Cafayte´s rock formations and wineries. But while the past few days had been loads of fun I wanted to get out and about more rather than sitting most of the day in a minibus - however good the views. Plan A had been to take the bus down to Tucuman - from where Argentinia´s independence had been declared. But all the Argentinians I´d met said Cordoba was a lot more fun - so after booking the first of my overnight Cama bus tickets I was heading south to Argentina´s second biggest city and its university capital...