So from last Thursday until this Thursday, the 1st through the 8th, I took a trip up to the northwest of Argentina, namely the Salta and Jujuy regions. It was my first solo trip ever and I had a fantastic time! As of yet I'm lacking my camera computer cord so I can't show you the amazing pictures that I have of the area, but I'll give you a day-by-day breakdown.
** DAY 1 **
After waiting around for what seemed like forever, I was finally able to board the bus to Salta. Boy, was it a rough ride. The seats were not comfortable, I couldn't sleep at all, and they only gave us one sandwich for the entire 21-hour ride. This was not the experience that I've had on previous bus rides. I was disappointed and exhausted. The ride was from 9:00PM - 5:30PM. Yuck.
** DAY 2 **
So I finally rolled into Salta and took a 5 peso cab ride to my hostel. The hostel was alright; it was cheap, had breakfast, had computers, and was close to the center, so I couldn't complain. When I got into my room, I met a lady who was on the bunk below me. She is a teacher in Buenos Aires and was also traveling by herself. There was also a couple from Denmark in our room.
I walked around the city a little bit, but seeing as I hadn't slept in such a long time I went back and took a nap. When I woke up the lady from BA, Mariela, asked if I wanted to get dinner. We went to a pretty nice restaurant, then I went back to bed.
** DAY 3 **
Argentina played Germany at 11:00 AM, so I went to find somewhere to watch the game. I found a restaurant that had a big projection screen, and I watched the game with a ton of other Argentines, which was fun. The game itself was painful to watch because Argentina just got killed, 4-0. After the game I was expecting there to be a riot or something, but it was almost like the game hadn't even happened. The only way you could tell was that people were pretty sulky.
Mariela and I then took a bus to San Lorenzo, a nice neighborhood of Salta. There were a lot of nice houses there, and it was all wooded and near the hills. We sat at a restaurant overlooking a little creek and ate tamales and empanadas. It was really nice weather and we just relaxed there a little bit.
After San Lorenzo we went back downtown and I went the Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña (MAAM). It was soooo cool! They had found these Incan cemeteries of children that they had sacrified to the gods way up high in the mountains, and the high altitude of the mountains had preserved the children almost perfectly. They had a bunch of artifacts that the children were "buried" with and then at the end you could actually see the children on display. It was pretty eerie, but cool all the same.
At night I went out to dinner at a pretty touristy restaurant but it had regional food, which I was looking for. I met this young couple from Oregon, Lily and Shawn, while in line and ended up eating with them. Lily had been volunteering for Habitat for Humanity in Buenos Aires the past five months, and Shawn came to visit her and they were traveling around. Habitat for Humanity in a foreign country seems like a cool thing to keep in mind...
** DAY 4 **
On Sunday, I woke up late and took a shower, which ended up flooding the entire hostel room! I was so embarrassed, but the owner assured me that it was a problem with the drain and not me. Despite the bad start to my morning, I still had a really good day. I got some empanadas from a bakery and ate them in the central plaza. I'm finding out that the empandas are so different everywhere! In Chile I found out they were huge, and in the north of Argentina they're tiny!
I took the chair lift up to the top of the hill that overlooks Salta, Cerro San Bernardo. The view of the city was really cool! Then I walked down, and at the bottom of the hill I found a monument for General Güemes which was pretty cool! I walked through a nice part of town with really pretty houses, and then ended up at a market, where I found Lily and Shawn again! We went our separate ways and I walked around the market a little bit, and then I walked back to the main plaza and got some helado and sat for a while, and saw Lily and Shawn! Haha.
For dinner I sat outside at a restaurant and had an incredible meal all alone. I decided that it was my 4th of July treat to myself, if there is such a thing. I had an awesome steak, salad, and some wine, and the plaza was so pretty with the cathedral and town hall buildings all lit up.
** DAY 5 **
I woke up super early for being on vacation, 6 AM! I had to catch the bus to Tilcara, a tiny little pueblo four hours to the north of Salta. The bus ride was an amazing view the entire way, and I got to catch the sunrise coming up over the mountains. I couldn't stop taking pictures of all the beautifully colored mountains. We reached Tilcara, I got off the bus, and it was very different from any other city I had been to in Argentina! The town was sooo small! I found a tourist information desk and he gave me a map and told me how to get to my hostel. The hostel was on a hill towards the back of the town and had a beautiful view. The walk up there was rough, though! It was sooo hot! And I had all my bags and my jacket still on. The hostel is comprised of a bunch of different casas, each with lounge chairs outside of them. Within the first 5 minutes it was definitely my favorite hostel yet.
I dropped my stuff off and walked around the town. I went to a restaurant for lunch, where I met a group of 4 students who were traveling together. They were all from different countries (United States, Turkey, Ireland, and Germany), and had kind of just expanded their group along the way, which was cool. I had a tamale, two queso empanadas, and a LLAMA empanada! It was delicious haha.
I walked to el Pucará, which is the ruins of a pre-Incan civilization up on a hill in Tilcara. The ruins have been partially rebuilt, which is cool because you get to imagine what the city had been like. I kind of felt like a little kid in a playground with a bunch of little stone houses, walls, and cacti all over the place.
After el Pucará, I did a little trek on a trail up through these mountains. It was so beautiful! I was the only one on the trail that I could see for the majority of the hike, and I just LOVED it. The sun was shining, the mountains were amazing, I was in a little pueblo filled with indigenous people in the north of Argentina on a trip by myself, and extremely happy. At a landing point I took advantage of the timer on my camera and snapped some photos of my happy self, even a couple jumping shots in honor of my friends haha.
Tilcara, I decided, is easily my favorite place in Argentina.
I checked out the market in the main square, and it was great. It was re-sale stuff, but still sweet, mostly all from Bolivia and Peru. Alpaca sweaters, gloves, hats, textiles, bags, so much stuff. I had a great time walking around and wishing I could have taken it ALL home with me.
When I went back to my hostel I met a girl, Irena, from Madrid. She was also traveling by herself, and we went out to dinner together. I couldn't understand her at first AT ALL. Her accent was so different from what I was used to and she talked super fast. But we laughed a lot about our difficulty in communication and got along really well.
Where we went for dinner was the same place that I went for dinner, La Peña de Carlitos, but it was ok, because it turned out to be really awesome. First a guy came with his guitar and sang traditional Argentine folk songs, and then a band of 4 guys came and played. They were really good! I took some videos. The restaurant was full of tourist families, which gave Tilcara a different feel than it would have been if it wasn't winter vacation, but that's ok. I had a llama steak, and it kind of reminded me of venison. For dessert I opted to try a traditional northern dessert, and it was kind of weird. It was 3 strips of cheese with some sweet fruit on top. The fruit was good, but it was a little bit too much cheese to have for dessert.
** DAY 6 **
I woke up and Ire and I ate breakfast together, then walked around town and went to an artesanal store where these Tilcaran ladies had made these beautiful ponchos, scarves, and sweaters. Then Ire and I took a half-hour bus ride to Purmamarca, another pueblo. I then took a van ride with about 10 other people to las salinas grandes, huge salt flats (Ire had already gone). It was about an hour and a half ride to get there, even though it was only 60km, because it was all winding up through the mountains... the most spectacular views with the most spectacularly colored mountains. Besides las salinas grandes, Purmamarca is also known for el Cerro de los Siete Colores, which is amazing. I'll post pictures of that later. The highest altitude we got to was about 4,100 meters, and then we drove back down a little bit to reach the salt flats. They were really impressive, really huge, but really kind of strange. They gave us an hour to walk around... which was a lot of time. Basically it's the same view all around you, just salt and salt for milesssss. There are workers out there who dig up the salt, and they have to wear bandanas over their faces because it gets pretty windy. I met a couple from Mexico, and we walked around together. They were working as chefs and just traveling around Argentina for a year and a half or so. People have such different and cool lives.
After that Ire and I took the bus back to Tilcara, and then a bus back to Salta. We checked into the hostel around 12:30 AM and I basically just passed out. Traveling is exhausting!
** DAY 7 **
Ire and I had breakfast together and then we said our goodbyes as I checked out of the hostel and walked around town for a few hours to waste time before my dreaded bus ride marathon. Took the bus back to Buenos Aires from 12:45PM to about 10:00AM!
I discovered from my trip that you learn a ton when you're by yourself. It gives you a lot of opportunity to talk to other people, which is extremely beneficial in traveling. You get to hear about where they went and what they liked and didn't like, and then you can decide with more information whether you should do the same thing or not. I met a lot of great people during my trip and I'm so glad I decided to do it. I also learned about the different kind of lives people have, and how unique people are and what opportunities are available in the world.
Now I have my own room in a B&B. Lots of relaxation time before...
FAMILY COMES! They leave Saturday around 3:00PM and I'll probably see them around 11:00AM Sunday morning. I can't wait. I've been keeping myself busy by walking around the city, visiting the host fam (which has been a blast), sitting in cafes, reading, doing whatever I want to do. I'm finding that it's really nice to be by yourself sometimes; you get to do what you want to do on the schedule that you want to do it. However, I am oh so ready to spend time with my family. It's been a long time coming.
