Welcome to Argentina - Terrorista o Tourista ? Sat 22/3/2003   Caught a TAM (Transportes Aeros Militares) flight from Tarija to Yacuiba where I landed at 12:40 local time. Wasted no time looking around the town of Yacuiba and caught a taxi right to the border crossing. There I had to wait for about 45 minutes as the entry visa stamp needed to be signed by a jefe of the crossing, who had gone out for lunch. Finally was allowed into Argentina at 2:45 local time, only to find out that the next bus to Salta, with Veloz del Norte would only be leaving in one and a half hours at 4:30. Went into town, found a bank with an ATM and after having gotten some Pesos sat down in a restaurant and had a nice big steak for 6 Ps! Returned to the bus station and got going on the long and slow journey towards Salta. The bus had to stop at three control posts in the course of our trip, each stop lasting about 30-40 minutes with all our bags and most people being searched for drugs. The first roadblock was quite unfriendly and the person who searched me started punching me in the stomach and asking me if I was a "terrorista" - like I would be telling him if I were. Welcome to Argentina! After seemingly having stopped to set down or pick up passengers on every little village on the way from Salvador to Salta we finally arrived at around 12:30 and I quickly made my way to the Terra Oculta hostel where I met Anke and Dominik, two friends from Germany. Had some wine and drinks on the awesome rooftop terrace bar of the Terra Oculta hostel and talked about the various places that we had been to or visited during the course of our journeys. Wandering around Salta Sun 23/3/2003   The first day in Salta I spent walking around and exploring the city, looking out for places to go, stay, buy stuff and go out. During my quest found an interesting part of town near the station with lots of pubs and clubs along the Balcarce Street, really no secret, but on Sunday the whole street is lined with little stalls selling food, handcraft and antiques, which I thought weren't that exciting. On the way back to the hostel stopped at an internet cafe to put the Bolivia pictures and texts online and reading up about the War on Iraq. When I returned to Terra Oculta, suggested to Ank and Domninik to check out the restaurants near the station and we ended up going out for dinner at the Gervasio near the station, most of us having steak, however not standard Argentinean style - which is basically a big slab of grilled filet meat without seasoning, but rather some more gourmet varieties for instance with plumb sauce. (excellent) Had some good night drinks on the "terraza" on return and had a fairly early evening as we were planning to head up North to Tilcara, Iruya and Humahuaca in the morning.	no map Youth Hostel Terra Oculta Cordoba 361, Salta Ph:(0387) 421 8769 Gervasio Balcarce 892, Salta Ph: (0387) 432 1824 Excellent Steak varieties for 8-9Ps
Terraza Terra Oculta Iglesia San Francisco Iglesia San Francisco Iglesia San Francisco Edificios Salta Puerta Edificio Official Museum de Salta Catedral Salta Gobiernmento Terraza Terra Oculta - Noche
Road Trip North Mon 24/03/03   Shortly after our rental car from Eurorentals was delivered to the hostal we set out for Tilcara which is about 300km north of Salta in the province of Jujuy, a poorer and less developed part of Argentina, where some aspects (buildings and people) reminded me more of Bolivia rather than it's Southern neighbour. We had not driven more than 20km past the rather unsightly town of Salvador de Jujuy, when we got stopped by the Gendarmerie in a road block. There it turned out that our rental car only had a colour photocopy of the "Tarjeta Verde", which was illegal and we ended up spending the afternoon in Jujuy at the police station until the situation about the tarjeta "falsa" had been resolved. (After returning and informing the car rental company, they suggested we should have bribed the police...) So after almost 4 hours we finally continued our trip to Tilcara and decided en route to got slightly further North to Humahuaca for the first night and start early from there to drive to Iruya a small mountain village in a remote part of Northern Argentina about 2-3 hours of small dirt roads from the main highway 9. On our way towards Humahuaca the weather slowly improved from slight rain in Jujuy to almost Sunshine at our destination, but sadly the yellow, red and grey coloured mountain ranges on our way there were partly covered in clouds, obscuring a good part of their impressive appearance. Found an excellent place to stay in Humahuaca called "Posada el Sol". The rooms were in small buildings very tastefully arranged and decorated and for a mere 10 Pesos a right bargain. First had a wander around the pretty town, before having dinner a restaurant called Kuntur Wasi (Santa Fe / Entre Rios), which had been recommended to us by the owner of our hostal. The place turned out very pleasant with excellently friendly service and good food for little money, although a rather limited menu.	no map Posada el Sol Humahuaca - Ph: (03887) 421 288
Paisaje cerca de Jujuy Paisaje cerca de Jujuy Humahuaca Iglesia Ajunamiento Humahuaca Ajunamiento por el dia Correos
Iruya Tue 25/03/03   Not only the hostal rooms were great but they also served a fantastic breakfast (by Argentinean standards) for 3.50 Ps. We then started on the 80km trip to Iruya, reaching the small mountain town after having wound our way across a mountain pass on gravel roads for about 2 hours. The journey there took slightly longer as we stopped frequently along the way to marvel at the scenery, especially when descending down the 4000m high pass. The small town seemed quite pleasant with a tiny square and a somewhat famous church from the 18th century. We had lunch after a brief walk around town and then continued our stroll down along the river valley until we reached another river and at this junction marveled at the amazing colours and shapes of the surrounding rocks. (Panorama Photo) Returned to Iruya and started our return, briefly stopping in Humahuaca in the afternoon for a look around town during the daytime before driving further South towards Tilcara. On arrival we learned that the recommended Youth Hostel located above town in a very picturesque setting was booked out (It is understandably popular so always call ahead) and ended up staying in the Hostal Pucara with very small and not so nice rooms. The very reasonable dinner in town was followed by some nice wine and dessert in the Restaurant Pucara, which although located on the same premises as the Hostal, is owned by a different person and has much more style and class than the hostal. Ended up talking till 2 o'clock with the Chef Garo Jurisk, who had moved to Tilcara from Buenos Aires to get his family away from the city life, which with the onset of the economic crisis had become more and more dangerous. I guess all of us felt regretful that we had not had dinner there and arranged to have breakfast there in the morning.	no map Hostal Pucara Tilcara
Mountain Pass into Iruya Iruya Valley Rock formations near Iruya 360 Panorama of Landscape near Iruya Iglesia de Iruya Garo y Manan Restaurant Pucara Tilcara
Return to Salta Wed 26/03/03   Dominik and I got up fairly early after a short night and drove back up towards Humahuaca to take photographs of the colourful rock formations in the early morning sun. After lots of photo taking we returned to Tilcara for a late breakfast with the others and then slowly started on our return to Salta. Our first top was Purmamarca, a pleasant village tucked below the mountain of the 7 colours, a truly unique display of different coloured rocks rising behind the town. There we decided to not drive up to the Salt flats (Laguna de Guayatayoc) but rather look at the Yungas in Serranias del Zapla on the way back. Our progress towards Jujuy was slowed by several road blocks, mainly poorer and jobless people in the province of Jujuy protesting about the inactivity of the government and the class society. After ascending a gravel road for 10 km we reached Serranias del Zapla at around 4 o'clock, by which time all of us were quite hungry. Drove through this former mining town, which due to the closure of the mine 11 years ago was in a pretty desolate state of decay, stopping at the only confiteria (an Argentinean type of restaurant) for some surprisingly decent food. After our late lunch headed up on of the closer peaks to have a look at the intensely green surrounding hills, densely covered in vegetation. The short break at the top yielded no usable photos and headed back to the car, and down the mountain, stopping at the derelict mine which seemed close to collapsing. Once we had reached the main road we again faced burning tires and road blocks which we luckily managed to circumnavigate and then finally were on our way back to Salta. Concluded our journey with some beer and pizza on the legendary rooftop terrace, and had a fairly early evening as the driving had been quite tiresome. Last day in Argentina Thu 27/03/03   On my last day I did some more wandering around in Salta, looking for a place to have my hair cut (and succeeded), after which I spent some time reading up on the world news during the Argentinean lunch break from 12-3 (or 4). Walked back to the Balcarce area to buy some wine for the evening "asado" (BBQ) at the hostel and found a very decent wine store near the station whilst waiting for a deli called "el vagon" (Necochea 668 / Ph: (0387) 4212696) to open. (There I managed to buy some excellent Argentinian ham and cheese.) On the way back changed all my remaining Pesos into Dollars and met up with Ank and Dominik at the Terra Oculta, where they had indeed managed to talk the people working there into having an asado that night. The food turned out to be excellent and as usual very plentiful so we got truly stuffed, drinking lots of wine to wash down the vast amounts of delicious meat. Time flew by and despite not feeling tired, thought it to be a good idea to get at least a few hours of sleep before the 12 hour bus journey from Salta to San Pedro de Atacama the following morning. So Argentina turned out to be one of the best parts of my South American trip so far, the combination of great food, friendly people, a very comfortable hostal base with great atmosphere and good value for money with the current exchange rate made the very short interlude a real highlight.	no map Youth Hostel Terra Oculta Cordoba 361, Salta Ph:(0387) 421 8769
Panorama of Landscape North of Tilcara Tilcara Landscape Tilcara Landscape Tilcara Landscape Tree near Tilcara Montana de 7 Colores - Purmamarca