Travels in Argentina - Cafayate

Since we couldn´t stay in Tucumán, we decided to go to Cafayate, a small town in the desert famous for its wine. We originally weren´t going to go here as it sounded kind of boring, but it ended up being the best mistake of the entire trip and we stayed four nights.

The only bad part about this leg of the trip was getting there. We thought the bus took about three hours, but somehow it ended up taking almost eight! Once we´d been on the bus for four or five hours and stopped in countless tiny towns, we looked at the tickets which did in fact state that the journey was a long one. Not sure how we got the timing so wrong, but luckily we managed to buy some fresh, warm bread during one of the three bus changes we had to make along the way and didn´t starve.

The night we (finally) arrived, there was a big festival to celebrate the first day of spring. The main event was a parade around the Central Plaza, full of well-lit floats made by local school groups. They had to go one at a time because they all needed to share one electrical source.





One of the things that was great about it was the weather. It was so nice to finally be somewhere sunny and warm (the way Salta was supposed to be). The wine--and wine flavored ice cream!--helped as well.

Torrontés and Cabernet (It was good for about a minute, then just kind of gross. Definitely something I had to try but wouldn´t eat again!)



On the side of a winery. (Wine is the healthiest and most hygenic of all the beverages.)



We rented bikes and went to visit the vineyards outside of town. Unfortunately, most of them were closed on Saturdays but there were some nice views.



We also spent half a day looking at the Quilmes Ruins about an hour outside of town. It was cool to be somewhere with huge cacti!





The Quilmes were an indigenous tribe who settled in the area. They fought of the Incas in the 15th century, but were ultimately unable to resist the Spaniards. The conquerers forced the surviving 2000 Quilmes to walk 1500 kilometers (about 900 miles) to a reservation outside Buenos Aires and many of them died along the way. Now the main beer of Argentina is named Quilmes.















Pottery from the ruins in the on-site museum

Travels is Argentina - Tucumán

We arrived in Tucumán to discover that there was an academic conference going on and all the hotels/hostels/etc were completely booked beginning the following day. We got the last room available for the night at the first hostel we saw, then went out in search of somewhere to stay for a couple days. After wandering around for over 3 hours, we finally found a crappy little hotel next to one that was listed in the guidebook. It was by far the worse place I´ve stayed, but at least we didn´t have to think about where to go immediately in the morning.

By now we were cranky and tired, but managed to eat some pizza and beer and feel better enough to take some photos in the Central Plaza.



It looks better at night.



Unlike most Central Plazas whose centerpiece is a man on a horse, this one had a woman. Of course, she´s fictional--Independence.



Another yellow Cathedral.



The first microbrew I´ve seen on my travels. It tasted awful, with the weird flavor of most Argentine coffees you buy in the supermarket.



If you´re not old enough to remember to flush on your own, you probably shouldn´t be traveling.



The next day, we wandered around the city a bit more and went to the park.

Broken-armed statue.



Homage to the Grandfather.



The city streets and especially peatonals were full of orange trees.

Travels in Argentina - Salta

After asking for an hour at every company in the bus station, we found that there were no seats available anywhere from Córdoba to Salta because their biggest festival of the year, la fiesta de la Virgen del Milago (the festival of the Virgen of Miracles), was happening the weekend we wanted to arrive. Annoyed, we went back into town and had lunch. Almost on accident, we found another bus office and went in asking about one to Salta. Miraculously, they had two seats available! The seat numbers were strange, 86 and 87 when usually they number up to about 20-odd, and we didn´t quite believe we were actually going until we were on the bus, but after all that and 14 hours we arrived in Salta.

Salta is a city known for its sunny and mild climate. Of course, this meant that it was cloudly the whole time we were there, except for the first few hours after we arrived. It is also well known for its Train to the Clouds, which was broken while we were there.

There was, however, the festival. We went about an hour before it started to get a good spot in front of the cathedral.



It was a good thing we arrived so early, the square was soon packed to the brim. (Rene towered over everyone and the little girl next to us told him his was super tall like a tree.)



After waiting for ages, listening to an outdoor sermon, songs by the choir, the bells ringing, the choir and the bells ringing together (which was a terrible combination) and waiting some more, finally the doors of the church opened and out came a cross. Then a small icon of the virgen.



Then the virgen herself.



Finally, Christ came out as well, but I wasn´t able to get a clear photo of him due to all the waving. The people waved at all the icons, with hankerchiefs, specially flag sold just for the occasion, and even paper towels.



We thought we could go now that the exciting parts were over, but were trapped by the sheer volume of people. No one could move for at least another hour and then only to follow the icons because all the side streets were full of people too!

The next day, all was back to normal.



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The Municipal Education Building







Street scene





Archeological Museum on the Central Plaza.



Interesting light inside the museum. This was an amazing building inside, but unfortunately the room with the display was covered in black fabric with dim lighting so I wasn´t really able to enjoy it.



Cathedral at night.



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For me, most interesting thing about Salta was all the strange sculptures.

In front of the (broken the whole time we were there, though up and running the day we left) gondola.



Ice cream boat.



In the Central Plaza.





They´re big on the see-through sculpture in Salta.





Equality



Huge and in the park.







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Since the gondola was broken, we had to walk up Cerro San Bernardo (St. Bernard´s Hill). The sign at the bottom said there were 1007 steps, but I counted 1088.



One vista along the way.



All along the route were shrines counting out the Stations of the Cross.



View from the top of the hill



We got in trouble from standing on this before I got my photo taken with it =(



San Bernardo himself.



My least favorite word in Spanish, it means lawn.



It looked like a daffadil tree.



View of the hill from the town.