Salta, Argentina

From Chile to Argentina

March 10, 2008

- The Eagles

It was a relief to finally be leaving San Pedro; it was too touristy and expensive for my tastes. While I was there I met a couple, an American man and his Chilean wife who had returned to San Pedro after first visiting 33 years ago, they even stayed in the same hostel, which is still owned by the same woman. From everything they said, it sounds like San Pedro was an amazing place 33 years ago, unfortunately not so much anymore.

Past San Pedro towards the border with Argentina there are essentially no traces of life, it is so desolate that the immigration matters are actually handled in San Pedro rather than at the border 160 km away. The scenery consists mostly of barren mountains and empty plains. On the Argentinian side of the border there is a customs post but little else for quite a ways. There were a few random houses here and there and they actually had solar panels to provide electricity, almost surely provided through government support. The scenery continued with salt flats and small lakes complete with vicunas and birds. As the road continued it began to drop in elevation and the desolation of the high altitude zone changed into canyons with colored rocks and hillsides of all different shades, from reds and greens, all the way to purple. After Pumamarca the scenery ended and we reached Jujuy, a dull and boring city about 90 minutes from Salta. The rest of the way to Salta was via a four-lane highway through an industrial zone with nothing of interest.

Salta itself was pleasant enough with a very European feel to it. There is a very interesting museum on the discovery of mummified Inca children sacrificed on top of Volcan Llullaillaco. The body of a fifteen year old girl that is on display is perfectly preserved due to the -20C temperature and dry air at the top of the 22,100 foot inactive volcano. The prefect condition of the body is almost haunting, as it looks so life-like that if you thawed out the remains she would come back to life. It is amazing to think how the Incas could climb a mountain so high with only what was available to them at the time, none of the high-tech mountaineering gear used to today. There is another museum on the history of the northern part of Argentina with many interesting artifacts from the pre-Inca times all the way up to the time of independence and the present day.

I was looking forward to taking the famous Tren a las Nubes (train to the clouds) but unfortunately that has not re-opened yet despite being scheduled to be operational. With no public transport past San Antonio de las Cobres I couldn´t continue south to the small and extremely isolated town of Antofagasta de la Sierra to see the interesting high desert scenery. Instead, I will have to settle for visiting Chilecito before continuing south to Mendoza.