We arrived in Salta tired and hungry having long ago exhausted the multiple sandwiches and snacks we had brought with us on the bus. We had expected to arrive at 7am and have the whole day ahead of us, but instead we arrived at the bus station at 2:30pm. Eric and I had a hostel booked for the night, but the two French girls did not, so they decided to tag along with us and see if there was room for them at a reasonable price at our hostel. It was only on this walk to the hostel that we thought to exchange names, despite having first met each other 40 hours before and spent 28 hours in a bus together. That might have been a small personal failing, but you can meet so many people on the road you never see again, that sometimes names aren’t that important. We’ve noticed it’s not unusual to chat with people for quite a while before asking their names, even though that would be one of the first things we asked at home.
Leah and Angela are from France and are traveling in South America for six months. They were planning to rent a car and explore the south of Salta province after a couple of days in Salta capital. We also wanted to see some of the southern region, so we briefly considered renting a car with them, but ultimately decided we wanted to save our car rental pennies for the Atacama Desert in Chile.
When we checked into our hostel and were shown to our room, we ran into Roderick who we had met at El Nomada hostel in Paraguay! Last we’d seen him, he was heading to Bolivia because he had gotten neither an entry stamp (crossing at Ciudad del Este) nor a visa for Paraguay and upon visiting the US Embassy to sort himself out was told to pay a $45 fine and given 48 hours to leave the country. Apparently, he changed his mind and went to Salta, Argentina, instead and somehow ended up at the same hostel as us despite there being dozens of hostels in Salta.
Leah and Angela were successful in getting a room in our hostel, so we wandered around the town and then decided to cook dinner together the first night. It’s amazing what a bus ride “del infierno” can do to bond people together with shared experience. That evening, Leah and Angela taught us a fun dice game which Jess won (beginner’s luck!).
The next day, Eric and Jess got up early to walk up to the top of San Bernardo hill to get a view over the city. There is a gondola system (the small four-person cabins where you would normally put your skis outside) to get to the top, but we had heard it was quite expensive and we’re not shy about a hike, so we decided to walk. It was a pleasant walk up, and the views from the top over the city of Salta were great. We drank maté and played cribbage at the top and took advantage of the small workout facility to do some push-ups and pull-ups before walking back down.
We had intended to meet up with Leah and Angela at the Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña, but rapidly discovered that all the museums in Salta are closed on Mondays. Instead, we met up with Roderick at a coffee shop and then wandered through town towards something called Neverland. We weren’t sure what it was going to be, but it turned out to be an arcade, mostly designed for kids, or at least teenagers, with many of the games being for short people.
Having nothing else to do, we bought $10 worth of credit and started playing games. We raced cars, played air hockey, shot hoops, knocked over pigs with balls, and jumped a virtual rope until our credit ran out. On the way back from our hostel, we used church steeples on the horizon to guide our path. Salta has dozens of beautiful churches with very different architecture.
The next day, we all went to the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology (cost per person: 200 pesos; $5.36). The museum exhibits the bodies of three Incan children, thought to have been sacrificed, that were discovered in 1999 at more than 22,000 feet above sea level near the Llullaillaco volcano. The bodies are approximately 500 years old (!) and are extremely well preserved due to the cold temperatures. The museum displays one body at a time, rotating them every six months, to ensure they are carefully preserved since they have to simulate conditions of low atmospheric pressure, low oxygen levels, absence of bacteria, and no sun exposure to avoid deterioration of the corpses.
Afterwards, Eric, Roderick and I caught a 1pm bus to Cafayate, the wine region in the south of Salta province.
Soon you will know almost everyone in this world.