Tales about Mountains and Numbers: Salta and Around, Argentina

Hello and welcome to F.L.O.-TV!

This time we are broadcasting live and direct from hot and humid Salta in Nortwestern Argentina!

After being sick of the party life in Mendoza, I got on the next overnight bus heading North, which hopefully brings me back to my beloved mountains. Well, the first scenery I saw when I woke up on the bus was the following: Yungas (subtropical jungle) and farmland in the valleys and snowcovered 6000 m high mountains at the horizon. Yeah, looks very promising!

I got off the bus in Salta, a picturesque colonial town which reminds of the famous towns in the sierra in Mexico. The main difference is that it is not located in a high altitude dessert, but in a subtropical valley.

Let me show you around town: Fine colonial buildings from outside

and inside,

during the day

and at night:

Those of you who have already been to Central America (probably with me) will be reminded of beautiful places such as Zacatecas, Guanajato, Oaxaca, San Christobal De Las Casas, or Antigua. You can also find the colorful markets here that make the mentioned places so charming:

There's great food at the markets, such as empandas, humitas, tamales, etc. The first night in Salta I joined a BBQ which organized by my hostel staff. Let me just give you the facts: lomo (finest filtes) as much as you can eat, 2 bread, and one salad per person for roughly five Euros. Isn't that crazy, I mean not only this incredible cheap steaks (in Germany I would have paid 100 Euros for the all the meat I ate) but also the meat to non-meat ratio in the BBQ. I will miss Argentina ;(

Besides being a stunningly beautiful colonial town, Salta also offers spectacular nature right out of town. Together with a Canadian couple I hired a small car and a local guide that showed us the way to a town called Cachi and also all the highlights on the way. When you leave Salta's valley, you quickly end up in narrow subtropical gorges, the yungas.

Then the road climbs a little, the valley opens up, and the scenery gets a little arider.

As usual when you get higher up, condors are circling above your head. I took the opportunity to ask our guide (Esteban) what condors are really capable of doing. I heard so many rumours about condors killing people, horses etc. Fact is that condors can easily kill and carry away little goats and sheeps, but Esteban has never heard of children being attacked by a condor...

At the following picture you can see me standing high above the valley (at 3300 m) and also the road leading up there. Isn't it a charming place? Another sweet mountain bike route ;)

The following picture is taken inside a small road chapel. Do you see the cigarettes? No, it's not litter! Back in the days the natives always started ceremonies with tobacco and they still do it today, just a little different ;)

The road climbed higher up to the altiplano, a dessert-like environment inhabited by guanacos, llamas, and wild donkeys. When hiking around there you should be especially careful with the donkeys, they apparently kill more people than snakes do... it doesn't seem to be a very heroic death to be killed by a donkey :) As you can see, the scenery is spectacular up there: dry dessert, rocks in all colors, and high snow-capped mountains in the background.

Just the drive itself was a lot of fun, since Esteban brought his Argentinian reggae collection :) It almost felt like being on a road trip with friends. Check out our reggae mobile cruising through the altiplano:

The vegetation up there, if there is any, is dominated by cardones - cactus-like plants. Although cardones look like cacti, they are in fact not sponges (as the latter) but related to trees.

Cardones do not grow as in the typical wild west movies, where there is a single cardon or cactus standing at the horizon. There are in fact entire forests of them. I took some time walking around the Parque Nacional Los Cardones, have a look at the loco scenery:

What a freaky scenery with the cardones and the snow-capped 6000 m high Cachi Mountains in the background, isn't it? If you examine the next picture thoroughly you will find exactly four "West Coast Signs", where are they? If you want a hint, then zoom to my hands ;)

We moved on and found quite nice shots near the road, such as llama warnings

and of course magnificient sceneries:

Finally we arrived at Cachi, a small but beautiful town whose name means "salt" in Quechua (the ancient Inca languaga). In Cachi, all the old colonial houses around the main plaza are painted in white or in pastel colors, which sets the town in perfect harmony and accord with its surrounding and the blue skies.

What can you find in Cachi? Lots of artwork, handcrafts, stones carved by the Incas etc. Quick question: what was the Incas' favourite animal? For the answer take a look at the stone carving:

A llama, isn't it? Or what do you say, oll' pal?

To make it short, Cachi is a beautiful small Andean town set against picturesque mountains. A perfect place to hang out and enjoy the harmony of architecture and nature.

And of course to enjoy Cachi's famous local product - chilli:

There is also some hiking around Salta's yungas down in the valley. But believe me it is tropically hot and humid down there:

I hiked up Salta's local mountain, Cerro San Bernardo. Take a close look at the next picture, can you see the spiders everywhere?

No? Well, then you might need another closer picture. Can you see them now?

These spiders are literally everywhere and almost reach the size of my hand. Spooky isn't it? Apparently there are also some really dangerous snakes around here. Luckily, I didn't meet any of them ;)

I just stayed a short time in Salta since the place I actually want to go is on the Chilean side of the mountains - the Atacama dessert. Nevertheless, Salta was a cool and relaxing stop on my route, where I found a picturesque city in an even more beautiful surrounding.