A sojourn in Salta

So I know I said San Pedro felt a million miles away from Bolivia, but it was still a dusty desert town. Arriving into Salta, Argentina, was like arriving into a modern European city. The architecture, the shops, the people - everything felt familiar. It was so modern they even had an Etam! (ahem).

I didn’t do a huge amount in Salta. Partly because I went out on the first night, got home at 5am and was a bit of a wreck the next day (I can’t handle it like I could in my 20's!). And partly because I had to do some tedious passport admin. It’s a long and convoluted story, but the bottom line is that my passport is almost full and I’ve had to send it back to the UK to be renewed. I may be in Argentina for longer than originally planned... but I think there are worse places to get stuck for a while!
 
On the Sunday, I did manage to take a day trip to the small village of Cachi, about 4 hours from Salta. Half of the fun of going to Cachi is getting there: the road from Salta passes through some incredible landscapes, including zig-zagging up the “Cuesta del Obispo” (Bishop’s Pass) where you ascend 1000m in altitude in around 30 minutes. The change in climate is also dramatic. As we ascended the Bishop’s Pass it became increasingly cold and foggy and there was almost no visibility at the top, but as we passed over the crest of the mountain, we found a deep, clear blue sky and scorching hot sunshine waiting for us on the other side! We descended into Los Cardones National Park, which was full of cacti, with a backdrop of beautifully-coloured, rippling mountains.

The Bishop's Pass: pretty chilly!

Sunshine in the Los Cordones National Park

Glaciers on the horizon

Cachi itself was a small, quiet village and there wasn’t much to do apart from wander around, enjoy a traditional Argentinian lunch (empanadas followed by stuffed pepper... mmm!) and try to find shady spots to escape from the relentless heat! But it was a really nice day out all the same.

A quiet street in Cachi

The village church

The next day I moved on to Cafayate… a *wine region* (woohoo!) in the Northern part of Argentina, around 4 hours from Salta by bus.