In this leg of our grand South American tour we landed in a place called Salta, it's in the North of Argentina near borders with Chile and Bolivia, it's a subtropical highland climate, meaning it's very dry most of the time except in the rainy season (Dec-Mar) when it experiences large thunder storms. The altitude in the city is around 1200 metres and the sun during the day is pretty intense; like Santiago it's kind of in a bowl surrounded by mountains which means the heat of the day lingers well into the evenings.
Our hotel was right in the centre of town and ideally placed for exploring the many old buildings, parks, churches, markets and museums in the city. Our rooms felt very "Spanish" in style in fact the whole city looks very Spanish, not at all like the more "European" style metropolises to the South. We arrived in the early evening and didn't really need food so we took advantage of our "welcome bottle of wine" (a lovely high-altitude Malbec) some cheese and bread then turned in early in readiness for a big trip the following day, we were visiting some high altitude salt flats.
The following morning we were greeted by our guide for the day and we got into a mini-bus with some fellow tourists and headed out for the mountains. The place we were visiting was called Salinas Grandes where due to altitude, sunshine and wind there are huge salt flats (as far as the eye can see) Every winter the flats fill with water and then over the long dry summer they crystalize into hard rock-salt for mile after mile which is then harvested to extract Salt (and Lithium which ends up in batteries). To get to them we had to drive over several mountain passes, one of which was 4170m high, we stopped there for photos, I think this is the highest I've ever been without being in an aircraft, the air was pretty thin and without any acclimatization it was prudent not to linger too long!
When we got to the flats we all got out and had a wander around, the UV being reflected from the salt was brutal, like snow almost all the radiation bounces off the salt and straight up into your eyes, sunglasses were essential and we couldn't stay there more more than 30 minutes or so without taking refuge in the mini-bus! In the photo above you can see a panorama of the flats and next to it a close up of how the crystals look underfoot, an amazing place, very alien, almost like being on another planet!
On the way back from the flats we stopped off at a little village called "Purmamarca", it was a welcome stop and chance to take a look round the local craft markets nestled between the mud buildings and to grab a hot meal for lunch!
It was a fascinating place, set at an altitude of 2400m and shadowed by a fabulous striated rock formation called the "seven colours" I snapped a picture of one of the streets in Purmamarca (left) and the coloured rocks (right) In the middle was my lunch, Llama stew, yes it had to be done. I did enquire what wine to have with Llama but the waiter just gave me a bottle of beer, which was probably for the best at that altitude! Amusingly I enquired of ChatGPT later when back at the hotel and the response was "A full bodied Malbec, if you're going to eat Llama then you might as well have a wine that spits back!" Actually it tasted fine, very much like lamb..
The next day, and back in Salta we decided to explore the city. The first stop was the museum of high altitude archeology, this was one of the highlights of visiting the region. Inside the museum are the "Children of Llullaillaco", Inca children who were sacrificed over 500 years ago atop the Llullaillaco volcano (22,057ft) The children (of high status) were drugged with alcohol and coca (we know this because of analysis of their hair), then taken to the top of the mountain where they were entombed, alive.
The children obviously died, probably of the temperature (it's -20 Celsius up there!) and due to the intense cold and dry atmosphere were perfectly preserved, their bodies were discovered in 1999 by archeologists and bought back down to a lab in Salta where they continue to be preserved in a specially designed de-humidified cold-store. Only one child is on display at any one time and photography is prohibited so here's a stock photo of the child that we saw.
It's a small boy (El Nino), around 4-5 years old who was buried along with two slightly older girls. I must say that the state of preservation was amazing, you could see individual hairs on the skin and manicured finger nails, all on a person that took his last breath when England was living under the Tudors!
Later in the afternoon we took a cable car up to the top of one of the smaller hills surrounding the city and took a light lunch while gazing down at the incredible view, I snapped a picture (see below) but these "pano" pictures never really do the landscape justice.
It was our last day in Salta, the following morning we would be heading back to the airport and a shuttle flight to our next destination, however, we did have one last meal in the city (see below) It was delicious and like most places in South America very cheap compared with home, the steaks were tender and tasty and the high-altitude wine was intense and flavoursome (note the cute little empanadas!).
We loved Salta a fascinating place with a rich history, we could easily have stayed longer but the Jungle was calling..
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