Salta Shenannigans
Trip Start
Unknown
1
9
102
Trip End
Ongoing
Salta, Northern Argentina, Argentina
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Espana v Holland and we have just enough time to drop bags, shower and off to the pub (Dutch pub) so me rooting for Espana went down like a fart in a lift. A friendly guy at reception in the hostel recommended a lovely french restaurant to eat at so we all took ourselves over the plaza to eat, we walked in and were greeted by a guy and lead to our table, it looked like we were sitting in his lounge with all the cheesy deco, we all ordered our food and waited and waited and waited then a German couple from our hostel arrived so they pulled up a seat, ordered and waited and waited. A couple of meals came out, then a couple More, then the guy came over and told Justin (who is at this point the only one without a meal) he would have to wait another 40 mins as his oven is not big enough, previously we told him to forget it. When Gabby came back from the bar she saw the guy in the kitchen making everything from scratch, washing all the dishes, looking after a crying baby and pouring all our drinks. Really funny night it was like Faulty Towers. We decided after a couple of bottles of vino we would hire a 6 seater and take a 3 day road trip to Cafayate and Cachi which pass through amazing valleys....not recommended by the guy in the hostel!
We all woke up pretty early and ran around town looking for a 6 seater, packed our overnight bags and off we went, Justin being the first driver (thats right the one that falls asleep in cars!) and Ryan was co driver. We set off heading south of Salta on route 33, now this drive is very elevated and climbs through a valley along the cliff edge with amazing views that are second to none, as you can see there are no pictures of this and the reason for that is it was we were in the clouds at -5 so we had no views at all. We stopped at a cafe on the way up and all had a hot chocolate to warm up and lone behold we met some guys a couple of us had met previously, we all had a great laugh in the cafe as it was so randomly situated. One we came over the other side glorious sun as far as we could see so we passed through Parque Nacional Las Carones, which is also know as Cactus land. The drive was amazing it took us through endless views of cactus, mountains and incredible rock formations, not formed by volcano or a glacier but movement from the earths plates, there was rocks protruding out of the ground on all angles and with lots of colors. The road and I would use the term road very loosely was just a dirt track of sand and stones that have broke away from the rocks, and we were pretty much on it for 4-5 hours. It was hilarious.
We arrived in Cahci about 6pm and it was freezing....why is the cold following me? we checked in a hostel that was on old barn so as you can imagine it was not really warm. Bags dropped and we wandered next door to grab a bottle of the finest wine Cachi has to offer and later enjoyed a really cheap steak with more wine and a guitarra playing for us. Goat is really popular here so the guys sampled some.
The following day we were up bright and early, we headed over to Cafayate via route 40 a much talked about route this time the rocks were very different in color and much more dramatic it is such a great route, every village we passed through everyone waves and when we did stop at a half way we wandered around and the locals let you walk into their yards and watch them cooking empanadas, making rugs and feeding their guinea pigs up for them to eat. Its such a laid back feel the locals have very little but they are so warm and friendly its great! En route we stopped at a bodega for some luch and a spot of wine tasting, I bought a really cheap shawl which was made of el Paco wool. We later checked in a hostel in Cafayate and all headed out for a meal in the plaza, I think it was Talent Trek nigh or something, different people get up on the stage to entertain us all throughout our meal. The guys has a hot plate full of different meats, it just kept on coming. At the end of the meal they brought us the bill and some coka to chew on so John bought some, and we all tried it, he looked like he had a small mammal stuffed in the side of his cheek, it was so funny!
It must have been all the excitement of great steak or something but my nose started bleeding so Just and I headed off earlier than the others, because we are at high altitude that could have caused it as Anne had one the following morning.
We all agreed the following day we would head out to see more rocks and John would cook us down more meat on the BBQ. We drove out and stopped by some amazing colorful rocks and we all just flend to have our own little adventures. I meditated on the top of one rock, Ryan was investigating the types of rock from the cliff edge, John sat complete with cowboy hat on and coka stuffed cheek, and Justin climbed so high he nearly fell never the less we all had a great time messing about. When we got back Justin was sick as a dog so went to bed. We had everyone in the hostel looking on enviously at out feast on the BBQ. We did aim to get up early to head back but Gabbie had been up all night sick too...possibly altitude sickness! We pretty much slept on the way back to Salta.
The following day we booked our bus to Bolivia and were sorting out our dollars when I couldnīt find my passport/card pouch anywhere. We searched the room and it was nowhere to be seen, we headed straight back to car hire company...NO, called the last hostel...NO, called the bodega...NO. When I bought a shawl at the vineyard shop I used my card and put in in the paper bag...maybe when I pulled my shawl out it may have fell out! We went straight to Salta police station to report it and they gave me a report and advised us we need to go to Buenos Aires to apply for an emergency passport and it may take up to 2 weeks....gutted we booked our 24 hour bus back to Buenos Aires, I felt so sad that we were heading back in our journey and wasting good travel time. The British Embassy were great took all my info and processed me a emergency one the following day, with this we went our for a meal to celebrate the speed of it. Just before we headed to the bus station to head back to Salta we popped to the cash point to take some money out then headed back to the hostel to check out, I asked Justin to check his credit card number for me and when he looked in his wallet...no card! We had left it in the ATM, running franticly back I explained the the security guard what had happened and he had it there, someone had handed in in....Thank God!
Eventually at the bus station and there was no bus up on the board yet there was one in one of the bays but it didn't say Salta on the front, so we waited and waited, I decided to go the desk and ask and the lady said that is your bus pulling away...Arghhhhh! She got one of the staff to chase after the bus and flag it down outside of the bus terminal, we just got on it. It took me about half an hour to calm down after that day I can tell you. Back safely at Salta now and packing for our bus our Bolivia Bonanza tomorrow. We santd at 1000meters and will be climbing to 2900meters....watch this space!
