Erin & Matt's Blog: Salta

Day 110 – Touring the markets of NW Argentina day 2 and Puppy World

We got off the cold and shonky bus and had a pleasant walk through the park to our hostel. Having breakfasted, befriending another English couple, Rhiannon and Marvin in the process, we set off to explore the town. It being Sunday most of the stores were closed, so after a quick whizz through the centre square we headed for the Sunday market. Erin’s carefully selected acquisitions on this occasion included a pair of ‘crazy bird’ earrings and some wooden llama toothpick thingies. By this stage it was midafternoon and getting pretty hot, so we skulked back to the hostel to wait for the temperature to ease.

Funky red church (Convento de San Bernardo)

Colonial architecture around the main plaza.

When it had cooled off some more I headed out for a run around the park. Sunday afternoon is obviously the time for Salta’s young and old (and canine) to hit the park. There were bands playing, children covering play equipment, couples pedalling boats around the little lake, craft stalls set up all over the place and a pet adoption tent! Recalling the special clause in our marriage contract the obliges me to immediately notify Erin if there is a playpen full of puppies in the vicinity, I headed back to the hostel to fetch her. Rhiannon came along too and I left them to coo while I finished my run.

The girls returned to the hostel a little dejected though as many of the puppies seemed much younger than the ‘required age’ that they can be taken from their mothers and children where pulling and dropping them like they were teddy bears.

That night we chatted with Rhiannon and Marvin again about our plans for north and the commune/farm they had been working on for a few months, which sounded pretty cool if we had more time.

Day 111 – I must befriend slower people

Last night before bed I had mentioned to Marvin that I was considering running up nearby Cerro 20 de Febrero. As there is a cablecar to the top Erin and Rhiannon were not particularly interested. Marvin, however had had the same idea, what’s more he had decided it would be nice to be up there for sunrise. My evening self having not properly taking into consideration the feelings of my morning self, I agreed. To make matters worse, Erin kindly informed me as we hopped into bed that Marvin gets up at 5am every morning to meditate and seemed like a very fit person!

So at 6:30 we headed out of town up the hill. We had intended to take the road to the top, rather than the stairs, but a navigational error saw us running up the stairs instead. When I had to slow to a walk about half way up Marvin kindly slowed his jog to my pace and we made it to the top in time to see the lights of Salta below. Unfortunately the weather was a bit overcast so there was no sunrise of sorts, but the red glow on the hills behind Salta was beautiful nonetheless. With slightly more spare air in our lungs we had a good chat as we jogged easily back down the road.

After breakfast we decided to move on towards Quebrada de Humahuaca and the village of Tilcara. Little adobe villages like Tilcara line a deep valley with an almost lunar feel (not that I’ve been to the moon). There were no more dormitory beds available in the place we had chosen to stay, Malka Hostel (link), but the lady kindly put us in a cabin for the same price. The hostel is up on the hill in a shady grove overlooking town, it’s quite beautiful. It was quite a puff up that small hill, as we were also experiencing our first effects of being at altitude.

The view over town from the hostel.