Salta to BA

I was very sorry to leave Salta, a city that I genuinely liked, in its rather chaotic way (an angle of the main Plaza, above). This morning I had one more church to visit, the Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de la Viña, built between 1873-1908, and a curious, but attractive pale blue.

There was something rather Portuguese about the tiles, and even the interior decoration - and then I found that the first church on this spot had been built around 1630 to house an image of N.S. de la Candelaria that had been brought from Coimbra, so maybe the influence lingered.

It looked good from the back, too.

Then to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which was tiny, but very well hung.  I especially liked this portrait by Amadeo Gras of Maria Josefa Goyechea de la Corte Arias, who was a revolutionary woman in the 1800s (and is that a harmless mole, or is it more sinister? for obvious reasons I find myself worrying about her cheek ...).

and then there was this great view of Salta in 1854, as it shuffled towards becoming a regional capital.

And one last view of contemporary Salta, for no reason other than this was a block before my hotel, so I got to know it well.  It doesn't seem terrifically likely that I'll be back, but I'd like to ...

And now, back in Buenos Aires for one more full day, tomorrow.  Or to be exact, not BA, but a leafy old suburb, San Isidro, full of C19th mansions, and I'm staying in one of them, built around a courtyard - it's completely out of the way from the big city's bustle, and impressive not just as a building, but as a charmingly run small hotel (Hotel del Casco, if you're heading this way).

Though they don't have a restaurant, they do have room service - or rather, they will serve you your dinner in your room, or in the Winter Garden (there's a Summer Garden, too) - both of them conservatories.  I could happily move in here ...

 

headed southwest

From the later ninteenth century right up until the 1990s, Argentina had a wonderful railway network: first transporting agricultural produce, and then many passengers, as well: one could hop on it and get to Chile, or Bolivia ... But then it was nationalized, and fell apart, and now there are a handful of local trains, and commuter trains near Buenos Aires, and that's it.  Doubtless I'd have been traveling quite differently forty years ago.  This is the station at Alemanía, which according to our guide (more on him at the end) served a station on a line inaugurated by the English, and then worked on by people who emigrated from Germany after WW2, and was closed in the 1990s.  However, a bit of digging around shows quite a few problems with that history - not least that the station shut in 1971.  And the name seems to be much older, possibly much much older ...  Anyway, it's beautifully situated, near the beginning of a long, tall, spectacular gorge, the Quebrada de las Conchas.

I was to regret not having had one of these tortillas, later ...

Disconcertingly, a lot of the landscape today looked like New Mexico, which made me homesick.

First major stop was at La Garganta del Diablo - the Devil's Throat - formed by water tumbling into this bit of rock over millennia.  It gave one ample opportunity to observe standard Argentinian tourist practices, most of which involve taking selfies - sometimes with the national flag.

Or maybe they'll just take a photo of a tortilla in front of the rock formation.

Maybe they'll have brought a sticker with them to slap on ... a waste bin.

On to El Anfiteatro:

which apparently has wonderful acoustics: a couple of local buskers were demonstrating this.

Lots more rocks, and stops, and viewpoints ...

and then at the far end we emerged into wine country,

with a very instructive brief tour of the wine making process, the French oak barrels, etc, by the manager (and the obligatory tiny sips of wine: a very passable Malbec, and two instantly forgettable wines).

More autumnal vineyards,

and Cafayate, very sleepy at this time of the year, and clearly dominated by wine, though alas the ice cream shop that specializes in wine flavored ice cream was closed.

There was, however, a lot of excellent wall art.  These lines are by Eduardo Galleano, the radical Uruguayan, who presumably didn't have AI in mind, but I might just print this out and put it on my office door.

And then back again, with the landscape still looking like NM, or maybe Utah.

These book-an-excursion days through a local company (or via Viator, which acts as a kind of middleman), are very hit or miss when it comes to the guides themselves.  The last two days the guides - both women - were fabulous.  Today, Ignacio - the only male guide I've had on this trip - was very indifferent: he couldn't be bothered all that much with his busload, except to take people's photographs against scenic backgrounds.  He took us in Cafayate to some dismal tourist joints - a large store full of very dusty goods, and I should have known better than to go to the lunch place where we "had a reservation," although tamale was tasty.  It was a glum mini-van load of Argentinians, plus one supercilious American photo-poseur (maybe Dominican Republic in origin - he spoke fluent Spanish, but most definitely not with an Argentinian accent), and a Brazilian, and me.  The guide makes all the difference, and this one didn't come up to the mark - I think we all caught his lugubriousness. Also the driver mysteriously had a tape of Seventies hits: "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?", "Hotel California," "Imagine" - which was highly disconcerting - not least because I was once in a mini-van in Northern Thailand for twelve hours that had one tape - Creedance Clearwater - and for three minutes I thought fate might be repeating itself.

 

headed west

This is me, delighted that an expert mini-van driver was the one to bring us up this road - it had more hairpin bends than I can begin to count (more coca leaves, though I think we only went up to about 10, 000 feet today).  Stunning scenery: first forest, then the altiplano: impossible to photograph, at least from a moving vehicle, and convey the full scope and magnificence of it all - and completely unspoilt (no lithium mines in these parts: that would be yesterday).  The road, I should add, is a dirt road.

It seemed to be something of a local food tour: we kept stopping (a) for the view (b) so that we could stock up on local delicacies like llama salami (which sounds like something from a children's book.  I did try a little piece: it was regrettably tasty).

And then into the Cardones National Park, which is full of, yes, cardones.  Not sure what they are in English ... not exactly cacti, but not not ... stretching as far as the eye can see ...

More viewpoints, more food for sale;

more cardones;

and then it was as though I'd space-traveled and gone to New Mexico: we were in the chile capital of Argentina.  I can only imagine they export a lot, since so much of their food is so bland.

More chiles drying in the sun, in an Abiquiu-like setting.

Cachi was a really lovely little C18th colonial town - very peaceful, and a long way from anywhere,

with time, for once, to sit and draw in the plaza,

and visit the very simple church,

Then back the way we came.  I'd seen several red-bedecked shrines on the way up, and wondered why. Remember Gauchito Gil, last seen on the back of a food truck in Bariloche, the Argentinian Robin Hood?  They are all shrines to him!

We went on a Cardones Interpretive Loop, and the subjects were waiting for their portraits.

And look who crossed our path!  Guanacos!  I also, very fleetingly, saw what can only have been a condor, and a lot of blue and yellow macaws by the chile drying spot.  But nature seems to have been very incidental in the minds of people in the van to food.  They had a very lively conversation about the best ways to cook quinoa.

The long and winding road, again.

And at our final pit-stop ... how could one eat them, however delicious and healthy their meat?

Just look at those eyelashes.  I wanted to bring this little guy home.

Evening view: rocks, river and goats.

And finally, one of the best meals I've had (no llamas involved): some pimiento flavored goats cheese, and a jar of big white beans marinated in vinegar and oil and spices and chile - bought from the stall I photographed above.  It may lack a tidy table setting, but I'm writing this ...

 

Headed north

An amazing day's outing, if a long one, to the Quebrada de Humahuaca, north of Salta, and very mountainous, and conspicuously more indigenous in its population (7.8%) than anywhere else I've been.  Above, a boy and his young llama; below, some stripey rock formations just before Purmamarca.

The entrance to Purmamarca (there are check points everywhere in this country);

the very lovely and simple church of Santa Rosa - founded in the C17th, though this building dates from the C18th;

street scene in Purmamarca.

And on to Tilcara: street art;

the town square;

a street ...

and after that, when we stopped in Humahuaca, I did the unthinkable, and left my cell phone in the van when we transferred to small cars to go to the summit where one can see the amazing rock formations of the Serranía del Hornocal.  I mean - how could I?? (though I suspect I could very well remember them better, as a result).  It was a long and rough ride up to 14,250 ish feet, with us chewing coca leaves against altitude sickness - I usually get a headache at 13,000 feet, and didn't, so I guess the worked.

Then back down to Humahuaca:

Then, driving back, a stunning visit (no photos allowed inside) to Uquia and its church: inside are one of the few complete series of Arquebusier Angels in the Andean colonial world (aka depictions of angels with guns, and in Spanish colonial uniform) - I've been fascinated by this genre ever since I saw such paintings in Denver Art Gallery.

This is one of the most meta photos I've ever taken: goats crossing the Tropic of Capricorn (that may not actually be true, since it shifts northwards by about 15 meters a year, due to changes in the sun's axis.  But hey, we got out of the van to see a marker for the T of C, and a huge sundial, so officially this is the line that delineates the boundary between the tropics and the southern temperate zone).

On the right, a California sweatshirt, on the young woman filling up her thermos that doubtless has mate leaves in it.  I realize why I'm so wary of mate: it's because the last time I had it was on an island on Lake Titikaka. and it - or rather, presumably, the water used to make it - gave me giardia, which was ... uncomfortable, for an age.

Overlooking Maimará - or rather, overlooking cemeteries outside Maimará - this gives a sense, in miniature, of the rock formations I can't show you: these are known as the Painter's Palette.

and then the clouds started to roll in - here, above a Saturday afternoon soccer game.

Today reminded me so much of the kind of travel I did thirty years plus ago, and it was brilliant - but, long.  And off again tomorrow!