6 - 9 May... Salta, Argentina

Oranges grow in the shadow of Salta's Iglesia Catedral in the Plaza 9 de Julio

Matt says...

We decided to treat ourselves to one of Argentina's fantastic Coche Cama class buses for our sixteen hour journey from Mendoza to Salta. To briefly explain - travelling Coche Cama is probably the equivalent of flying club class. The coach is a huge double-decker with a toilet downstairs and video screens dotted throughout. Your seat reclines back to virtually become a bed, you have trouble touching the back of the seat in front of you even when fully stretched, the movies begin as soon as you leave your point of departure and they serve you either whisky or champagne after your evening meal. Basically, it's a perfect way to travel and makes a long road journey fly by.

So, it was a mightily refreshed pair of Fearns that arrived in Salta on Sunday lunchtime. A good job it proved to be too as we then participated in what can only be described as a 24 hour charade to purchase our onward tickets to Calama, Chile. We tried to buy the things before we left the bus station but in uncharacteristic style both of the bus companies who travel to Calama were closed. So we wandered through a picturesque town park towards the centre to find a hostel.


Iglesia San Francisco by night

Thinking the ticket offices may have been closed for siesta (usually between midday and 4pm) we ventured back through the park to the bus station but alas, the both ticket offices still remained shuttered. We managed to find a very helpful man from one of the companies, Pullman Buses, who made a few phone calls and suggested we return at 9pm to see if we could buy the tickets when a bus was due in from Calama and the driver and purser would have access to the office. After thanking him for his help we wandered a different route through the same park back to the hostel and traipsed back again at 9pm to be told about half an hour later that the computers were all shut down so it was impossible to make reservations.

Salta was, quite literally, turning out to be a walk in the park. Five of them, in fact. And it hadn't ended there.

The next morning we decided to forgo a planned day trip to many interesting spots around Salta to try and secure the damned tickets. Catching the Monday night bus was pretty crucial to our plans because of connecting with a once a week train which journeys from Calama, Chile, to Uyuni, Bolivia. So, when we arrived at the bus station we were ecstatic to see the Pullman Buses ticket booth open. Our ecstasy lasted precisely 2.461 seconds as the ticket seller informed us that although there were plenty of tickets left, it was cash only. I sensed that Lynne was almost ready to chin somenody as we both knew that we didn't have enough readies and a trip to the cashpoint was required.

"No problem," I told her cheerily. "There's a cashpoint right outside." Would that cashpoint give us any money? Would it heck as like.


The 16th century Convento de San Bernardo - home to Carmelite nuns

So (yep, you've guessed it) it was another walk through the park to town and back to secure the relevant funds and after we finally had the flamin' tickets in our hands we celebrated by (yep, you've guessed correctly again) walking back through the park to get some breakfast in town.

So, after one final walk through the unmentionable area of green grass early the following morning to get back to the bus station and board the bus, we waved farewell to Salta, a city which will remain ingrained on our brains as having loads of parks, whereas in reality, it only has one.

Time spent in Salta = 72 hours.
Walks through the same park = 10.


PS - We did have a great time in Salta apart from the above mentioned debacle. We hadn't wandered much around South America's churches and the like until that point so we did a bit of that. Also, we picked up some great Bolivia tips from Kiwi couple Sue and her nameless (we've forgotten!) husband. Cheers!