We arrived in Salta early in the morning after a sleepless bus journey. The first thing that hit us as we waited for our bags was the cold. Salta lies at 1,200m so it´s cold in the evenings and really hot during the day. We breakfasted and checked into our hostel and then went to explore the town. The main square was very pretty with a large pink cathedral and candle street lamps. We tried to go to the Archealogical Museum but found it was closed on Mondays. Instead we walked in the direction of a another church and a convent and then to the bus station to book our tickets to La Quiaca. After this we decided to go for lunch at a cafe near our hostel so walked in the blazing sun back into town. One very tasty and cheap steak down, we headed in the direction of the shopping centre in search of hiking boots for when we go to Peru and climb Machu Picchu. We had a brief stop at the arcade for Wass to satisfy his "Time Crisis 3" obsession of late and then found some familiar brands at overly familiar prices. Another walk through the hot sun back into the centre. We wandered down the main shopping streets that sold mostly tat and were crowded with popcorn vendors. That evening we walked towards the trendy strip of restaurants and bars where there was also a small alley of artesan shops where Wass purchased himself a mate cup and straw the utensils used to brew and drink the Argentinians drink of choice, yerba mate tea . Then we had dinner in a funky cafe with records for placemats and pictures of old American stars. I sampled my first Indian curry since leaving England which certainly could not compete with any British curry. Then we powerwalked home through the cold.
The next day we went up the city gondola to check out the views. At the top we feasted on steak sandwich and strawberry milkshake and basked in the sun. After finding very little else apart from views and a few market stalls, we headed back down to go to the artist´s market on the other side of the city. We then walked for what felt like an eternity in the direction of the market which was off the map so we didn´t exactly know how far it was going to be and stopped to buy some fruit and then caught the bus 6 blocks on the advice of a local man. Finally we made it and looked around for the next hour, browsing mate cups, llama jumpers and weavings. We left empty handed and went back to the hostel to recuperate. We went back to the bar strip for dinner to a restaurant that does live music but we arrived too early and it was totally empty bearing in mind we were there at 8pm! .
On the Wednesday we went back to the museum. All of the exhibits were in Spanish so Wass lost interest pretty rapidly as I slowly read and tried to understand each plaque. The museum had various pieces which were part of the dowry of three child sarifices discovered in the Argentinian Andes, such as combs, pots, tunics, fetish dolls and weaving tools. There were some very detailed gold pieces, such as miniature llamas and hairpins. The dolls and llamas were supposed to represent important parts of Inca life. Then we moved into the most interesting room where one of the child mummies was on display still with all of her hair, teeth and clothes. They were all perfectly preserved for 500 years because of the high altitude although one had been struck by lightening at some point. I was creeped out but Wass was having a close look as he didn´t believe the mummy was real. The we went through some more rooms which were less interesting and were about the Andean region and climate. Wass jumped out of his skin at one part of the exhibition. There was a mirrored panel in the wall which he was pressing his nose against to see inside. Then he saw the button beside the mirror to illuminate the exhibition, pressed it and was suddenly face to face with an open-mouthed and very rotting mummy. We left the museum and searched the town some more for hiking boots but to no avail. I bought myself a very fashionable llama jumper to keep out the cold on our way to Bolivia. That evening we had a traditional highlands meal of lentil and pumpkin stews and then dressed up warmly for our night bus to La Quiaca. We boarded at midnight and had a sleepless night as we ascended 2000m with the driver blaring out his music and putting the lights on during the stops throughout the night. We arrived at 7am in La Quiaca and it was so bloody cold we could hardly put our extra layers on for violently shivering. It was dark and dusty and had that felling of remoteness. We got a taxi to the border and then spent the next half an hour in the cold waiting in the immigration queue.
Once we passed to the Bolivian side there were loads of indigenous people milling around with babies and parcels tied to their backs with cloth. There were a few money exchanges but apart from that, you really wouldn´t know you were a few steps from the Argentinian border. We got another taxi to the train station where we had read up in our guidebook you can buy tickets to get to Uyuni. We arrived at 7.15am Bolivian time knowing that the station was not open until 8am. Nonetheless, the waiting room was already half full and we were given ticket number 14 in the queue. We spent the next 45 minutes waiting in the cold bare room as it slwoly filled with locals and other travellers looking to get the few tickets available on the train that only runs twice weekly. A woman came round selling hot drinks and bread for which we were both very grateful and I had my first expereince of Bolivian tea with milk. A hot cup of milk with a tea bag! The ticket office finally opened, by which time the station was positively heaving but the ticket man was in no hurry. After almost another hour we got our executive tickets to Uyuni for that afternoon.
After this we went in search of gloves and blankets. We both got some fetching alpaca mittens and Wass got a Rugrats fleece blanket, a small rucksack and some sunglasses which haven´t managed to last up to this blog update . Then we found a cafe advertising pizza and sandwiches where we went into to kill time. We sat down on the sofa and started on our first cup of tea, still cold and tired, although unaffected by the altitude. The owner turned up and seated herself in front of the bad Spanish crime shows playing on the telly and gave us more tea. Then she handed us some notebooks. We opened them up to find notes written in every hand; English, French, Spanish, German, Norwegian, Dutch, Isreali, Japenese, Korean... the list goes on - all thank yous from travellers waiting for trains and buses out of Villazon with no other place to go, the most recent being just two days before. We sampled the pizza which was highly recommended by many of the people and then we went in search of a blanket for me. I had a comical dialogue with a shopkeeper after first choosing an orange and blue dolphin fleece blanket, only to spot a Mickey and Minnie one. I went to pick it up and he said "Es para los niños" It´s for kids so I asked, "Es mas pequeño?" Is it smaller? . "No, pero es para los niños." "Pero me lo gusta!" But I like it! "Señorita, es para los niños." Cue the same exchange about three times more until he finally understood I like the one with Disney on it!
