After leaving Cordoba, my final stop in Argentina was to be the colonial city of Salta. Immediately I was able to put my improved Spanish into practice, first with an incredibly friendly taxi driver (especially considering my bus had arrived about 5.30a.m.!) and then with the Spanish speaking crowd at the hostel. Here, for once the language around the communal dinner table in the hostel was definitely not English!
My memories of Salta will probably not be of the abundance of colonial architecture, but instead of the natural sciences museum which was stuffed to the gills (literally) with the widest possible array of stuffed animals from around South America. It was similar to the science museum James, Steve, Chris and I had visited in Bariloche on the previous trip – so I thought it only right that I leave the same juvenile, armadillo based comment in the guestbook as a tribute!!!
Leaving Salta I needed to cross the Andes to arrive in the Chilean town of San Pedro de Atacama, so it was to be my first taste of real high altitude on the trip so far. Unfortunately, I didn’t take it all that seriously as I thought we’d
Volcan Lasker
Our motley crew that made it to the summitjust be scooting across in a bus – hence having one too many lagers the night before leaving! What I hadn’t reckoned on was that good old Argentina would stick their immigration point at the highest pass on the journey at 4,600m, (for reference Mount Blanc is a shade higher at 4,800m), and then they would then make us wait for 2 hours in the bus, followed by another hour in a queue. This was unfortunately far too much for my slightly hungover body and I ended up fainting in the customs hall! Not a good start to what is going to be at least two months at high altitude!! Special thanks to the Italian hippy, who – although certainly lacking in soap – he wasn’t lacking in kindness as he helped me to a seat and somehow sequestered a sachet of sugary jam to help my body on the way to recovery!!
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