Visiting Salta Argentina made our $160 USD per person reciprocity fee worth it. It was our fifth time in five months entering Argentina.
We stayed in Salta for three nights during our overland tour. Part of the itinerary was to camp there. But when we got to Salta, we were all in for a surprise. We were expecting warm weather just like Brazil, where we had traveled from. Instead, it was absolutely freezing. Not only was it so cold, but we were told that those three nights we were there was the coldest the locals have had in a long time. It even snowed!
So instead of camping, the campsite had cabins that we had to pay extra for. There was enough space in one cabin for five people to sleep in. And one building had two cabins. It was really funny because the walls were so thing that we could have a whole conversation with someone in the other cabin within the same building without having to talk any louder than normal.
Also, the cabins only had cold water. So on top of it being freezing in Salta, we had to take cold showers. I have such an appreciation for a hot shower now after experiencing this.
Even though it was so cold that you just wanted to stay in your bed all day, we took a taxi on both days to the center of Salta to explore.
To get a good view of the city of Salta, we took the teleférico or the cable cars to the top of a hill. The view was nice, but really we didn’t stay for long because it was just too cold (being from Florida, our winter is nothing compared to this!).
There are a lot of old buildings in Salta. A famous one is St. Francis or San Francisco church, in the first picture above. I have visited so many churches during our RTW in South America, most of which I’ve forgotten how they look like because they all start looking the same. But St. Francis church’s color is so unique. (The most unique church we’ve visited was a yellow, purple and red church- an interesting combination- in Chiloe, Chile.)
As I’ve said previously, we’ve been to like 18930482 churches (it feels like) but I have to say I was impressed with another church in Salta, Catedral Basílica de Salta. Check out the ceiling.
And the inside:
It could also be I was impressed because it was really cold, so going into the churches was an escape from the cold!
But really, the floor was cool. It was kind of like an optical illusion, leading your eyes to the front of the church.
Another building was Salta’s legislative building. We were walking towards the building and were about to take a picture when this giant red tour bus appeared and parked right in front! So we waited until all the tourists got out, took their pictures, went back in and then drove away. And here’s the pic:
Other than old buildings, remember, this is Argentina, so I had to go to Havanna, my favorite cafe in South America! Since it was so cold, I ordered tea. I like how they served the tea with this ‘spoon’ filled with the tea leaves.
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