Tarija (Bolivia) and Salta (Argentina) 24 -30 April

Tarija and Salta 24 - 30 April 

Monday 24 April slept well for our first night in Tarija though our bed was very firm. I head out to find a bakery and return with breakfast provisions, having met one very odd man and a couple of persistent beggars en route.

We go for a walk to explore the city - it has attractive buildings with narrow streets. and a square with palms and a fountain.

Tuesday 25 April Out in the morning to the nearby bus station…. which turns out to be the 'old' bus station which has become a second hand furniture market. The 'new' (current) bus station is six kilometres out of the city;  fortunately the company that runs a service from Tarija in Bolivia to Salta in Argentina has a small office near the old bus station so we're able to buy tickets there - about £47 each which isn't bad to cover 500 Kms or so.

Back at the apartment at lunch time we watch a live stream of a seminar in London (early evening) about the importance of renewable energy - one speaker very pro (Jonathan Porritt a prominent Green), one in the middle as an investor, and the third speaker very much for oil but inclined to over use his analogies and be pessimistic about the rate of development of new technology.

Tuesday 26 April have breakfast and pack up. The chap on the reception for the apartment block declines to look after our bags (I think on account of shift/ personnel changes) so we hail a taxi in the street and schlep out of town to the new bus terminal;   fortunately the taxis are on a fixed tariff of 20 bobs (£2.30) so it's not expensive. 

Leave our rucksacks at an 'equipaje' (left luggage) room and get another fixed tariff taxi back to the city centre.  

To the post office to send a birthday card to the UK (I'm pessimistic about its' safe arrival) and then to the Gattopardo on the main square for lunch. 

There's some sort of political meeting going on in the plaza, complete with fire crackers, but it's all dispersed by the time we leave.

Walk out of town to visit a look out or 'mirador' which is shaped like a wine glass.

As we get towards it a woman tells us that she's been there and it's closed for lunch (of course -  everything, apart from restaurants and small shops/ kioskos, shuts for at least 2 hours at lunch time) so we visit the Museo Nacional Paleontológico Arqueológico instead….at the same time as a bunch of five year olds on a school trip. We hang back and are picked up by a member of museum staff who is keen to show us around, (and, maybe, to practice his English?).

But he's knowledgeable and tells us more about the mostly vegetarian, but definitely big, former residents of the area. There's also a section about the earlier human locals which we enjoy.

Taxi back to the bus station which has lots of echo-y shouting of destinations eg ' La Paz, La Paz, La Paz';   there are about thirty bus companies at this bus station so competition is fierce. We leave for Salta, Argentina at 7.30 pm, through the bus station gates, after paying the 2.50 bob departure tax, and we're on the road. The conductor comes round with a meal pack (sandwich of cheese and the pinkest processed meat ever, some chocolate type biscuits and a toffee) and a soft drink. Then he gives out blankets. We're in 'cama' (lie back) seats so doze well until the Bolivia / Argentina border which we reach about midnight.   

Lights on, get off the bus, pick up your bags and see the bags through the X-ray. All good but not sure if we're still in Bolivia or are now in Argentina…bags back on bus, we're back in bus. Five minutes up the road we get off the bus again (it's a tropical evening) and into a queue. Very slowly through Bolivian (exit) passport control and into a queue again… for Argentina (entry) passport control, both of which are in the same room and 3 yards apart. C'mon guys it's not post-Brexit Dover on a Bank holiday. To process one bus and maybe three cars through customs and immigration takes an hour and a half of my beauty sleep!!

Wednesday 27 April    Nooo, too early, especially as we've lost an hour (Argentina is an hour ahead of Bolivia). We arrive at Salta bus station at about 7.00 am (6.00 am Bolivia time). But it's Argentina, nice cafés and places to sit. We have a coffee and a media luna (croissant) then get a taxi into town - taxi driver doesn't seem to know our address but we make it to a shopping precinct nearby. Proper shops, a big supermarket, cafes! How the shops survive with over 100% inflation in Argentina I don't know.   Have a coffee and sit in the mall - at 10.00 am everything comes to life - the fountains come on, the public loos are opened, music plays and the shops unlock their doors.   

We walk to our one bedroom apartment to rendezvous with the lovely cleaner, Gaby, so that we can leave our bags.   We walk into the city centre;   there are buses, obvs, but to use them you have to buy a card and load it with cash and the card is only usable in Salta (whereas the travel card in Mendoza can be used in Buenos Aires). So we walk about 2 miles to the central plaza which has very attractive post colonial buildings. Stop for a couple of beers and admire the very pink Catedral Basílica de Salta.  No, we can't get into it,  as it's shut for lunch....

A number of street vendors wandering around, offering knock off (we assume) perfumes, small packets of tissues and socks. Many, many sock sellers! Walk back to the apartment for supper and an early night.

Thursday 28 April after breakfast we walk from the apartment to the park where we can take the Teleferico from the city to the top of one of the hills that surround the city, the Cerro San Bernardo.

Certain amount of queuing and shuffling around and then we're on board our cabin for about 10 minutes - great views of the city and hills. 

Wander around at the top, browse the souvenir shop and have a lemonade at the café - lemonade made with fresh lemons and a herb I can't identify. Not really sure about the flavour.

Back down again and walk a mile or so to the 'Soho' restaurant for a late lunch - Soho, New York not London! 

Note that the menus have no prices on them, I'm guessing because inflation means prices keep changing. Back to the apartment, skipping dinner in favour of a glass or two of wine.

Friday 29 April. Tomorrow we're picking up a rental car from the airport - but have to get ourselves to the airport. Try calling the car rental but none of the numbers we have will pick up. Spot that the rental company, Fit, have an office in the city so we head there - just another 2 mile walk, passing some attractive buildings. 

They're happy for us to pick up the car from the city centre depot so that's a problem solved.  

To the Museum of Fine Arts (Museo de Bellas Artes) in the afternoon - we're the only customers and it's not a big display. We have our usual inconclusive debate about whether some of the exhibits are 'craft' or 'art'.  

Longish walk back to the apartment, calling into the local supermarket for butter, wine etc and picking up an expensive sour dough loaf from a nearby bakery. I enjoy the 'flavours of the world' section of the supermarket that includes Heinz tomato ketchup and Bon Maman jam. 

But I'm shocked at tinned Brussel Sprouts for the equivalent of £4.33 a tin 🤔.

Saturday 30 April John sets off at 9.30 am to walk to the car rental office and I finish packing and move the bags out to the hall by the lift (we're on the third floor). Gaby the cleaner, turns up about 10.00 am, which is when we're due to vacate, but is happy for me to hang around. She tells me not to worry about the embarrassment of empty bottles in the kitchen - we couldn't see anywhere to dispose of them. Briefly discuss her taste in music, who she's going to vote for in the forthcoming governor elections and where John and I are going next.

John arrives about 10.30 am in the rented Peugeot 208 and we load the car, call in at the supermarket for 6 litres of water and set off north on Ruta 9. Fair to say that Argentinian drivers are in a class of their own - double yellow lines down the middle of the road are there as an aide to overtaking rather than preventing. Or put your wheels on or over the line to use as a guide. Use of indicators is a bit random, mainly it's turning on the hazard lights to say "I'm about to stop. Or turn. Or do something else".     Speed limit (we think 100 or 110 kph on the open road) cheerfully ignored - tho' from time to time signs for 40 or 60 kph pop up along the open road, which we cheerfully ignore.

Google maps takes us on some curious detours off the main road, but over the years we've learned not to question Google map's instructions. The trip to Humahuaca is about 265 Kms in all but we take a detour and stop at the small town of Purmamarca en route to admire the Hill of Seven Colours created by different layers of marine sediments, and lake and river movements.   

Have a soft drink (it's very hot today) and a quick look at some of the market stalls then back in the car to finish the journey.   

Arrive safely in Humahuaca and follow the instructions to our accommodation on the edge of town.