shoefry

*** Okay, you caught us. We have returned from the big trip, but we have been very busy trying to get back into the swing of things.  These last few posts are a little (ok, a lot) late, but we still want to share the great time that we had.***

Arriving in Salta, we immediately saw the difference between Northern and Southern Argentina. The North began to remind us more and more of Bolivia, a country we loved very much, and it was a little less like Europe. It is not that we do not like Europe, but certain parts of Argentina are missing that special Latin flair that we had come to enjoy so much over the last few months.

Our first stop in Salta was to the gondola which whisked us to the top of San Bernardo Mountain for great views of the surrounding area.

Riding the Gondola.

The views were bountiful, and we could see that we had a lot to explore. Salta is chockfull of colorful churches, interesting museums, and busy plazas.

Salta.

If the views alone are not enough for you, they have created their own little Iguazu Falls to explore. It seems a little out-of-place to have these concrete waterfalls on this mountain top, but we still enjoyed them. At this point, we hadn’t been to Iguazu Falls yet, but we hoped they were going to be a little better than this. (Hint of what’s to come: Iguazu was AMAZING.)

Raging Waterfalls.

We visited two very bright churches while in Salta.

Catedral Basilica de Salta

San Francisco Church.

There are tons of museums to visit, so we carefully selected two in order to broaden our knowledge in pre-Colombian history. Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take pictures in these two places, so you will have to be content with our descriptions.

The Pajcha (Museo de Arte Etnico Americano) is a small private museum located in a converted house. The exhibits were okay, but the curator made the long walk and expensive entrance fee worth it.

He was a funny little guy who buzzed around the small museum and gave each tourist some interesting facts “to think about until I return.” Just something about his mannerism and way he spoke, made it difficult not to giggle each time he left us to “ponder”. Still to this day, we find ourselves quoting his random lines cracking up each time, especially when we recall the many times he told Joe to “shut up,” even when Joe had said nothing.

The MAAM museum (El Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña) was much more professional and impressive. It houses three mummies of Incan children who were sacrificed.

In short, they gathered up three children, marched them up a 16,000 foot mountain, got them drunk, and interned them in a tomb with artifacts for the afterlife. With the weather being so cold on the top of the mountain, the mummies are very well-preserved (some even claim that they are the best preserved mummies in the world). The artifacts are beautiful, but seeing the perfectly preserved child mummy is somewhat haunting.

Interesting side note: The museum claims the mountain was first summited in the 50’s by a team of Chilean mountain climbers, hooray Chile. We kind of think that the five, six and thirteen year old found on the summit deserve that recognition…. just a thought.

We have heard from many travelers that this area is best for renting a car to explore some of the smaller towns in the Salta area. With our own wheels, we were able to see some beautiful landscapes, similar to the American Southwest or Tupiza, Bolivia.

We found this little known car rental shop called Hertz, and we picked out the fanciest car. After 10 months without driving, Kristen was quite nervous to hit the road on their own, but luckily Joe handled it all like a pro.

Our “fancy” rental car

This bad boy has manual transmission, manual windows, well, manual everything, but it did the job perfectly during our five-day, 1,400 kilometer road trip.

Parrots along the drive.

Our first destination was Cafayate, a nice little wine town a few hours south of Salta. The town is interesting enough, but the drive there was one of our highlights from the whole road trip. We drove from Salta to Cafayate through the Valles Calchaquíes. The constantly changing views caused us to pull over just about every hundred feet for pictures.

Luckily, our road was paved.

Red Rocks.

Along the way, we stopped at the Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat), a narrow canyon which has been deeply carved over time and then another canyon which has formed a natural amphitheater.

Inside the Devil’s Throat.

It is amazing what erosion can do.

One of the most memorable stops was not for the view, but to visit llamas and a few other animals. If you know anything about Bridget, it is that she is CRAZY about animals, and these being her first llamas of the trip, we had to pull over and give her some time to make new friends. (The homemade bread they were selling was a definite plus!)

Bee with her new best friend.

A llama giving their classic “look.”

We are sure all the animals of Argentina will sorely miss Bridget, especially all the dogs that she showed a little love to. I bet all those Argentinian animals are probably hitting the streets and taking up a collection to get her a one-way ticket back in to their country.

After the many gorgeous sights along the way, we were afraid that Cafayate would disappoint, but it is a peaceful small town built mostly out of adobe bricks. We loved the laid back square and beautiful church. Not too much happens here except for wine tasting, hiking, and cruising the streets. Not a bad way to spend a few days.

Cafayate church.

We stayed two nights in Cayafate, and during that time we hung around the town square and visited Quilmes, ruins that even predate the Incans. The ruins were impressive and we learned that this site is believed to once have held about 5,000 people.

Just one small part of the ruins.

Bee jumping at the ruins.

The cacti in these parts are plentiful and quite striking. If you don’t believe us, we have about 1,000 pictures to prove it. Just let us know when you have the time for a little slideshow.

Kris and Bee thinking about hugging a cactus.

After enjoying all of Cafayate, we headed north toward the Jujuy area. We had to pass through the Calchaquíes Valley again, and we took more pictures. Would you expect anything else?

Joe lost his flip-flop during this jump. If you look very closely, you might be able to find it in the picture.

We stayed the night in the small town of Humamarca. It, like Cafayate, is made mostly out of adobe bricks and had surprisingly local feel despite a strong tourism presence. The people are more indigenous, and they seem to hang on to their customs and traditions a bit more than the city folk have.

Humamarca

Along the drive to Humamarca we passed the Tropic of Capricorn, which indicated the lowest latitude the sun passes through.

Tropic of Capricorn.

There is a huge sun-dial on the line, but it looks like it has seen better days.

Joe trying to tell the time at the giant sun-dial.

From Humamarca we made a quick stop in Tilcara to see where all the tourists were before heading off to Purmamarca.

Purmamarca has some amazing colored hills and is also a good jumping point for the Salinas Grandes, Argentina’s largest salt flat.

Along the drive.

This salar is similar to the one in Bolivia, just smaller. We caught it during the dry period and had a good time walking around on the salt, Bridget even grabbed a softball size hunk of salt to take home. Wonder what the US customs official thought about that.

Salt flats lap pool.

The road to the salar was crazy, and passed over 14,000 feet. Near the summit we stopped to take a picture with a baby goat. Bridget just about jumped out of the car to get when she saw the chance to bond with a baby animal.

Bee and her baby. Yes, you have to give it back!

We visited this area during the Argentinean Independence Day and almost ran into a problem. Seems like with all the additional people out driving the roads, they were running out of gas. The salar was a bit out-of-the-way, but Joe kept guaranteeing Kris that we would not run out of gas, even if he had some doubts himself. Lucky for us, and especially Joe, we made it there and back just fine, largely due to the fact that we coasted 30 kilometers downhill on the way home.

Roller coaster road. Barf bags not included in the rental.

With the salt flats being dry, it is a good opportunity to take some interesting prospective shots. Joe spent a lot of time laying on the salt, trying to get just the right angle, while the girls played around.

Kris holding up Bridget.

Bee going for a dip.

To finish off our time in Purmamarca, we took a short hike around the hills of varying hues. The colors were particularly incredible as we walked around just before sunset.

Red Hills.

More red hills.

This road trip turned out to be one of the highlights while traveling with Bridget, and also while in South America. It was nice to have the flexibility to go where we wanted to, and whenever we wanted to. If you are ever in Argentina, make a trip up north. The people in this area are so friendly and the scenery is not to be missed.

Okay, we couldn’t resist, just one more picture of an animal.  This cute, but smelly, dog found Bridget, and nudged her for about 3 seconds before climbing onto her lap.

Bridget’s new puppy.

Just one of many adorable pups that left a spot in our hearts.

Coming Up: Our last stop in our South American journey, Iguazu Falls!

After a great time in Buenos Aires, the three of us headed east to Córdoba. Córdoba is your typical colonial city with many interesting churches, museums, and pedestrian walkways to explore.  If you are at all in to shopping, you should head on out, as Argentinian window shopping is practically an Olympic sport here.

We spent our time here people watching in the park, visiting churches, and going to a few museums.

Church in Córdoba

Another beautiful church lit up at night.

We visited the Museo de la Memoria, which is a museum set up to remember the missing family members from the 70s and 80s who disappeared during the “Dirty War“.  The museum occupies a space that was once used for the detention and torture of political activists. The museum was informative and was a stark reminder of the atrocities suffered here not so long ago.

Just like the seeing the Madres de Plaza de Mayo in action, this was moving to witness and an important part of history to learn about.

Entrance to the Museo de la Memoria: photos of the missing.

We also did a quick tour of the city museum, which luckily only cost two pesos each.  They had a few interesting artifacts to check out, and it was worth the quick visit.

Kris and Bee in the city museum.

From Córdoba we took a day trip to the small village of Alta Gracia, which is really only famous for two things: being Che Guevara‘s childhood town and its large Jesuit ruins. The town was a short bus ride away, and it was a quite pleasant small town to wander around.

While none of us are super Che disciples, we felt we would pay homage to him and visit his childhood home, which has now been turned into a small museum. According to our Lonely Planet, the museum entrance was 5 pesos (just over 1 dollar), so it was a price we were all ready to part with to visit this small museum.

Turns out this museum has figured that some tourists travel a great distance to retrace Che’s footsteps, and they have greedily increased the entrance price by 1400%.  We were not ready to pay to “foreigner fee” of 75 pesos (about $18), just to see a small museum we were only half-heartedly interested in, while Argentinians only needed to pay 10 pesos. (Note to Argentina: it’s moves like this that is going to turn off a large portion of future travelers. We don’t mind paying a bit more, but sticking it to us every time does not make you leave with a warm and fuzzy feeling.) We declined the tour and all wondered what Che would think about this price hike.

The Che Museum, a little too rich for our blood. Luckily, they didn’t charge us for this picture of the outside.

After this little incident, we were a little hesitant to go to the Jesuit ruins, as we feared what the entrance price would be for this city’s other large tourist attraction. Luckily, we were in town on a Wednesday, which just happened to be the free entrance day. Score!

Ruins from afar.

The ruins had great displays and even descriptions in English, which Kristen and Bridget didn’t even need with their Spanish reading skills. The architecture was amazing, and there were many opportunities for pictures.

Jesuit church.

Inside the mission.

Also from Cordoba, we took a two night getaway to La Cumbre, which is world-famous for its amazing paragliding. Now you should have learned by now that if something is supposedly world-famous, we are going to visit it. (Look out giant ball of yarn, you are next.)

La Cumbre is a great little town, and has a few more things to do than just paragliding.

We hiked up to the statue of Jesus prior to our flight, just in case. This statue was only 10 meters tall, so it wasn’t quite as big as the one in Cochabamba.

Enjoying the view over La Cumbre.

Sunset over the town.

We hit La Cumbre in low season and often had a hard time finding any restaurants open. We did luckily find Kasbah and enjoyed the best curry on the trip.

Curry at Kasbah

It was so good, we decided to visit two nights in a row. The owner chuckled a little when he saw us return.

The busy streets of La Cumbre.

Now on to the main reason we visited this area, paragliding!!!!! We called Toti Lopez, a world-famous paragliding pilot, and set up our rides. He picked us up and we all headed to the hill for our flight.

Pre-flight smiles.

The wind was not right for the flight, so we had to wait a bit, but we knew when the birds started soaring we soon would be next. We had about two hours to sit and ponder our fate (with a fantastic view), while we waited for the winds to pick up.

Condors showing us how it’s done.

Then it was go time. Paragliders came in droves and started filling the launch pad and prepping their gear. Our pilots also prepped the gear and we readied ourselves for the flight.

Things started happening really fast and Bridget even asked at one point, “Do you think they are going to tell us what we need to do?” “Of course they will,” Joe responded, even though he was concerned about the same thing.

Toti called us all over and gave us our 30 second “briefing” which went a little something like this:

“For take off, put your head down and run until your pilot says stop, then adjust your seat.”

Well if that didn’t sum it up, I don’t know what would. No problem, just run as fast as possible with someone strapped to our backs off a cliff. What could go wrong?

Kristen and Joe decided it would be best send Bridget first, seeing how she is the youngest. It makes sense if you really think about it.

Bridget all suited up ready to go.

Bridget handled it great, head down, ran like crazy, and presto she was soaring like a condor.

Flying Bee.

The winds picked up a little more and this is when Joe and his pilot decided to get airborne, except it was not as graceful as Bridget’s takeoff. It went a little like this: head down, tried to run, got pulled backwards, tripped over pilot, stopped, tried running harder, ran down the mountain, took off a little, landed again, continued running like crazy, and finally took off. Joe’s takeoff looks pretty impressive in still photos, but if we had video, it would have looked a lot like one of those National Geographic films of a young albatross trying to learn how to fly.

Joe and his pilot ready to impress.

Soaring Joe.

Kris was the last to launch and claims to have had a graceful takeoff, but unfortunately, she was the last one of us to go, so no one could capture her supposed amazing start to her paragliding career. If you know her, you might doubt that her takeoff was really that spectacular. Guess we’ll just have to take her word.

Joe took this picture of Kris in flight.

The flights lasted about 30 minutes, and was truly amazing. If you ever want to know what it is like to fly like a bird, we honestly think this is as close as you can get. We would zoom by the cliff faces, make tight turns, and climb in thermals, just like the condors in the area.

Busy launch site.

Bridget was having so much fun that she thought that she could extend her flight time by lightening the load. About five minutes before landing, she started to get “that feeling” in her stomach, the kind of feeling that makes you yearn for stable ground. Her world-famous pilot must have known things were getting iffy and directed her head to the side just in time. She might not have had the biggest smile on her face during the landing, but she swears she had a great time, even if poor Toti was in the line of fire.

With our feet firmly on the ground and our heads still in the clouds, it was time to board an overnight bus bound for Salta.

Travelers have long raved about Buenos Aires. Beautiful. Great parks. Amazing food. History. And the list went on and on. The only thing people ever seemed to complain about was all the dog poop on the sidewalks. And yes, there is quite a bit of it around. (We managed to avoid these little sidewalk bombs until Joe hit one square on in Córdoba. Ew.)

We ended up spending more time in Buenos Aires than any other city on this trip. We rented an apartment and just hung out for two weeks. It was nice to relax a bit after nine months of constant traveling and we really enjoyed having all the facilities of home in our apartment.

Kristen’s youngest sister, Bridget, met up with us after one week there, and it was a good introduction for Bridget about the ways of Argentina.

Here are some of our favorite things from our time in Buenos Aires:

Renting an apartment.

We found our apartment through BYT (www.bytargentina.com), and stayed in the Palermo neighborhood.  We scored a two bedroom place for about $420 per week.

Not the greatest picture, but here we are hanging out in our apartment.

Insane sunset view from our living room.

We loved the neighborhood as well. It was not touristy at all, and it had great amenities nearby.

Güemes: Our street.

We loved being able to cook our own meals, and we made daily trips to the small market across the street and, of course, to the fruit stand.

Bridget buying fruit from our favorite stand.

The riverfront (Puerto Madryn):

We enjoyed walking along the old port which has now been turned in to a great place for a stroll.

Enjoying the sunset.

They have kept the historical look to this place, but the buildings now serve very different purposes than originally intended. The storehouses are used as restaurants and shops, and the nonfunctioning cranes act more like large sculptures.

No more ships…. just lots of walkers.

We liked the ultramodern structure of this bridge mixed in with all the old history.

Puente de la Mujer

Permanently parked along the riverfront, there is an old navy training ship that is now a museum. Of course we couldn’t resist the chance to check it out, and it actually ended up being only 50 cents to enter… the cheapest entrance fee we have paid in all of Argentina!

Fragata Sarmiento

The ship was full of historical pictures and information from its training voyages in the early 1900’s.

With Joe at the helm, no one needs to worry!

Museums:

In addition to the naval museum visited in Puerto Madryn, BA has heaps of museums to explore. Although we aren’t normally museum people, we checked out a few.

– Modern Art in San Telmo: Luckily this was another 50 cent entrance fee, because we just don’t “get” modern art.

– Museo Histórico Dr Arturo Jáuretche: This is an interesting museum about the financial history in Argentina, which seems to have always been quite turbulent. It was a free visit and is located in a “Wall Street-like” neighborhood. They have revalued their currency several times in recent history, and it was fun to look over all the displays.

Wish we had this bill right about now.

Our favorite sign showing all the different money transitions over the years.

Sidenote: We decided to visit this museum because money is such a funny joke in this country. Their bills are seriously falling apart and almost always ripped and torn, but if you give them an American bill with even the slightest bit of writing on it, they will not accept it. Also, good luck finding coins in this country. Everyone always asks you for exact change, but NO ONE ever has it!

– El Zanjón: Here we got a tour of a historial mansion and the tunnels that were discovered underneath it. It is beautifully reconstructed, but we might be fuzzy on most of the details because we were too cheap to shell out the extra money for the tour in English.

The restored mansion.

The underground tunnels.

The Architecture:

BA has a bit of everything when it comes to buildings. It makes it very fun just to wander the streets in awe.

Casa Rosada: The “Don’t Cry for me, Argentina” building.

One of the many churches.

Torre Monumental

Another Church

A touch of modern.

The many colors of Boca. (SUPER touristy neighborhood, but the buildings are pretty and unique.)

Just another street in Buenos Aires.

A little new and old intertwined.

The Parks: 

Open green spaces abound in this large city, and sitting in a park, people watching, while soaking up the sun was one of our favorite ways to pass the time.

Bridget enjoying the changing leaves.

An afternoon in the park.

Floralis Generica (or the “Big Metal Flower”): It is supposed to open and close with the sun, but it is currently broken.

The Music:

It seems that you can’t be an Argentinian unless you can play some sort of musical instrument. Often you find yourself caught up in one musical performance or another.

Listening to La Urraka perform in a park with instruments they created. An insanely good act.

A drumming group face off/ impromptu parade.

The Markets: 

BA really seems to be at its best during the weekends, when the parks and streets fill with people, vendors, and music. We (much to Joe’s excitement) planned our schedule to fit in as much market time as possible. You can buy just about everything from these places, from the usual souvenirs, to hand crafted goods, to antiques.

Sunday Market in San Telmo.

Enjoying some fresh squeezed orange juice… not quite as cheap as in Bolivia, but still delicious.

Recoleta Cemetery: 

When we were told over and over to make sure to visit the cemetery, we always agreed but wondered what all the fuss was about. Cemeteries usually aren’t on our list of must sees, but this one is different.

Started in the early 1800s, this cemetery was “the place” for the BA elite to be buried. Most of the mausoleums are in pretty good shape, and the area is a peaceful and beautiful walk. There are also quite a few famous Argentinians buried here.

One of the cemetery’s many resident cats “guarding” an entrance.

The “streets” of Recoleta.

A peaceful place despite the fact that it is a huge tourist attraction.

Eva Perón’s grave. Argentinians still love her after all these years.

The Living History:

Although I’m sure that Argentina would like to forget it’s dark past, there is a group of women (and others) that won’t let the loss of their loved ones be forgotten.

During the late 70’s and early 80’s, Argentina’s government tried to crack down on dissenters. During this “Dirty War,” thousands of people were kidnapped and tortured, simply for speaking out against the government. Many never returned and are presumed dead.

In 1977, a group of mothers banded together and marched on the Plaza del Mayo in front of the presidential palace to demand answers as to where their children were. Since then, this group has met every Thursday on the Plaza to march in hopes of finally getting answers, and so that people never forget what happened.

We happened upon the plaza one Thursday afternoon, and it was heartbreaking to see these women, many of whom are now quite elderly, march around the plaza wearing their  traditional white scarves and holding pictures of their missing loved ones.

A mother’s march.

It is hard to imagine that these women have been here every week for over thirty years.

The other group of mothers. (Not sure how the Malvinas/Falklands fit in.)

Buenos Aires is a great city. Just like all big cities, it is hard to truly get a feel for it unless you are there for a long time. Although we spent two weeks there, we feel like we barely scratched the surface.

Maybe that means that we’ll just have to return one day.