Hot times in the cuidad

Our first day in Salta proper, we spent walking and walking and walking. The very old Colonial city has beautiful plazas, and is surprisingly crowded wit tourists and locals. The city hasn't quite caught up with the tourism and there's still no traffic lights or stop signs on the traffic crossings. Angie told us you just need to make eye contact with other drivers to decide who's going first. This makes things particularly perilous for the many pedestrians b/c no drivers care to make eye contact with you. Every street crossing is a dance with death! OK, not really, but coming from a city where pedestrians have certain rights to life, it's crazy to be invisible on the streets.

One day we took the cable car called the Teleferico up the side of a mountain and discovered a little paradise that wasn't even in our tour books. The beautiful park with panoramic views held the first joggers and athletes we saw in the whole country. People were actually running up the side of this mountain and then chilling out by the waterfalls. We passed up the running in favor of yet another gigantic meal lasting no less than 2 1/2 hours and enjoyed the view immensely.

Later back down in the valley, we saw a very young punk band playing in an amphitheater and Stuart watched for a while Neysa checked in with some local artists hocking crafts around the amphitheater.

Afterwards we saw this cool mosaicked building and walked in to see if we could check it out. It turned out to be an art school for what looked like young teenagers. Each room had students doing something creative- drawing, sculpting, playing music, and in the back learning some traditional dance as seen above. Some of the kids had lab coats on- we don't know what that's about but we saw kids with lab coats all over town. The kids started cracking up when we came in taking pictures, but as all people were in Argentina, they were totally welcoming and smiled for the camera.

The impressive pink building is the San Francisco church and was originally painted with a mixture that included ox blood that gave it its unique color. The church is massive and displayed some impressively gory depictions of Christ, a surreal baby christ figure blessed by Pope John Paul II and also a huge and detailed manger scene where the baby jesus's head was as big as Mary's. OUch! Both from visiting the church and other museums it was clear that Salta and the northwest is much more religious and then the secular south that includes Buenos Aires.

Salta is a fairly intact colonial city with most of the streets still cobblestoned and impressive 17th century architecture. One of the jewels of the city is the El Lagar Mansion, owned by the Etchart family and built in the 18th century. We stayed in this remarkable home overflowing with art collected by the family for two nights. You'll see in the pics that the mansion is beautifully maintained -- we didn't snap any pics of our room, but it was hardwood and marble and very well appointed except for an inexplicable collection of ceramic theatre masks arranged in a circle around a mask of Marlon Brando chewing on a stoaggie.

Breakfast was served in the main dining hall from 5:30-10:30am so we decided to sleep in our first day and wandered down sleepy eyed at 10am to find the dining room empty except a beautifully laid out table with jams, rolls, fresh fruit, croissants and flowers and a dapper old fellow waiting for us. That's Diego in the pic. As we were the only two people in the hotel from the night before this man had been waiting since 5:30am for us to come down! And still his cheerful demeanor and excited pantomimed communication could not be contained. At one point he told us that he was 86 years old and gave us some advice, eat only a little meat, drink a little wine each day and bicycle as much as possible.

Across from the El Lagar was an impressive Indigenous Ethnographic museum that celebrated and explored the tremendous crafts and art output of South America's indigenous peoples. Another Diego (I think half of Argentinian males are Diegos's), a round, earnest, chain-smoking, intellectual who would say "Okay, boys, boys..." whenever he wanted to direct our attention to something gave us a two and a half hour tour. Fascinating stuff and a very well organized and presented exhibition. Their collection of images, sculptures and icons that revealed the blending of indigenous images and Catholic ones was particularly interesting. Neysa got Diego flustered when she began to drop some art historian knowledge. Her interpretations didn't quite jive with his but when he found she was connected with the Art Institute he suddenly became quite solicitous of her opinions. "Okay, boys, boys... now what do you see here?" "Yes, a snake, a snake." "Always the snake, the feather and the tiger."

The next couple of pics are of the El Lagar from the back of the property and from the terrace giving a sense of the beautiful grounds.

Final pic of my lovely bride was snapped in the 9 of Julio Plaza at the heart of town. We lazed a couple of ours away over a couple of beers and humitas in the early evening. The weather was ideal. Cool, dry air and the intense Salta sun to keep you warm.

The Birth of the Puma

One of the great miracles of the Luna de Miel was the immediate healing of Stuart's herniated disc as soon as he laid eyes on some very tempting rock climbing. He earned the name of Puma before we even found this grafitti. But the spying of his new name ignited him into even more Spidey climbing. He somehow staying in this precarious position for a full 3 minutes of photographing, and then he continued upward until we couldn't see him anymore. Please take note that he's climbing in dress shoes and perfectly pressed pants.

Neysa attribute Stuart's miracle to this roadside temple we found. It's dedicated to a saint for truck drivers who risk their lives daily driving through the steep mountains and winding roads back and forth to Chile and Bolivia. The scrap metal below the altar is from trucks that have crashed in the area. The Puma owes Neysa big since she stopped to honor the altar and take pictures, otherwise the Puma's risky mountain-climbing behavior would have resulted in 17 more herniations, and the scrap metal would have been covered with random pieces from Stuart's spine.

We caught a pic of the legendary gauchos, or cowboys, that lend much romantic lore to the area. They didn't flinch a bot when Neysa jumped out of the car to snap a pic- they're apparently used to the paparazzi treatment. Then they literally road off into the sunset- maybe it was all a show for us?

We also went to Cafayate that day to visit some vineyards and sample goat cheese. It's a gorgeous area with tiny mom-and-pop vineyards and huge international ventures. A highlight was visiting a local ice cream shop that has made internationally renowned flavors based on the local grapes (Neysa had a scoop of espresso mixed with the white wine flavor, Torrontes and the Puma had plum mixed with the red wine flavor Malbec.) Neysa polished hers off before anyone else had even completed their order.

Salta La Linda!

We spent the next 5 days in NW Argentina, based in the beautiful, bustling Colonial city of Salta. We were only planning on staying for 4 days but one day the fog was so bad in BA that the airports closed and we couldn't head back. After 4 jam-packed days, we elected that 5th bonus day as spa day when we had massages at the fancy hotel that the airline had arranged for us ($17 for a full hour of massage!) and our sole outing for the day was a visit to the Salta shopping mall where we practiced our Spanish with the teenage retail clerks. Apparently the mall is a place where parents drop their small children off to run wild. We saw packs of 5-7 year old kids running around in designer clothes, terrorizing the salespeople selling candy at kiosks: "Bonbons, chocolates!!!" Neysa could relate to this kind of desperation and joined the kids in chorus...

Our first day was with our wonderful tour guide, Angie, who drove us up into the 7-Colored Mountains to visit the tiny town of Purmamarca and the Salt Flats. We were accompanied by a great couple from Milwaukee who had almost an identical Argentina itinerary as ours. The mountains were breathtaking and the colors hard to believe, even in person. With a very high altitude, the air was thin and crisp, and the sun was intense, especially at the very top in the Salt Flats. We saw where salt is mined in these tiny pools, and Neysa considered taking a brief salt bath before she turned into a tiny elf. In a place like this with nothing on the horizon for miles, of course we needed to take some "magical photographs." Angie choreographed this one.

Day 5 - Japanese Gardens, Gnomes & off to Salta

We planned our 5th day in BA to be very relaxing since we had a very late flight to Salta. We went to the gorgeous Japanese gardens and found a Middle Eastern place for lunch. It was great to see items on the menu that we didn't have to alter at all. The gardens were sprawling and it was an absolutely perfect day to wander around. There was an alarmingly large number of fish in the ponds. Check out that hungry group by Stuart's feet.

The gnomes were found hiding under some tables and sinks in a court yard in San Telmo the night before. Stuart does not share Neysa's love of creepy figurines and so they were shockingly omitted from the last entry.

Day 4 - Neysa the hip.

Another historic barrio today and another gorgeous day -- San Telmo. This atmospheric neighborhood lined with 18th and 19th century mansions was once the place for the moneyed Portenos until a outbreak of yellow fever in 1871 led to a mass exodus. Now it is a mixed neighborhood whose heartbeat centers around Plaza Dorrego on the weekends and a massive street and artisan fair.








There are also lots of young clothing and jewelry designers selling their latest fashions. Part of the fun is to watch the designers working intricate pieces of jewelry with incredible detail and dexterity before you buy. Our Spanish is miserable but we were able to exchange in broken Castellano and English a few sentences with the designers. The local arts are truly exploding here.
















Neysa went on a killer shopping spree. It was impossible not to with vendor after vendor and then shop after shop in the adjacent neighborhood with hip and cheap clothes and jewelry. Stuart made her buy an outrageously cool hand-made sweater to finish the day.

The fair brought out quite a few tourists but this neighborhood also attracts alot of Argentinians so it wasn't overly commercialized like Caminita street in La Bocca.

















The Museum here of course was also closed for construction. We've yet to see one of the major museums -- bit frustrating but we chatted with a tourism official who gave some suggestions. The elections for Mayor of BA was also this week causing closings (and a loose ban on wine and liquor for the day -- we found a way around that!).



After a long and gorgeous day of shopping, chatting with local designers and walking the historic streets of San Telmo we headed back to Recoletta for dinner at a hip Argentinian Moderne restaurant for a great glass of Malbec, a potato and onion Tortilla (basically very tasty Spanish omelette), an phenomenal salad with the unlikely pairing of tomato, shredded carrots, hard-boiled egg and arugala, some tasty bruschetta and some amazing mushrooms in a white wine garlic sauce. -- Of course because it was a dark, candle-lit place the Argentinian couples were doing what they do best -- make out. At one point on a long couch five couples were simultaneously going at it. Very impressive. Find one couple in the mix.