When our ride came to pick us up for the airport in Iguazu, we learned that the pilots for Aeolineas Argentinas, our airline, were on strike. Being only the first day of the strike, we expected a short delay. Sure enough, our flight to Buenos Aires was delayed a half-hour. We originally would have had a three hour layover in Buenos Aires anyway, so no big deal. In Buenos Aires, however, it was sheer chaos. Every flight within the country comes through the BA airport. HUGE line of people melded into one another and numerous flights had been delayed or cancelled altogether. Our layover turned to 6 hours as our flight kept popping up on the screens as ¬demorado¬(delayed). Unfortunately, it wouldn’t say how long. Then the gate number changed about 50 times, from gate 5 on one end of the concourse to gate 12 on the other end. After making the yo-yo hike back and forth several times, we parked ourselves in the middle and decided to just wait it out. It was a good move because the plane finally left from the gate where we were ÷ gate 7. We landed in Salta after 11 pm and got checked in to our hotel around midnight so we didn«t really see anything of Salta until this morning.

Salta is one of Argentina’s best preserved colonial cities. In fact there was a city here when Buenos Aires was just a little hamlet. The Spanish used it to transport supplies to silver mines in present-day Bolivia. The goods and silver then went to Lima, Peru to be shipped through Panama and then on to Spain. The main plaza here features a 19th century Spanish-style cathedral that is painted in a baby pink and butter yellow. It’s quite gorgeous. All around the square are beautiful colonial buildings with their wrought iron balconies that could easily be in Paris or Milan. The faces here are distinctly less European than in Buenos Aires and we finally feel like we’re in the South America we had pictured in our minds. Shame on us for stereotyping!

Salta is the first major city on the routes between Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, so it is crawling with travel agents. We’re going to check out the options for making it to Cafayate, just south of here. The canyons in that part of the Andes are supposedly awesome because of the multi-layered and striated colors. Until then, we’ll wonder around the city for a bit. Right above our hotel is a gondola that carries you up a small mountain. The vistas must be amazing so we’re going to give that a shot today or tomorrow and then hopefully be on our way out of town by Sunday.

Until tomorrow, peace out!

The Boys