Part 18: Salta Walk-About

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The Trip

After a reasonable night in Purmamarca, we headed south to Salta for a couple of days of exploring the city before flying onward to Buenos Aires.  When we left Purmamarca, the light was illuminating the colorful cliffs of the Quebrada Humahuaca and showing off the brightly colored strata.

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

The view from the deck at our hotel of the multi-colored hills.

In Purmamarca, we spotted this nice painting on the walls of the pueblo.

Further south into the quebrada the hills gave us a great view.

We traveled half of the day to get to Salta.  We arrived after noon and the traffic was insane; worse than any I have ever seen.  Aggressive drivers, tons of motos, folks running through intersections.  Very intense.  Kathleen had found us a nice room at the Alejandro I hotel.  We relaxed for the afternoon and the following morning we headed out to explore the city a bit.  We got a taxi to take us to the top of a local mountain where there was a nice view.  After the taxi discharged us at the top of the hill, we spotted this sun dial.

The top of the mountain had a good view of the surrounding valleys.  To the south was a hill filled with radio towers.

The top of the mountain was a city park that had multiple viewpoints and waterfalls.

The waterfalls were synthetic, but nicely done.  The sound of running water was very pleasing.

Salta is a big city, the second largest in Argentina.  It filled the valley below.

The city continued on to the north as well.

Kathleen was having fun.

In the park I spotted this funky tree with sharp spikes on the trunk.

The top of the mountain is serviced by a tram although we took a taxi up instead due to a miscommunication with the taxi driver.  Given that, we elected to take the tram down.

From the tram car we got a different view of the north side of Salta.

At the base station we could see the running gear that powers the tram.  The red housing is a transmission with the reduction gears.

This mechanism is what connects the tram cars to the cable.  The angled pulleys are used to disconnect the gripper from the cable.  When the car comes into the station, a metal bar engages the angled pulleys and forces them downward releasing the grip on the cable.

These bull wheels are used to maintain tension on the tram cable.

The upper bull wheels are connected to another pulley that holds the counterweights for the system.

We took a taxi from the tram base station to the local cathedral.  While distorted due to the wide angle view, it was a very nice church in good repair.

The inside of the cathedral was impressive.

The cupola had great colors and nice details.

The altar area of the cathedral was nice as well.

We had lunch at a nice restaurant close to the cathedral and then walked to another park.  There we could see the Hotel Salta (not our hotel) that sports classic styling.

The spire of the cathedral was visible from the town square.



Most of the plazas have a fountain and this one was no exception.



A nice bronze statue of Jose de San Martin who successfully led the Argentines against the Spanish Empire.



Two things in plentiful supply around the plazas in Argentine towns: feral dogs and pigeons.



The Cathedral of Salta is a nice building located on the other side of the plaza.  It looked great after dark, but sadly I did not take my camera to dinner to shoot it.



The building had intricate woodwork which must be a bitch to maintain.  That said, it was in great shape.



Another classical building facing the square, the "Salta Cabildo".

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2018, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.