Backpacking South America

After leaving our dear friend’s at the Estancia, we settled into Salta, for what was supposed to be a week of catching up on the blog, reviewing Spanish, and enjoying the city.

Over the weekend, we took one big excursion into the puna, the high altitude areas north and west of Salta.  We followed the route of the Tren de las Nubes, visited Salinas Grandes and took some great photos.

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Then crossed a pass at 4170 meters above sea level.  On our way day, we visited Pumamarca and the Quebrada de Huamaca.

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The city has a very unique charm, with its large colonial buildings and churches.  The city really comes alive at night with people and the buildings are lit up.

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Unfortunately, our stay in Salta coincided with a heatwave and everyday was right around 100 degrees.  We did our best to soldier on, but it is amazing how heat can really keep you down.   We typically tried to get out in the morning to walk around, then found a place to retreat for the afternoon – usually the hostel or a café (AC and wifi).

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After Cafayate, it was off to meet our friends Paul and Kathy outside of Salta on an Estancia. We had intended to stay one night in Salta and leave first thing the following morning for the Estancia.

Once we arrived into town, we checked into our hostel and decided to wander the city to get the lay of the land and get a snack. After walking around the center plaza, we were heading back to a café we had passed by to get a bite to eat. I asked Jared, “What about that café?” As I was scanning the patio seating, there were Paul and Kathy! This world is seriously too small. We were all so pleasantly surprised.  They had, on a whim, decided to catch a ride to Salta with the owner of the Estancia and were in town for only 2 hours.

So, we joined them for a drink on the patio and were chatting about our travels and the random encounter that just happened. They then twisted our arms and asked them to join them at El Bordo for one extra night. We said “Definitely!” We promptly grabbed our bags and caught a ride back to the Estancia.

Lately, we’ve been asked about where we are going and what we will be doing. So I decided to document our travel plans as they stand prior to our departure. For some portions, we have a pretty clear and defined plan. For the rest, we hope to follow a general path – always leaving the possibility to change our plan and route at any moment. It should be interesting to track our route and see how much it deviates from this plan.

Boston-Argentina

Our trip from Boston to Buenos Aires will be detoured through NYC and Mexico City. We will be leaving Boston on 8/17 and plan to spend a couple days in NYC with brother, sister-in-law and nephew. Our flight leaves 8/19 from JFK, with a 12 hour layover in Mexico City. From the Juarez International Airport, we’ll catch a cab, head to the Zocalo and spend an afternoon in and around the plaza before heading back to the airport for the final leg of our flight. From there, it’s on to Buenos aires for an 11am arrival on August 20th. We will be spending the first few days familiarizing and acclimating to the city.