Salta Trip 1
May 4th, 2006July 2005
On our Salta trip we headed west from the Capital. In our trusty hire car we wound our way up into the mountains and departed the bitumen. We stayed a night in San Antonio de Cobres at 3500m, and resisted the temptation to buy 3,000 pairs of llama wool socks and associated llama paraphernalia that everyone was flogging to the tourists.
Church in the mountains.
Mountain Burros.
Mick near San Antonio de Cobres
The next day we went and had a look at a viaduct and an old mine with one of the local guides. … he turned out to be quite a good bloke and also knew a bit about rocks so Mel was kept happy. Later in the day we headed south towards Cachi through the Abray Acay pass. The poor old diahatsu struggled up to the top of the pass at 4800m. The car gouldn’t go much higher, so we headed off on foot to break the 5000m barrier.
Mel and Mick at the Viaducto.
Mel and ‘trusty’ Daihatsu.
The pass.
Mel at 5000m.
It was pretty much all downhill from then, as I kept reminding Mel each time the car appeared to be about to die. It came good about 2 blocks from the bloke we hired it from, and even though he had said all the roads we travelled were fine, when we picked the car up I think he was a little surprised that we made it back.
Mel