Our Salta Siesta

Sometimes we don't post for days at a time because we're too busy moving from place to place to write anything down. In this most recent case, however, we've just been too lazy. Since the very end of March, we've been living in a small but pleasant apartment in Salta, a historic city in the northwest of Argentina. We have cable TV, a stack of books, a hot plate, and a stash of wine bottles. We don't get out all that much, hence the lack of posts.

Salta is sprinkled with attractive churches and neo-colonial buildings, most of them clustered around the scenic central plaza. Sometimes we walk down in the late afternoon to drink coffee and watch the crowds of school teachers who are invariably demonstrating. They've set up a home base beneath the arches of the white-washed Cabildo, where they hang caricatures of greedy Argentine politicians and chant for fair pay. A recent newspaper editorial chided the teachers for being too selfish about their rights. "What about our right to hang out under the Cabildo!" the Salteno complained. I think the crisis might be coming to a head.

Speaking of crises, we've lately taken to watching Cronicas with some frequency. Somehow more crass than Fox News, the sensationalist TV channel has a knack for eye-grabbing headlines ("Three People and a Bolivian Dead in Fire") and outrageous footage. They always manage to beat the cops to the scene of the crime--a couple of nights ago we watched masked protestors set fire to a politician's office in Buenos Aires, the police arriving ten minutes into the live report.

For the most part, however, life in Salta is pretty tame. We've hit up most of the major attractions, including a cable car up to the adjacent Cerro San Bernardo, and both of the city's anthropology museums, one of which houses Incan mummies. Other museums we invariably visit while they're closed for siesta, and vow to wake up early enough for the next day.

We've got about two more weeks in Salta, and hope to spend some of that time exploring the nearby Cafayate vineyards and maybe a cloud forest or two. We also skipped over some Patagonian highlights in recent posts, so maybe we'll write about those retroactively. But, it's also quite possible that we'll be too busy watching Cronicas and drinking malbec to manage much of anything. Time will tell. -NSH