Salta, Argentina

I finally made it down to Argentina! Although I really wanted to go to Buenos Aires, I wasn’t able to go there because of cost; plane tickets from Tarija to Buenos Aires were ridiculously expensive. As a replacement for a trip to Buenos Aires, I settled for Salta. Salta is located in the northern region of Argentina and is one of the largest cities in Argentina. Overall, I must say that I was quite impressed with Salta and enjoyed my time there.

Three other CFHI interns and I left Tarija for Salta on Thursday morning at 4 am by bus. We didn’t get to Salta until about 1:30 pm due to a few delays (ex. flat tire and an almost dead transmission). When we got to Salta, the first thing that we did was set out to find a hotel or hostel. Luckily, for us, we found a very nice hostel in which we had our own bathroom and hot water; it only cost us about $23/day. At first, I was a little nervous to stay in a hostel because I had never stayed in one before, and I have heard terrible stories about them. Overall, I liked our choice of hostel.

For the three days that we were in Salta, we did a couple fun activities. For one, a person can’t go to Argentina without shopping. In my opinion, Salta seemed to be a hub for fashion. Everywhere I turned, I found myself looking into a clothing store or upscale boutiques. Things were definitely a lot more expensive than in Bolivia so I didn’t buy that much stuff because I didn’t want to drop the big bucks.

In addition to shopping, we took the teleférico (it’s like a tram) up to a viewpoint that overlooked the city. At the top of the viewpoint, there is a little café and we had coffee there because it was freezing outside. We also walked around the man-made waterfalls. In my opinion, the view overlooking the city was spectacular and Salta looked very pretty. If you plan on going to Salta, I would recommend going on the teleférico up to the viewpoint.

If you’re into the nightlife scene then Salta can satisfy you. For us, we went to a couple discotecas. The discotecas were a lot of fun, music was great, and I personally found it to be a lot more fun than the disoctecs I have encountered in Bolivia. In addition to the discotecas, there is one major casino called Golden Dreams Casino. Before Salta, I had never even stepped foot into a casino let alone gambled. Our first night at the casino, I played only one slot machine and of course lost my 5 Argentina Pesos (current exchange rate is about 4 Argentina Pesos = $1 US Dollar). We returned to the casino two more times. Of course, each time that I went to the casino I set a cash limit for myself and didn’t bring any extra money that way I wouldn’t lose all my money. The second night at the casino I came out ahead by 5 Argentina Pesos and the third night, I lost all 50 Pesos that I had gambled. From my experience at this casino, I’ve learned the golden rule to gambling that one of the interns told me “Always set a limit and stop while you’re ahead.”

On Saturday, we ended up at a ranch located in the hills of Salta. The purpose for our journey to the ranch was so that we could go horseback riding. Horseback riding was another first for me, and I found the experience to be very enjoyable. When we first arrived at the ranch, the ranch workers made an excellent barbecue of steak and other meats for us accompanied with potatoes and salad. After eating, we rested for a bit and then got prepared to go horseback riding. I absolutely loved my horse, whose name was Princess. We went horseback riding for about a good hour and half through the hillside. For anyone who has never been horseback riding before, I would recommend that you try it because it’s so much fun.

Sunday was our departure day because we needed to be back to Bolivia by Monday for work. Overall, even though I didn’t have a chance to go to Buenos Aires, I really did enjoy Salta and would recommend that if anyone is in Argentina that you take a trip to Salta.