Today was a marvelous day! It was a great choice to pay extra for an excursion package!
It started out with a 6:30am wake up to be on the bus at 7. The excursion convoy (combi en español) picked up another 14 passengers at a hotel. I found out they are part of a group of 54 people all from la provinicia de Entre Rios on a weeklong trip to various sites in Northern Argentina. It took awhile to break the ice, being the only outsider, but they all eventually learned my story and seemed to enjoy listening to my adventure at el comedor and my opportunity to be in Argentina and travel. I sat with two middle-aged women during a scrumptious lunch in a small pueblo near Cachi called Payogasta. We chatted about the importance of leaving one’s comfort zone and they were very curious about my work at the soup kitchen.
We only spent less than an hour in the actual pueblo of Cachi itself, to see the church, which has an entire interior made of cactus wood. They cut the cactus down and let it sit out for six months to dry out, and your left with wood! There was also a museum with engraved stones from the indigenous populations way back when. But it was the trip there that was actually the most amazing part. We passed through at least five different types of terrain on the 157 km trip. It started with the flat farms on the outskirts of Salta, turning into subtropical dense forest, then becoming mountains with little vegetation, then mountains with no vegetation but just sheets of different colored rocks that changed color depending on the time of day (the route to and from was very different). Then it changed to huge mountains with snow, then mountains with cacti, then flat land with cacti. The change was amazing. At one point, within a span of 20 km, we climbed 1,000m in altitude.
We stopped at various locations to take pictures of this gorgeous terrain, especially at el Parque Nacional Los Cardones and el Cuesto del Obispo.
The only setback was that one of the other combis got a flat tire and was 20 km behind us. We didn’t find out about it until we stopped at our halfway point rest stop. Our group got to stand out in the cold for over an hour while our driver Marcelo went to find the other combi and give them a spare tire to change. They did have a spare tire, but I guess that had used it for a previous excursion that also got a flat tire. It delayed our trip awhile, but we amused ourselves with the two llamas that were there for tourists to take pictures with and joking we’d hijack the llamas and ride back to Salta.
Overall it was a wonderful trip. I even got applause from the bus at the end for my work so far here in Salta and wishing me luck with the rest of it and continuing on in life. This is a trip I’ll never forget.
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