Salta: ¨Civilisation¨ at Last

8 hours south of the border and 10 hours south of Tupiza, and it feels like we are in another world. You can tell instantly the difference in the Argentine economy. From the bus stations, to the cars, to the way people dress, to how much a hostal costs, you can tell we are in a city, but not just a city like La Paz was a city, but a city in a country with a bit more moola.

Salta is a pleasant place with tree lined parks, wide sidewalks and colonial architecture. It is a place that has a familiar feel to it and it is hard to place exactly where that comes from. You feel like less of an outsider here, which probably stems from the fact that the Spanish influence is felt a little stronger...

Apparently, it was a holiday here, so perhaps we will wake up to chaos tomorrow... but people are a little politer, occasionally a car will pause to let us cross at the corner as opposed to a made dash of whoever is the most macho...

We are now down at 1200m above sea level so the air is warm, even at night.. and it feels kind of like spring as the leaves on some trees are bright green and the birds chirp happily.

We arrived in the middle of the night and as always tried to steer clear of the touts.... who kindly left us alone when we told them we were going elsewhere....We took a cab (with a meter!!) to a proposed hostal... Someway or another (not sure whether it was a miscommunication on their part or ours) we ended up in a dormitory room, thinking we were getting a room with two beds... too tired to care we tiptoed past the sleeping people and attempted to dodge their stuff which was EVERYWHERE and we crashed into bed.

This morning we went to one of the places a tout was recommending and for the same price as both of us in a dormitory we got a room in a really cute hostal... It is way too early to be thinking that touts are different here from elsewhere.. but we can only hope.

We booked a bus for a small fortune (but with no cheap options here) to Mendoza. We will chill the day in Salta tomorrow and then take an 18 hour trip to Mendoza, which for about 50 USD each had better be a palace (apparently it is full cama and you even get a choice of whiskey or wine... we are still jaded Bolivian style so we aren´t expecting anything until it materialises).....