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13/5 buses and salta
A long full day. All you want coming off long distance flights is to get the body clock right. The plan was to land early morning, catch a night bus and sleep the night, then change in Mendoza and sleep the night on the bus again to arrive in Salta on the morning of the 13th of May. The plan!!
I crashed out in the old hostel in Santiago and had a nap before the first bus. It was a lucky mistake as I had a Chilean immigration nightmare. Not because I was stopped, although it took 3 people to approve me out of chile, but it took over 4 hours of standing around. This was 12:30 to 4:30am and all of it was unexpected hours of standing in the cold. Last time this process took around 30 minutes. So we arrived into Mendoza sleepy and late. This ment I only had 5 hours to kill in the bus station. The bus to salta I managed to stay awake till 6pm and woke up again for dinner. The only thing that happened on this bus was we were very early on the scene of a bike and car accident. Two bike riders, one decapitated and the other dead in one peice, and two cars in a broken state but drivers alive. Crazy!
I arrived early on the 13th of May to Sarah and the first bed I've seen in 3 nights, 4 if you don't include Dave and Larissa's comfy couch as a bed.
We chatted for a while before going out to see the town and to find lunch.
Walk to San francisco church and around the main plaza. It was another beautiful South American city plaza with a few sites we earmarked for later, when we were not so tired. The main goal was to find food. It was before midday, we wanted something kinda fresh and healthy, and after many false starts and as moods were changing quickly we decided on a Big Mac with salad and juice, the first Macdonalds salad either of us had eaten. The rest of the day we walked the pedestrian streets, watched AXN television shows and bought a bus ticket for 0030 on the 15/5 to Bolivia. We were both wrecked. Ahhhh, sleep
14/5 Day in Salta
A lazy start to the day, roaming the pedestrian streets and window shopping before our last enchiladas and a highly recommended beer, salta negra. Great beer!
The afternoon was to be full, museum with sacrificed mummy children, cathedral, upto a viewpoint in salta and dinner before the near midnight bus.
The museum was interesting, the story of the sacrificed children in a nut shell is as follows. The children were only of royal blood, a relation to the inca and there were as pure and 'godlike' as possible, the best example of the race. Beautiful, smart etc, not a slave like other civilisations. After their sacrifice these children were to be closer to the gods than anyone else. They were walked to cusco, married to a child from another region, celebrated, and walked back in a straight line to the mountain believed to protect the respective cities. When atop these mountains, they were given an alcoholic drink that made them pass out, and wrapped up and buried with some other possessions. They were always buried in the fetal position, ready to be reborn.
The children were excavated and preserved, with only one on show all the time so they are well preserved. The dry and freezing location and lack of oxygen of the burial location means the hair and skin is still preserved. It also contains a mummy child that was spotted in a bank window in BA. It was not well preserved and freaky looking. You switch on a light and BAM, there is is looking at you!!
We visited another grand church, this cathedral was huge, gold and for me it was over the top. The last sight we wanted to see was the city from above, and a gondola up and walk down from the lookout sounded good. The walk down was so much longer than we expected, and it had the 13 stations of the cross on the way down. This track was used much like the thousand steps in Melbourne, with people and sporting teams running it and stopping at the stations for push-ups, sit-ups etc.
We had a nice birthday dinner/ final Argentinean steak which was nice but not as good as others we have had. Before and after dinner we sat in the lobby of our old hostel playing on the net, no point paying for a room. Sleepy walk to the bus, a happy birthday with and hopefully 7 hours sleep on the bus, one night in a bed was enough and back to beds soon, haha.
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