Bloggingsouls.com: Day 6: Salta

October 16, 2007

Day 6: Salta

We had another group tour excursion scheduled for Thursday and when our guide brought us to a car with no other people, I thought perhaps he was taking us to a bus but, as it turned out, no one else had booked this tour so we lucked out with a private tour! And we couldn't have lucked out with a much better guide--Abel shared a lot of insight on Salta and Argentina with us as well as some great stories, which I'll share with you later. I don't remember all the attractions along this tour but it included Cerro de los Siete Colores, the mountain of seven colours, Purmamarca, a picturesque town filled with vendors and stores selling crafts and nice views, and Salinas Grandes, or large salt flats in northwest Argentina. We stopped somewhere near the top of a mountain where the wind was fierce and where I saw my first vicunas. There was a man selling stones with etchings and black rock carvings, which Abel had explained some men who had worked in the salt flats did as a way to get out of working in the salt flats, which is a very hard life. After the salt flats, we stopped for lunch at an adobe building in a small settlement where no more than ten families lived. It was a really unique experience--the doors were made of the wood of a local cactus and the chairs had seats that had cow hides. We ate homemade empanadas and steak milanese (breaded steak), both of which were very good (the empanadas were probably the best I had had in Argentina).

Before I share some of the photos from this excursion, I have to share two stories Abel told us during this trip. The first involves John Galliano, famed designer for Christian Dior. Abel mentioned Mr. Galliano was in town to get inspiration for his next season so he took him to see a traditional folkloric show. Galliano loved the show and a performer's gaucho suit caught his eye and he said he had to have it. Abel obtained the name of the tailor who had made the suit and went to visit her the next morning with Galliano. She was poor and lived in a slum and Galliano fell in love with the slum. He was taken aback, however, when he saw her home and when she told him the suit would cost 300 pesos (approximately $100 US) he couldn't believe his ears and started crying. He couldn't understand how she could charge so little and, ultimately, he sent her a thousand euros which she would been unlikely to convert to pesos had Abel not gone with her to the bank (apparently, bank representatives will verify the source of large sums of money held by poorer individuals).

The second story involves Harvey Keitel who was in a neighboring city, Cafayate, promoting a film. Abel took him back and forth between his hotel and the film shooting location and learned that Mr Keitel and the producers of the film, who were Argentinian, were fighting because the film was running over budget. The producers had ensconced the entire film crew at a five star hotel and Keitel eventually convinced them to send the entire crew to a local hostel. The incredible thing is that Keitel offered to move to the hostel with the rest of the crew and stayed there for about ten days. I can only imagine the stories that must've gotten shared by the backpackers who stayed at that hostel.

en route to Purmamarca.jpg