Salta quickie

Alex writes...

We are now in the city of Salta of the eponymous province, in the northwest of Argentina. The flight from Buenos Aires was relatively simple. (Not to brag or anything, but it was the longest flight that i've taken in 5 years without the asistance of my friend alprozolam. Things are looking up!)

I don't know why i'm amazed, though i am, but the airports in this country are beautiful. They're like little NY Times headquarters. Also, their runways are similar to the other, Milan-in-the-spring-type runways. We've never seen such fashionable baggage handlers and air-traffic controlmen.

Salta is a pretty and busy city. Its plazas are akin to other Latin American plazas/zocalos. Lots of tourists. Lots of poor folks selling anything. Inexpensive beer.

Our little hostel is, well, a bit hostile. But the rooms are nice and clean. We didn't have the heart(balls), however, to ask for one bed, after we were shown to our two-singles room. Next time. (Sigh.)

On the other hand, the empanadas, which are quite famous in this region, are worth the hype.

The folks here seem friendlier than their counterparts in Buenos Aires. There are also many more mestizos in this area. No correlations implied.

Tomorrow, before we head north, we're going to try and visit a mummy and check out a surprisingly large asthma clinic near the center of town. The increase in tourism over the years has led to an increase in air pollution. We're curious as to how big an increase that is...

[Note: we probably won't be blogging or uploading photos at all while driving around the Salta and Jujuy region, since there's little to no internet access.]