The fringe of Argentina along the Andes is amazing and has incredibly beautiful scenery.
On this trip we drove into Argentina from Foz do Iguaçu City (known for the Iguaçu Falls), drove across Chaco Province in the northeast of Argentina to Salta City in Salta Province, then headed south through Cafayate, El Peñón, Fiambala, and San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca in Catamarca Province, then through the provinces of Santiago del Estero and Corrientes before returning home to São Paulo. We drove a total of 7,000 km in 18 days.
After leaving São Paulo, we had to drive 2,500 kilometers before finally getting to Salta. When you enter Argentina, you notice that they have customs different from those in Brazil between 1 pm and 5 pm in the afternoon. It's the siesta, and time for a midday nap. During the siesta, almost all the shops in town close and the streets are quiet. When the siesta ends at 5 pm, the shops start opening up again and the streets get busy. This sort of custom seems to be disappearing in large cities like Buenos Aires.
Another slightly unusual thing is that dinner time is late. The restaurants open at 8 pm and people usually eat dinner between 9 pm and 10 pm. When we’re sightseeing, we often head off to our sightseeing destination early in the morning, so the night before, we prefer to finish dinner early and go to bed, but in Argentina, dinner is after 8 pm. In Brazil too, many people have dinner around 8 pm, but the restaurants open from 6 pm.
On this trip, every town had this custom, so we had a tough time getting used to it.
We’d been sightseeing in Salta before, but on this trip, it was our first time visiting the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology (MAAM), Salta. Located in a square in the center of the city, the museum displays the mummies of 2 girls and a boy who were ritually sacrificed in the age of the Inca Empire, along with their burial goods, which were discovered in 1990 on the summit of the Andes Mountains at an altitude of about 6,700 meters. A video shows how difficult the excavation was. You can actually only see one of them at any one time, because it seems they are exhibited alternately. When I went, it was the boy's mummy. Although it’s called a mummy, it’s in a squatting position, and the skin and hair have almost retained their original condition, so it didn’t look more than 500 years old. It was different from the mummy I had imagined, and it felt very real. You can't take pictures inside the museum, but a picture of this boy is seared into my memory.
There are a lot of restaurants in Salta. The city is bustling until late at night, and public safety is good, which is reassuring.
The word “asado,” meaning “grilled,” is best known to mean Argentinian beef. This tasty grilled beef is very juicy, has great texture, and is seasoned only with salt. And the servings are really big.
Empanadas are also extremely popular. They are usually half-moon-shaped pie pastry wrapped around minced beef, chicken, or vegetable filling and are baked in an oven. Different restaurants use different ingredients and make the thickness of their pie crusts different, which adds to the enjoyment. They’re a good thing to eat when you're a little hungry.
For dessert, there’s a dish called “Quesillo dulce de cayota,” a thin layer of cheese topped with jam made from an apricot-like fruit, and chopped walnuts. With the salt of the cheese, the sweet jam, and the adult flavor of the walnuts, eating this dessert is a slightly mysterious experience.
Next time, we will be getting closer to the Andes Mountains, so I’d like to tell you about some other places. I hope you come back for my next article.
