We breezed through Buenos Aires and Cordoba to reach Salta (in northern Argentina) for New Year’s Eve. Our bus arrived at 11 pm, so we rushed to our hostel, dropped off our bags, and quickly made ourselves somewhat presentable, despite having not showered in I won’t say how many days. (I passed on the cold bucket showers in Cabo Polonio – swimming in the ocean counts as bathing, right?)
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| Happy New Year - alone in the rain in Salta : / |
The hostel owner said that festivities would be going down at two main plazas. We walked to the closer one and found the deadest plaza I’ve ever seen. Everything closed, lights out, except for one fancy restaurant hosting a private party. We strolled by the entrance a couple times, wondering if we could slip in unnoticed and drink champagne with the fancy people. We decided they were boring anyway and raced through the rain to the next plaza, about ten blocks away. We didn’t make it in time for midnight. At 11:59 we stopped by a gas station, on a dark, empty street and watched the clock on TK’s ipod usher us into 2012.
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| Champagne for me, beer for him |
Within five minutes we found the crowds celebrating outside of bars and setting off fireworks in the street. Families were also releasing huge paper balloons with candles below them, so the sky was filled with these glowing lanterns in addition to fireworks and rain.
Around 4 am we wandered back to our hostel, exactly two years since we spoke for the first time...
How things have changed in two years :).
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| Lots of mountains |
Here's a few more pictures of our time in Salta:
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| Salta means "jump". The name probably refers to the salt flats pictured here... but we'll interpret it as we wish. |
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| At our finest. |
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| Tried llama - tastes like beef |
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| A national park dedicated to preserving cacti. Never seen so many in my life. |
I can't get over the salt flats. Those photographs are out of this world (except, somehow in it)!
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