Salta, Buenos Aires & final thoughts

It was a relief to get out of La Paz. It was fun there for sure but a little crazy too. I'd hoped to see the legendary Uyuni salt flats on my way south but, Bolivia being Bolivia, some transport links were blockaded, and anyway I'd lost too much time in La Paz and needed to get a move on.



Last time I was in Argentina I never made it to the northwest, so it was to Salta I flew. It was great to be walking on flat, ordered streets again, and coming back to Argentina felt like coming home. Salta's a beautiful city too - I was going to say "wee city" but it's pretty big for a place with half a million people. Like La Paz, the size of the place doesn't seem to bear much relation to the number of people living here.



One thing that struck me immediately when I got back to Argentina, having been through Peru and Bolivia, was how European people look. It was the same in Colombia. The genetic makeup of people in South America is incredibly diverse. "Mestizo" is a term used to describe people of mixed European (essentially Spanish) and native South American descent, and are the prevalent ethnicity in Colombia and Ecuador (as well as Paragruay and Venezuela). White descendants are prevalent also in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Brazil is a melting pot of everything you could imagine. People from Peru and Bolivia, on the other hand, retain their Indian characteristics. When I got to Argentina, I couldn't tell who was a gringo and who was a local, which was blindlingly obvious in Peru and Bolivia.




Continuing the trend of turning up to places when there's something big on, it didn't get much bigger than this. The day after I arrived was the 200th anniversary of Argentina declaring its independence from Spain, so there was a big party all over the country. In every Argentine town there's a street or road called 25 de Mayo - that being the relevant date in 1810.



In Buenos Aires the festivities were attended by up to a staggering 2 million people - the biggest gathering in the country's history. In Salta, the party was somewhat smaller but it was nice to see people turning out and taking pride in their country, their history.



Salta was a great spot and next time (I'm sure there will be one) I return to Argentina I'll hang out there for longer as there's a lot to do in the region. I'd have liked to see a couple of other places, like Jujuy, Cordoba and Rosario, but I was keen to get to Buenos Aires and catch up with friends from last time. I've already seen the touristy things in BA so it's all about catching up with people this time. It's strange to be here when it's getting colder as last time I was there in the sweltering summer. It's weird to think I'll be leaving South America and getting warmer in London. Just one last photo for you - I can't remember if I mentioned it in the blog last time (and can't be bothered checking) but the rich folks in Palermo hire people to walk their dogs. A professional dog walker has his hands full....



Now I'm off back to London but I have another 2 months off before starting work so there may be some more entries to come...