Trip Posadas to Salta

The long trip to Salta finished at around 7:30 am this morning. It had been a long night and we had covered about 1200 km. No food served this time, we were just allowed a quick stop in front of a diner. The food at this diner didn't even attract the backpackers so I just used the opportunity to go to a toilet where I didn't have to hold my nose with one hand and the toilet set down with the other.




We passed through many dumps that looked like the Australian equivalent of Back 'o Bourke, with some rundown shacks and skinny dogs. We usually stopped outside a rundown bus station with the bus driveway consisting of churned up mud.



There were 2 babies on the trip. The one immediately in front of us was a very chirpy little baby girl who seemed to be travelling with her mother and grandfather. Ma was Bolivian and Gramps was German. Then I saw Ma and Gramps kissing. Maureen and I thought up some salacious stories around it becoming more and more bizarre.



Today we explored Salta. It's a very pretty city in a valley surrounded by high mountains. It has the obligatory plaza in the middle called 9 de Julio. (Note to self: Check if there is a law that says all towns and cities have to have a central plaza called 9 de Julio)



We went to a museum that had some real Inca child sacrifice mummies. Three children had been sacrificed about 500 years ago by the Incas and recently found. They had been sacrificed in an elaborate ceremony starting with dressing the children in their finest gear and ending with walking them to the top of a high volcano over 6000 metres high, making them drink an alcoholic drink and then burying them alive. Grisly!

Today I leave you with an interesting butterfly in the process of having a drink.