Cacti

Heading north from Tucuman, I hit Salta. The big city of the north, atmospheric as my guidebook describes it. The architecture is colonial and colorful. Northern Argentina is known for some very delicious regional dishes. I´ve faithfully sampled each of them.
Locro is a rich stew of beans, beef (meat and other parts I think) and hominy- very similar to cassoulet. Empanadas are like small baked pastries filled with meat or cheese and baked in a big oven. They´re found all over Argentina, but are particularly savory here in the north. Humita is kind of a cross between a tamale and corn chowder. A salty or sweet puree of corn and cheese steamed in corn husks. They eat llama up here too. My favorite has been the locro.
I took a daytrip to a tiny village about 3 hours outside of Salta called Cachi. The drive takes you through a spectacular gorge and valley. The valley walls are covered in lush, green brush, low trees and grassess, so evenly distributed it has the appearance of silky velvet. A snaking dirt road winds its way along the valley floor and up out of the gorge to Cordones national park. Imagine thousands of cacti strewn along these lush green mountainsides (hard to imagine no?). And these cacti are huge - candelabras of 2 to 10 arms with more buds in every direction, 15 feet and taller.
Very intermittently one spots a tiny house, church or school, though they are usually hiding behind hills and trees. Cemetaries dot hilltops reflecting the Inca and indigenous influence. They both believed the world of the dead exists above the world of the living, closer to they sky. So this is where we find the cemetaries. And this is where some explorers found 3 child sacrifices- at about 6000 meters elevation, on a volcano.


More stories and pictures to come...