Salta

Salta, called Salta la Linda, the beautiful, is the graceful colonial city at the heart of Argentina's Andean northwest, and it preserves more of its Spanish colonial character than almost any other Argentine city. Its centre gathers around a leafy main square lined with arcades, the pink-and-cream church of San Francisco with its tall bell tower, and the ornate cathedral, while a cable car rises to a hill with views over the whole valley. The region's indigenous and gaucho heritage is strong here, felt in the peñas, the folk-music taverns where empanadas and northern song fill the evenings, and in the MAAM museum, which displays the extraordinarily preserved Inca child mummies found on a nearby volcano summit. Salta is also the base for the northwest's great journeys, among them the Tren a las Nubes, the Train to the Clouds, which climbs to a spectacular high viaduct on the altiplano.

History

Diego de Almagro's large expedition crossed the plains of Chicoana west of today's city early in 1536 on its way to Chile, skirmishing with local people, and the conquistador Hernando de Lerma founded Salta on 16 April 1582 as an outpost between Lima and Buenos Aires. In the war of independence it was a key point between Peru and the Argentine cities, and from 1816 to 1821 General Martín Miguel de Güemes, under José de San Martín, defended the city and the region against Spanish forces from the north. It came out of the war in disarray and bankrupt, and only immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italians, Spaniards, Britons, Syrians and Lebanese among them, revived its trade and farming (Wikipedia, Salta).

Highlights

• Plaza 9 de Julio - the arcaded main square with the cathedral and San Francisco church.
• MAAM (Museum of High Altitude Archaeology) - the preserved Inca mountain-summit mummies.
• The peñas - the folk-music taverns with empanadas and northern song.
• Tren a las Nubes - the Train to the Clouds up to the high altiplano viaduct.

When to go

April to November is drier and pleasant; the summer months are hot with afternoon storms. The Train to the Clouds runs on a schedule and books out, so plan ahead. Evenings in the peñas are a year-round highlight. The city is a comfortable base for exploring the wider northwest.

What to expect

Salta itself is a relaxed colonial city you can see in a day or two; its real value is as the springboard for the northwest's landscapes, which take days of driving to reach. The MAAM mummies are moving to some and unsettling to others, displayed one at a time. The Train to the Clouds is long, expensive and reaches high altitude, so it suits some travellers more than others.

Nearby

Cafayate's wine country and the Quebrada de las Conchas lie south; Purmamarca and the coloured valleys are north.

Key facts