Unrelated to absolutely everything else, these epiphytes growing all over all the power lines are really cool
Disaster struck in the early hours of day 27. I was hit with my first bout of food poisoning of the trip. After a couple of hours of racing to the bathroom every 10 minutes to expel fluids from both ends, I finally admitted to myself that the planned trip to Purmamarca was impossible. As more residents of the hostel woke up and needed to use the bathrooms, it became evident that the sensible thing to do was to jump online and book the cheapest hotel room we could find in Salta that came with an ensuite so that I could expel my soul along with all the moisture in my body in peace. Nice French guy was lovely enough to give us a ride across the city to our new hotel, which I was extremely thankful for as by this stage I was getting quite feverish. Despite the many failings of the cheapest ensuite room in Salta on booking.com, the beds were comfortable, the bathroom was not shared with 10+ disgusted strangers, and the air conditioning worked sporadically between the hours of 9AM-9PM, so I was able to spend the next 18 hours or so as comfortably as one can while one is alternatively passed out in a feverish daze, oozing like a Cronenberg creature, and being spoon-fed electrolytic drinks by Jeremy (who really should reconsider a career in nursing btw, he’s very good at this).
Luckily, a good night’s sleep and the soothing ministrations of nurse Jeremy led to a swift recovery, and by the next day I was feeling well enough to be out and about again, albeit at a gentle pace. And what better way to test whether my gag reflexes were still in overdrive than by going to see some dead kids. Because I am a nerd, one of the things I wanted to see the most in Salta was the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology, which houses the famous Llullaillaco mummies (unfortunately, no photography allowed). These are the bodies of 3 children (but only 1 is on display at a time, to prolong their shelf-life) who died over half a millennium ago as a result of Incan ritual sacrifice, preserved perfectly by the cold and arid conditions of the volcano they were buried alive on top of. It is believed that this was a fairly common Incan ritual, where special children from the elite class were chosen and prepared over a number of years in order to join their ancestors in watching over the people from atop the highest mountain peaks. It’s difficult for us nowadays to not look at these actions with horror, but repeating “cultural relativism” to oneself does help (who knows what things we consider “normal” these days are going to creep out the people a few centuries on, if humanity can last that long). Regardless of horror levels, it’s hard not to look at these artefacts with respect - respect for the Incas who manage to hold together a huge and complex empire, respect for the craftsmanship that went into the finely-wrought grave goods buried along with the children, respect for the archaeologists/mountaineers who managed to find and haul down the mummies from 6700m above sea level, and respect for the researchers who are managing to keep these mummies in excellent conditions. But because we’re terrible irreverent people, “delicious well-cured child jerky” has become something that gets brought up whenever we see a nice tall mountain peak. We really are the worst.
To further test the fortitude of my innards, we took the cable car up to San Bernardo hill, which overlooks the city. We did not die, although we were suspicious at times (as were the 3 randoms we were sharing the cable car with - turns out fear of death transcends language barriers). And because we are and always will be cheapskates, we walked down the hill instead of shelling out for return tickets.
Heading up, hoping we don't die
View from the top (damn my dirty camera lens)
Heading down, secure in our lack of death-by-gravity
Bonus Jesus for extra XP: while walking around, we randomly came across this epic (Marist?) church. This city sure loves its flamboyantly coloured churches (with good reason, because they're pretty awesome). Unfortunately, it wasn't open for visitors so we couldn't see how ridiculous it was inside.
It also had sweet domes
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