January 14, Saturday – Transit to Salta, Argentina

We were out of the hotel by 9:00am heading for the airport to catch a fight to Salta.  The flight was pretty smooth but they kept the seat belt sign on for the entire trip because of “turbulence”, of which we felt none. 

The driver who picked us up took us on a short detour around the main town square before dropping us off at our hotel.  After dropping everything off, we grabbed the cameras and headed back downtown.  Per instructions from the driver, our first stop was the tourist agent that was handling our trip in Salta.   Turns out the road for one of our drives had washed out from torrential rains earlier in the week so we needed to pick another tour. 

After sorting out the tours we headed out for some sightseeing.  Salta is in a high altitude sub-tropic location so it gets lovely summer days and cold winter ones.  It has a lot of colonial architecture and a lovely cathedral on the main square.

Immediately adjacent to the cathedral was a modern, glass building that gave some very interesting reflected images of the cathedral tower.

The cathedral was on Salta's main plaza where we saw a dignified statue covered with pigeons...

a pretty fountain...

and wide walkways.

There were lovely colonial style buildings surrounding the square.

We also stopped at the Casa Arias Tengel Museum.  It was very small with closed sections but there were a few interesting items.

Because it was already mid-afternoon we opted for a snack of empanadas and after walking a while we stopped for ice cream in one of the many ice cream shops.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the San Francisco Church.  It was a vivid red and gold on the outside...

and serene and calming on the inside.

The ceiling was particularly pretty.

Then it was back to the hotel for dinner...very light because of the afternoon ice cream.  Mary had a "Caesar” salad – it came with cheese that was not Parmesan and with vinegar and oil for dressing.  It was a pretty uneventful day.