We split up the 9+ hour bus ride from La Rioja to Salta, stopping in Tucumán for a night. There's no real tourist attractions in Tucumán, and we didn't see any other tourists.
I was at the tail end of my cold, and Heather was just getting into hers, so we didn't do much sightseeing. We did have dinner at a nice little mom-and-pop place, with excellent empanadas.
Walking about Tucumán at night at this time of year is a bit nerve-wracking, there are a million cicadas flying about. I didn't like it one little bit; the locals seemed unperturbed.
Took the bus today to Salta. We've actually been watching (and enjoying!) some of the movies shown on the bus rides, including to my surprise Norbit (the Eddie Murphy movie).
Because Argentina wasn't part of our original plans, we didn't bring a guide book for Argentina. However thanks to the Internet and iPhones, I bought a digital copy of the Argentina Lonely Planet (they sell them as PDFs, which I've saved to Stanza), which we've been using for the last week or so. It took a couple days to adjust, and I now find it far more convenient. Lots of locals use smart phones, so if we're looking at a map on the iPhone we don't stand out as tourists. Plus it's no additional weight.
So far the only downside is that there was one page that was corrupted (or at least won't open on the iPhone). It is the map of Salta. So we arrived today without a map. We wanted a hotel near the main plaza, so took a taxi to the main square, and then looked at hotels. We decided on Hotel Salta, on a corner of Plaza 9 de Julio, splurging an extra $10 per night to get a huge terrace balcony. We asked and received a significant discount for staying three nights and paying cash.
Salta's a beautiful colonial town with a few pedestrian-only streets around the centro. We walked around a bit this afternoon, to stretch our legs after two days of bus rides. We're here for a couple days, with plenty of churches, museums and artesanal markets to visit.
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