The soundtrack for the Salta portion of the program will include "El Condor Pasa."

Got up early Monday so as not to miss the sun hitting the Cerro de Siete Colores... only to realize that the sun doesn't rise as early as we thought. So we had time for breakfast and a short hike up to a small butte right behind the hotel to watch the colors come out. Amazing.

On the way back to Salta we stopped numerous times (and heard numerous versions of the aforementioned song). First was Tilcara, home of some of Argentina's pre-Incan ruins. The differences between these and Peru's pre-Incan ruins were interesting. Tilcara's have been completely rebuilt, there is a pyramid-shaped monument to the archaeologist(s?) at the top of the hill, and there are no terraces and cactus everywhere.

weird, bordering on offensive and inappropriate

The building concepts were the same, of course - stone-on-stone structures (although in this case cane and cactus were also used), trapezoidal doors, and my favorite, the wall niches. Interesting site.

cane, cactus and mud were used to reinforce the stone structures

We also stopped by Tilcara's main plaza, where - of course - the locals were selling handcrafted wares to tourists, and I visited the archaeological museum. Interesting artifacts, but more interesting was the empty display case where a sign had been posted: "we had a mummy on display here, but out of respect for the dead we decided to remove this display." (Implied but not stated: Phhhhhhbht, Salta.)

Tilcara main plaza, and the only woman I saw honored in this way in South America

The rest of the day was a blur of car-badAndeanflutecovermusic-stop-car-dust-wind-car-badAndeanflutecovermusic. Basically:

Next was Humahuaca and a 400 year old cathedral with a confessional made of cactus wood. So cool! There was also a monument to those who helped Humahuaca gain independence, and a clock tower of adobe.

And some other things I didn't quite follow (our town guide only spoke Spanish and I was pretty windblown and tired by this point). We skipped the tourist trap lunch of meat and "squished" potatoes and dined in a really cute cafe instead...

inside El Portillo

quinoa crepes are wonderful - who knew?

a novel and natural way to store wine

... then braved the wind for more photo ops.

view from the independence monument

In Uquia we saw another small but beautiful 400 year old church with a similar cactus confessional.

Interestingly, the exteriors of the churches the day before were painted to look like cobblestones, but the ones we saw the second day were the usual pristine white (like Cachi's). Our guide's presence was rather underwhelming for this portion of the Salta program and I forgot to ask about the difference.

Quick stops at the Tropic of Capricorn...

... Maimara...

(where I thought we were looking at a beautiful cemetery but I was actually supposed to be looking at the mountain)

... and Jujuy ("hoo-hoooey")...

Jujuy: allegedly home of the most beautiful people in Argentina

pretty churches, I know that for sure

... and back to Salta to rest up for the next day's adventure: wine country!