Sensually Transmitted Wanderlust: Salta & The Andes

Making it to Salta, as any other road to a treasure trove, involves a true hurdle race. You have to cross a scarily long bridge over the Paraná, then drive many hours through the sun-scorched plains of Chaco, including a certain place called Pampa del Infierno roughly translated as Grassland from Hell.

As a blessing in disguise, herds of goats will slow you down on the way, so that you won't end up stuck in an occasional pothole on the road. Somewhere half way the misty-blue Andes start looming on the horizon like a promise of salvation from the ever-pervading heat. Just like us, you may happen upon a major butterfly breeding festival and you will find yourself driving through white fluttering clouds of those creatures, sticking in droves to the windshield and smothering the radiator.

There are, however, nice perks to the journey too, like dinner of surubí, a giant catfish, freshly caught from the Paraná, casual tango dancers in shopping malls and giant bull frogs in the streets - but don't let them dupe you into kissing them, just keep pushing on along the melting tarmac while the sun is steadily taking you over in its celestial heights!

The drive is long and arduous but so much the more alegría will brim your heart when in the dark of the night you make it over an eerie mountain crossing and from the top of it you finally get to see a sprawling valley flooded with electric light - Salta the Beautiful.

Salta is a moveable feast of the Andes. Its brightly lit streets lined up with nicely preserved colonial architecture exude a strong celebratory vibe. To confirm this, you only need to go to any of the many restaurants, where every night Salteños and their guests break down in joyful song and dance. Dining out in Salta is more akin to joining an extended family reunion than simple filling your stomach in a public place - everybody seems to know the lyrics of every song sung by the band and the punters' singing is nothing like drunk pub brawling but more like an amateur choir rehearsal. People are seated along the long tables, crowded with wine and food, children in tag, everything is enjoyed with mindful dignity and unhurried gusto.

It is not just about the atmosphere - wherever we went, food was cooked to perfection, the empanadas - meat and vegetable filled pastry - in Salta are among the best culinary experiences I ever had in my life. Matched with superb local wines grown on mineral-rich volcanic soil of the region, parilladas - mixed grills including everything from spicy sausages and lamb kidneys to llama steaks and beef spareribs - are indeed the proverbial experience not to be missed.

The area around the city is well worth exploring for its natural beauty, Salta's advertising slogan is Linda Por Naturaleza - "beautiful for its nature" - and it lives up to its every letter. Of the many spas, we visited the atmospheric Rosario de La Frontera, an all-inclusive balneological resort founded in 1880 that offers several types of locally extracted mineral waters for bathing or drinking as well as radon mud. For mere 20 pesos you will find yourself smeared and soaked in warm barro radiac that will make your ole tired joints and bones feel like new. You can finish it off with a dip in a warm mineral water pool or a beauty treatment session that involves fragrant essential oils and, surprise, local mineral salts.

Thence on, you may want to return to Salta, which after the sunset will cool down enough for Salteños to, as the local custom duly obliges, crawl out in the streets and fill the café terraces for night-time lounging over coffee, beer or even better, a bottle Argentine wine. Rested during the daytime siesta, they will stay up until very late, so it may not be wise to try and outstay them - for more natural wonders are awaiting you in Salta's wilderness tomorrow!

Whichever cardinal direction you choose to go the next day, no slightest whiff of disappointment will ever be in sight. To the east are the cool and damp cloud forests of the El Rey National Park, hiding tapirs, anteaters and peccaries amongst its epiphyte-covered thickets. To the north, though technically in the adjacent province of Jujuy but just a short ride away, lies the surreally multicoloured Quebrada de Humahuaca, rich in indigenous vestiges and heritage. To the west you can take the Train to The Clouds, which ones again lives up to every letter of its name - a vertiginous engineering feat that will transport you at mind-boggling altitudes through all shades and shapes of Andean scenery.

But the road to the south will take you the farthest: by way of the serene Cabra Coral Dam and the bizarre rocks and outcrops of the Quebrada de Las Conchas. If you don't pay attention to the rain-pregnant clouds on the horizon, you may, just like we did - not without a fright, need to ford a flooded road.

But, as always in Argentina, you will be rewarded manifold for your ordeal in the next stopover destination - Cafayate, Argentina's self-proclaimed capital of outdoor tourism. The vineyards surrounding the town produce torrontés - grape indigenous to this area used for making a most fragrant white wine reminiscent of the best Rieslings of Alsace. And the crispy clear mountain air is the best condiment one can think of for tamales and humitas served at 1700 metres above the sea level.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of travelling in Argentina is that even you feel lost out there in the spectacular wilderness, you are, in fact, never far away from the refined excesses of modern civilisation. Just when we thought that the landslides trapped us in the midst of the night, we only had to drive half a mile back and off the road to find ourselves served filet of sole by tuxedoed waiters. Every Andean village we visited had an ATM to duly supply us with cash and a camera shop to burn our digital pictures on a CD-ROM.