Provincial Plaza Hotel

Museo Historico del Norte

by barryg23

The Museo Historico del Norte is an impressive museum housed in the equally impressive Cabildo building on the main square. It costs 2 pesos to enter and is open in the mornings and evenings, though closed for a long siesta break in the afternoons. Most of the exhibits are in Spanish though there is an English leaflet available at the ticket desk.

Most of the exhibits are about the War of Independence, in particular, there are displays about Guemes, the local hero in this war, as well as portraits & pictures of him, and some examples of his personal posses ions. In the upstairs section the focus is on religious art, with some impressive paintings. The best thing about the museum is the building it is housed in, the Cabildo, with its open courtyards and beautiful balconies.

NEAR SALTA : SALINAS GRANDE

by swesn

The altiplano was a plateau at around 4000m and it was flattish desert all the way.

In the distance, we could see the white colour of the salt-pan.

Approaching the salt-pan, known as Salinas Grande, I could see from the windscreen of the car, one side was entirely grey with a brewing storm and the other was slightly cloudy but with pockets of blue sky.

There were workers working on the salt-pan but due to the coming storm, all had cleared out. So, we arrived to an abandoned salt mining site.

The salt-pan was full of hexagon shapes on the plain. The edges of the hexagon shapes were crumbles of raw salt crystals. There were some blue pools of water where salt crystals were formed and where the mining was done.

I had expected strong harsh rays famous of the altiplano sun and blinding whiteness reflected from the salt pans and had prepared to slather myself with sunscreen, but not today, honey. There was nothing bright here.

Instead, we managed a few photos before being pelted by the storm and raged by the strong, cold wind, and had to scramble into the car and flee.