Salta, May 22.

The tour was announced for start at 7:15.  “But be ready for 7:00,” said the tour operator.  I was.  Most of the tours started around 7:00, thus the hotel sort of served breakfast at 6:30.  The coffee wasn’t really ready, thus I used my Nescafe – it was better anyways.  I booked with an operator named “Mares del Sur Turismo” (Calle Buenos Aires 84, Loc 4).  Supposedly, they do 4x4 tours.  More personal, more flexible.  I waited for the 4x4, and a fairly large bus named Silvia Magno showed up.  I asked the driver about the viaduct.  He shook his head.  This tour only goes to San Antonio de los Cobres.  That’s 27 km short of the original promise.  “Look, you can take this one, or stay at home,” he says.  I compromise and go; he makes me a copy that I can take up the case with the original company.  I’m stupid and don’t ask about the ruins.  It seems obvious that we go; that’s along the road.

The tourism industry is unpredictable; cancellations do happen. It happened both in Australia and Iceland. And in both cases I got a more valuable tour as replacement than I originally paid for.  Iceland even threw in a free airport transfer.  This tour is shorter than I originally paid for.  And then I notice that I’m about the youngest on the bus.  Several of my fellow travelers never get out at the stops.  Some walk with difficulties.  I’ve never seen a similar age-homogeneous group.  Most tour operators are proud to have an age distribution between 18 and 100.  Even on tours that require a high level of fitness –ability counts, not age. 

We reach Santa Rosa de Tastil, stop next to an indigena market and the guide points out a small museum that displays a mummy.  I buy three stones for my grandchildren, visit the museum and wait for an announcement about the ruins, but there is none.  I asked one of the others; they never heard about the ruins, but one woman asks in the museum.  “They are by the cemetery,” says the museum guide.  “Our driver will know,” says my fellow traveler assuringly.  After an hour of shopping, we get back on the bus and continue.  The ruins aren’t mentioned.  We continue to San Antonio de los Cobres, where the others go to lunch in the tourist restaurant.  It’s not included in the price.  I skip it; I rather buy bread and fruit and eat it outside in the sun.  The restaurant is dark and the smoke from the open fire would irritate my throat.  Another our passes by; I meet on the bench two young Canadian woman; they are on another tour, similarly bored and disappointed.  They didn’t see the ruins either.  It seems the tourist industry eradicated them, for the sake and comfort of the drivers.  Before we finally start down, I ask the driver about the ruins.  “We don’t go there,” he says, “because these invalids couldn’t walk there.”  I have been traveling intensively since I turned 60, but I never encountered age discrimination like this one.  First of all, we aren’t all invalids.  Some of them are on walkers or canes, but the others (including me) are perfectly able to walk.  Maybe even those who can’t walk would like to get a glimpse of the ruins from a distance.  Why deprive all of us automatically?  Even without asking?  And guess what, on the way down, we stop again at the indigena market.  I assume the driver gets a share from the sales.  I ask where the ruins are; he vaguely points towards the rocks.  “Down there,” he says.  I find the cemetery the museum guide mentioned; there is a sign for the archeological park.  I start to walk, but there is no time to walk far enough to get glimpse.  I’m disciplined and return to the bus by the announced time, when the others are of course still shopping.  We return to Salta by darkness. This was the most boring trip of my life.  The others – mostly from Buenos Aires – completely ignored me, except for one old guy who made a few patronizing comments, like the guide in the folklore museum.  And I didn’t see anything I really wanted to see. 

Thus I walk back to Mares del Sur Turismo, while my anger is still red hot.  They immediately make the promise of another tour, a real one, instead of a refund.  In Iceland, I would get a full refund, not questions asked.  But this is not Iceland; this is Salta, Argentina.  They look for fast profit and forget about the word of mouth.

I would’ve considered the replacement tour, although it would’ve screwed my schedule totally, if only they hadn’t canceled the second tour at 10 pm in the evening.  But after that, why to believe that it would work on the third occasion?
And I can’t even leave the first thing in the morning, I have to go and get the refund the second tour, and at least a partial refund for the first one.  With the second one they have no choice, although he seemed to think hard; with the first one he offers the replacement again.  Anything but parting with the money.  I refuse, and get a 15% refund.  I try to argue, that I could’ve seen as much from the public bus, for a fraction of the cost; he says that here I got the explanation.  Now let’s not go into the quality of the explanation.  He hands me the 15% (actually rounding the amount down), and from his part the transaction is finished.  “I will post this to the Lonely Planet forum,” I say.  I don’t quite catch his Spanish response, but it sounds like who gives a damn or a little ruder.

Thus here is my advice about tours from Salta:

1)      Unless you are desperately short of time (like only a weekend there), don’t book tours.  Check the public buses, go out to the villages (Cachi, Cafayate, Purmamarca, Tilcara etc.) spend time there and go on local trips or walks.  You will see more for a lot less.

2)      Book at your hostel/hotel, not randomly.  If anything goes wrong, it’s a lot easier to complain about a hostel/hotel, any booking site will ask for your experience.

3)      Don’t listen to the sirens on the street.  Book with tour operators that sit at their desk.

4)      Don’t offer speaking Spanish to them, unless it’s your first language or you speak the local dialect with an equivalent fluency.  If it’s a second language, and it comes to an argument, you will be at disadvantage and they won’t hesitate to use it.