But the market certainly isn’t stagnant—house prices here rose by around 30% last year. In the sought-after central area—Microcenter—three-bedroom quality apartments mostly fall into the $35,000 to $45,000 range. In streets fanning out from here, restored houses of around 1,500 square feet often go for $50,000 or less. For example, a two-storey house on Calle Alvaro (1,883 square feet) with three bedrooms and small patio for BBQ’s is $37,700. 

Zona Monumento, below San Bernardo Hill, is a neighborhood of leafy streets and individual houses. It’s considered exclusive—a pretty red-brick house with three bedrooms and small front garden is $98,000. In the north-east of the city, Tres Cerritos is another attractive residential neighborhood. Its gigantic Alto Noa mall boasts 100 shops including the Norte Supermercado, an eight-screen movie theater, and a Food Court seating 500. Here a 1,400-square-foot house with small front garden is $46,300. 

On Salta’s outskirts, there are also developments of “urbanizations.” In San Luis, a 1,140-square-foot home with verandah, patio, and small swimming pool is $35,000. A larger home with living space of 2,580 square feet at Cerrillos is $55,000.

Habla Espanol?

What’s a departamento? In South American Spanish, it’s an apartment...which brings me to the bad news.

Finding real estate agents who speak good English outside Buenos Aires is difficult. Roberto Molina of Salta’s Granados y Penelver agency is helpful—but like his colleagues, he speaks little English. However, as I’d arranged my meeting in advance—and explained I wasn’t a Spanish-speaker—they supplied an interpreter. 

Senor Molina says there’ll be no problem if you’re interested in Salta property. Just give advance notice of your arrival so Alfonso or another interpreter can be there. And, if you don’t speak Spanish, it’s better to e-mail rather than telephone.

Agency fees are 3% to the buyer, 3% to the seller. Like with other agencies I saw, some house prices list in Argentine peso, others in U.S. dollars. To make life confusing, Argentina uses the “$” sign for pesos. If a home is priced in US dollars, it’s indicated as “US$.” Granados & Penalver (Roberto Molina), Leguizamon 407, 4400 Salta, Argentina; tel./fax (54)387-422-2521; e-mail:saltainmobiliaria@yahoo.com.

The Charms Of San Lorenzo

Back on San Bernardo’s summit, much of Salta province is laid out before you like a checkerboard. Amongst Salteno home-buyers, two sought-after rural villages are San Lorenzo and Vaqueros. Both are within 15 minutes drive of the city center, and you can see San Lorenzo from this hill-top. 

But don’t just view it—go there. Tucked into a setting of hills, gorges, and mountain streams, San Lorenzo really lays on the charm. Humming birds…banana-yellow butterflies and wild orchids...neat gardens of roses and carnations. 

Nowadays people live here year-round, but San Lorenzo’s history is that of a summer bolt-hole for the wealthy. It has some sumptuous manor houses, a number built in the eclectic style of “Moorish Spain meets Tuscany meets baronial Scotland.” With horse-riding, cycling, and local excursions into the San Lorenzo Quebrada (gorge) and Selva Montana forest, it seems perfect for a tourist venture.

Agent Roberto Molina suggests one castle-like San Lorenzo property could be transformed into a small hotel. Formerly a private boys’ college, it has more than 6,000 square feet of living space. The 75,000-square-feet of parkland includes palm and fruit trees, a fountain, and a swimming pool. The price is $259,000. Other San Lorenzo options include a 2,577-square-foot “summer villa” for $130,000.

Building Lots For $2 A Square Foot

Thanks to an afternoon’s bird-watching foray into the cloud-forest (my first scarlet tanager!), I only glimpsed the lights of Vaqueros at night. A shame, because Vaqueros is apparently rich in artisan traditions. 

This village lies at the start of the old road to San Salvador de Jujuy—a tortuous 60 miles of narrow roads corkscrewing across the mountains. The forest canopy occasionally opens up to give dizzying views of silver lakes below. Scenic, yes, but not a great route for night-driving. If you’re heading towards San Salvador de Jujuy and the Bolivian border, take the highway instead.

I don’t know of any Vaqueros houses on the market at this moment, but building land around the village is fetching $2 to $3 per square foot. According to Jesus Granados, Senor Molina’s colleague, construction cost for a luxury home to include air-conditioning and heating is around $32.50 per square foot. Costs can fall to $24 per square foot, but materials won’t be best-quality.

Granados y Penalver also sell farmland in Salta province. At Campo Talapampa, 57 miles from Salta city, a 247-hectare tract is $50,000 (1 hectare equals around 2.5 acres). Sixty hectares are under production. Crops include tobacco, maize, potatoes, and pimento peppers. 

Crossing The Tropic of Capricorn

Within an hour’s drive of Salta, you’re at the foothills of the Andes. Tropical cloud-forest changes to landscapes of cactus-strewn deserts, blood-red canyons, and multi-colored mountains banded with iron and copper ore. 

The big excursion from Salta is the Tren a los Nubes (Train to the Clouds), one of the world’s highest train journeys. Not realizing the train only runs on Saturday, I missed that. However, the trip into neighboring Jujuy province and the Quebrada de Humahuaca made up for the disappointment. 

Lasting 13 hours, the trip featured pueblos of blindingly white adobe houses and village churches...Tilcara with its ancient Inca fortress and opportunities to lunch on llama... handicraft markets where alpaca sweaters sell for less than $10. Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, the Quebrada de Humahuaca is canyon and cactus country. You’ll see giant cacti lining both sides of the road. Their perforated wood is often used as ceiling material. 

At Purmamarca, the Cerro de los Siete Colores is a mountain bearing a surreal resemblance to a stripy ice-cream cone flavored with peppermint, strawberry, vanilla, coffee, and tangerine. As the light changes, so do the mountain’s seven colors. 

Altitude sickness can be a problem at Humahuaca—the village is 10,000 feet above sea level. One remedy is to chew coca leaves—locals sell bagfuls of leaves for an equivalent 35 cents. You cannot bring them back into the States—coca leaves are the raw ingredient for cocaine—but don’t worry that you’ll turn into a drug fiend. The only effect they had on me was a slight numbing of the lips. 

The guide who showed me around the Quebrada de Humahuaca wonderland was Andrea Chavez of Argentina Activa. (Zuviria 982, Salta, Argentina; website: www.argentinaactiva.com.) For two people, the cost of the day trip with private guide and driver is $69.

Overlook Cordoba

Like in the Salta area, Argentina’s central Sierras also offer home-seekers alternatives to big city Buenos Aires. Of course, if your main aim is investment, Buenos Aires has to be the number one choice. As yet, nowhere else in Argentina really fits the IL description of “a brand-name city.” And these usually provide the best investment opportunities. 

But the economic situation means that instead of taking vacations abroad, Argentines are staying at home and spending their money. Along with Salta, I advise checking out Villa Carlos Paz—more about this place in a moment.

First, though, a quick word about Cordoba. As it’s also billed as a colonial city, you may feel it’s worth looking at. Home to 1.5 million people, this is Argentina’s second city. There’s good shopping, locals are friendly, but things seem characterless. It didn’t appeal to me as Salta did.

Buildings are grimier, traffic is noisier, and trying to get an airport taxi is incredibly frustrating. Colonial city? Aside from stern-looking Jesuit seminaries and a grimy-looking Cathedral, little evidence remains of Cordoba’s colonial past. 

Sunday morning felt dead. Around the main square, nowhere was open apart from the Cathedral, a coffee-shop, and the tourist office. A lady there suggested taking a trip to the town of Villa Carlos Paz, a 40-minute bus ride away. “This is where everybody goes.”

So I did, too. What a revelation! Villa Carlos Paz is like a fragment of central Europe—it reminded me of Austria’s lakelands. Set around a lake, Lago San Roque, many of its houses are chalet-style with flowery gardens. Even on Sunday, many town center shops were open. Beside the lake, families were setting up picnic tables or eating in parrillas (steak houses) opposite.

My visit was during April—the onset of fall in the southern hemisphere. Looking at postcards of the town in wintertime (July and August), you can barely see the lake for bathers. Apparently it becomes like a seaside resort, with artificial sand beaches. 

In real estate agency windows, I spotted homes priced between $10,000 and $80,000. I should have visited on a weekday, obviously. (Once back home, I e-mailed some agencies, but they haven’t yet replied—maybe serious buyers will have better luck.) To give you an idea of what’s available, go to www.beistegui.com.ar—the website is partly in English. Properties include a 1,100 square foot chalet in a private development with a swimming pool for $25,000. 

If you want to try Villa Carlos Paz for size, one-bedroom furnished rentals are $87 to $100 monthly. The town doesn’t die out of season—it’s home to around 50,000 people.

Sidebar: Inca Secrets

On the Calle Mitre side of Salta’s Plaza 9 de Julio, MAAM is the Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montana. Don’t miss it. The museum is dedicated to 1999’s extraordinary discovery by archaeologists of three mummified Inca children. Buried on top of Cerro Llullaillaco, a 22,000-feet-high extinct volcano in Salta province, the bodies had lain intact for 500 years. The victims of ritual Inca sacrifice, the children journeyed into eternity with a stunning array of gold and silver objects. For foreigners, admission is 10 pesos, about $3.

Sidebar: Best Ice Cream Outside Italy…And Other Argentine Gastronomic Treats

Argentina’s melting pot heritage adds up to a wonderful cuisine. The ice –cream is definitely the best outside Italy. 

You expect good food when you travel to Argentina. What I didn’t expect was that it’s not obligatory to be a carnivore. The range of vegetarian dishes is superb. Omelettes, of course, but also ravioli-like sorrentinos filled with spinach and cheese; crunchy apple and celery Waldorf salads; hearty bean soups; Russian salads of diced potato, carrot, and peas in mayonnaise. Depending on where you go, you’ll find them all for between 5 and 8 pesos (75 cents to $2.75). 

But as everybody knows, Argentina is synonymous with steak. It’s so good—and so cheap—it’s hard to refuse. Begin your trip in Buenos Aires and you’ll likely think a full-size filet mignon steak is excellent value at $9. But visit Dos Jovi restaurant on Salta’s Calle Balcarce, and you realize you’ve been paying way over the odds. The same steak here is $3.80; a “child’s portion” of around 8 ounces is $2.40. Portions are so massive that child-size steaks were plenty big enough for me.

Argentines delight in eating weirder bovine parts, too. A parrillada—a mixed grill—contains sweetbreads, intestines, and all kinds of unrecognizable bits and bobs. I rarely get excited about innards, but morcilla (blood sausage) is delicious. Unlike with most blood sausages, you don’t find a firm texture when cutting it open. Instead, the piping-hot contents ooze out in a liquid manner—perfect for mopping up with bread. Strictly for the non-squeamish, though.

The only thing I wasn’t keen on was llama meat. However, as it’s not really a menu staple, you have to seek it out. It tastes fine minced up in the pastry case of an empanada, but the llama stew I sampled in the Andean Highlands was chewy and inedible.

Sidebar: Lay Your Head For Less Than $60 A Night

My base in Salta was the atmospheric Hotel del Virrey. A 15-minute-walk from the center, it’s a small colonial-style hotel with heavy wooden doors, wrought-iron lamps, and rooms with adjoining tiled pateos. Including breakfast, nightly rate for singles is $48; doubles are $62. The helpful reception staff will arrange excursions for you.

Hotel del Virrey, 20 de Febrero 420, 4400 Salta, Argentina; tel./fax (54)387-422-8000. 

In Cordoba, I stayed at NH Panorama, a modern business-class hotel overlooking la Canada, a tree-lined canal. The rack rate for doubles with breakfast is $80, but I got it for $60 through www.hotels.com. 
NH Panorama, Marcelo T. de Alvear 251, Cordoba, Argentina; tel. (54)351-410-3900.