Day trip 'into the clouds'

From Salta, you can take wonderful trips into the Argentine Andes. I don't want to miss the 'Train into the Clouds' (Tren a las Nubes), which runs on one of the highest railway lines in the world. As part of a tour group, I travel by bus with a tour guide to San Antonio de los Cobres at 3,800 meters, and then the famous train climbs to 4,220 meters in about an hour. The landscape is breathtakingly beautiful: mountains in various formations and colors from red to greenish, cacti, snow-capped domes, and the occasional cemetery in the middle of nowhere. At each stop, locals approach us tourists and try to sell us their handicrafts, and their children and a llama are offered as photo motifs for 20 pesos (80 cents). The more frequently the situation is repeated, the more oppressive it feels to me. For lunch break, our tour guide takes us to the town of San Antonio de los Cobres, which is also the starting and ending point of the train journey. There is nothing in San Antonio de los Cobres. The houses seem uninhabited, the wind blows a thick layer of sand from the road in your face, dogs roam around, then two children appear begging for 5 pesos (20 cents). Our tour guide says it is important to him that we stimulate the region's economy. Despite my helper syndrome and understanding for the people's plight, I am starting to feel a little exploited and at the same time ashamed of this feeling. I go into the only restaurant that seems to be open and where the other tourists are already gathering, then go out again and buy myself an ice cream in a kiosk two deserted streets away. The landscape on the return trip to Salta allows me to breathe a little easier, but there is still a sense of powerlessness and unease remaining.