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It’s been 10 days of many fantastic experiences and lots of moving around in these provinces in the North of Argentina (bordering Bolivia): Salta and JuJuy (pronounced “hu-huy” :. Even though I knew I was still in Argentina, it felt like I was already in Bolivia; the majority of the population was indigenous, the food choices included tamales and humitas and locros soups, the landscape had changed from desert to canyons to salt lakes, etc. It was hot in the afternoon and freezing at night. I can’t believe I was so close to Bolivia, and had to turn around to make my way back to Buenos Aires… I will come back to Bolivia several months later… !!!
Salta to Cachi
I took the public bus to Cachi early in the morning on May 1st, which is the national holiday. Most businesses , museums , restaurants and even some bus routes were closed. The scenery on the road was spectacular but I really struggled to see it as I was passing out for the lack of coffee ( it was closed as well). I was forcing myself to open my eyes for at least part of the road. Next to me was sitting a women who was an Argentine educated in England and spoke with an English accent, who made a point to tell me that “they (indigenous people) are different from the rest of the Argentineans”…
Cachi is a tiny beautiful village in the volley, with houses made of orange mud. There is not much you can do here, but that’s what attracted me to go there. As soon as I got there, I realized that it’s REALLY-REALLY SMALL… besides, it was a national holiday so everything was closed….including the museum and the tourist office. The only thing I was able to do there is to wonder around, eat, and visit the beautiful cemetery on the top of the hill.
Right away, I tried to find a way to get to the next town Cafayate, which is inaccessible by public transportation. Everybody kept telling me that I have to come back to Salta, and take a bus from there to Cafayate (9 hours of travel time). It’s because to travel from Cachi to Cafayate, you need to travel via unpaved Ruta 40 (the public transportation had been terminated some time ago there). I had tons of time on my hands and asked around in the village if anybody knew of anyone who would be travelling via Ruta 40 in the direction of Cafayate. Finally, when I approached 3 police officers on the main plaza, they told me that they knew someone who will be making a trip. They told me to wait at the plaza while they went to find the young boy who would drive us (Us is me and another German couple that I recruited earlier) so we could agree on the price. The road was truly spectacular, with the landscape changing every minute… Ruta 40 is the national road that runs from Patagonia (starts in Ushuaia) all the way to the border with Bolivia, all in all 5000 km through the whole country. Wow! I was riding it 3 months earlier in Patagonia… the same road…
Cachi to Cafayate
In Cafayate, we checked-in into a very beautiful hostel right in the center, overlooking the main plaza. Cafayate, is a bit bigger than Cachi, located in the volley, its famous for its wineries and its only 20 min away from the beautiful canyons, called Quebralda del Concha. Right away, Cafayate seemed like a much bigger town with so much to do! The hostel offered free wine tour and degustation in the morning… after breakfast … Hmmm… Baracha time before lunch! :)) There, I also had visited Quebraldas on the tour… which was actually not bad, because it was not expensive and involved a lot of walking! Beautiful red, green and yellow mountains!
I had to pull myself out of Cafayate several days later…… It was hard to leave because it was very unique and special little town… So, the plan was to take a 1.30 bus and to go back to Salta to get my big backpack, stay in Salta for a few days and then … head to the province of Jujuy. At the bus station I ran into Ian, an American boy that I met 3 months ago in Bariloche, in Patagonia who was now on his school break from his university in Buenos Aires.
JuJuy to Purmamarca
I decided not to go back to Salta and just continue on travelling to the North and ended up going to JuJuy province with Ian as it was fun to travel together. We made many bus connections in one shot: Cafayate to Salta to Jujuy city to Purmamarca! Purmamarca is even tinier little indigenous village with the famous mountain of seven colors. We arrived after the dark, and the only hostel that was advertised in the Lonely Planet had a sign “Cerrado” and a lock on the door. But no biggie, I did not even have any time to freak out, as we found the little family place, owned by the local Garcia family, who took us in. It was a very simple room with bad mattress and dreary sheets that I chose not to study closely, in the traditional little house made of orange mud, called “Adobe House”. Oh, well… not the first time… and it was very cheap, 20 pesos… Finding the place to eat was a little challenge too… We were able to score an average meal in the place called “Mama Coca” . Later, we ran into Jose, the owner of our house who had his cheek full of the Coca leaves, and told us that the Dengue fever and Swine flu is all negative propaganda and it was all meant to steal tourism from Latin Communities….. In the morning when I saw my surroundings, I had to pinch myself to believe how beautiful the surroundings were. We were lucky guests in this beautiful traditional village. From Purmamarca, it’s also very easy to visit the Grand Salinas, or the salt lake of Argentina.
We took a car service to Grand Salinas for a 4 hour trip (3 hour drive both ways)… It was like a little tease… Definitely not enough of actual time there for me… But I will, hopefully make it soon to the bigger solar lake in Bolivia, called Solar Uyni.
Purmamarca to Tilcara
From Purmamarca, we took the bus to Tilcara, another pretty small town in the mountain, full of artists and hippies. This is where I decided to separate from Ian, because he had to travel fast in the short period of time… And I wanted to spend some days here in Tilcara. In the hostel in Tilcara, I was the only foreigner and there were also staying Argentinean girls from Buenos Aires, 4 psychologists and 1 medical student, who were doing their hospital rotation in the hospitals and clinics around Tilcara. Really cool chicas, one of them enjoyed cooking and was kind of very seriously forcing us to eat her food. She even made some delicious empanadas for all of us… I can’t really complain.
Tilcara to Iruya to Humahuaca
From Tilcara I followed one of the girls lead and went on the long bus ride to see the cute village Iruya that has probably no more than 10 streets. Iruya seemed to be artificially carved into the high Andean mountains. When you arrive to Iruya, the road literally ends… there is nowhere else to go from here. Unfortunately, after I ate lunch there , I only had about an hour to walk around before heading back by the 3pm, the last bus. So, Iruya, was kind of a small blur… back and forth about 8 hours on the bus on the crazy mountain road and motion sickness… and only 1 hour to spend there.
Humahuaca, was the next destination. Beautiful… another tiny place where I got stock for 4 days… It’s the kind of place where you know everybody after the 1st day. Loved it there. The hostel owner even made me take the Folkloric Dance (indigenous dance) class with him in the center twice that week with a real cool group, mostly people from Buenos Aires who escaped the busy city life to leave in the mountains. The dancing involved clapping, tapping, dancing with the scarf, polka, jumping, twirling skirts, making some strange sounds, etc… It felt like I joined some sort of cult :)) But after the initial shock, I got into it, the dance… when I was able not to think about the outside world. Humahuaca has also brilliant trekking, very easy, just take the bus… walk around the villages and see the beautiful red canyons, get back on the bus… No tours are needed here. Humahuaca was also the place where I met a lot of cool backpackers , some of whom I will hopefully be meeting up again on the road.
The hostel in Humahuaca, Posada del Sol, was like a 5 star hotel to me!!! It’s a family owned, the owner, Ruben is very friendly and sooo sweet!!! He served us breakfast in the morning, personally prepared the Nescafe and made foam for each and every one of us. :) I had a semiprivate simple room in the annex with just a mattress on the wooden floor … It was a great place to relax and feel like human being again. I guess my standards had changed a lot these days: Nescafe foam and a nice mattress make me happy these days :).
Oh yeah, I can’t not mention this story… It was a beautiful night, full moon, when I was walking to the hostel, and…. I was kind of attacked by a dog, which bit me..., but did not break the skin… just a soar and a scratch, and of course,I was about to drop a tear from feeling sorry for myself… But, again, when you are travelling alone… nobody really cares… so instead I turned it into a funny ha-ha story to tell when I got back to the hostel. hmmm...
Humahuaca back to Salta
The 5 hour bus ride from Humahuaca back to Salta was spectacular!!! Beautiful day, blue skies, I had a huge window in front , so I had 180 degrees view all over the canyons of Humahuaca. And, besides, I had a great company! My next seat neighbor on the bus was Javier, the sound engineer from Buenos Aires, who was working in Humahuaca, recording the folkloric album for the local musicians. Wow! Javier would never shut up during the whole trip … :) but in the good way… He was such a fun companion! We talked all the way and even ended up eating some bad pizza in the restaurant in the bus terminal… to finish our conversations… before… we each headed our way, I stayed in Salta for several days and he flew to Buenos Aires. That’s life… on the road, you only get those moments to share with people and you probably will never see them again!
That evening, in Salta, I went to see the folkloric show. Those were the dances that I learned in Humahuaca!!! The next thing I know the performer gives me the big skirt to put on and invites me to participate in the show to dance Cachara! I had nothing to lose!
The Northeast of Argentina is for sure one of the highlights and I will try to get back here one day!
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It’s been 10 days of many fantastic experiences and lots of moving around in these provinces in the North of Argentina (bordering Bolivia): Salta and JuJuy (pronounced “hu-huy” :. Even though I knew I was still in Argentina, it felt like I was already in Bolivia; the majority of the population was indigenous, the food choices included tamales and humitas and locros soups, the landscape had changed from desert to canyons to salt lakes, etc. It was hot in the afternoon and freezing at night. I can’t believe I was so close to Bolivia, and had to turn around to make my way back to Buenos Aires… I will come back to Bolivia several months later… !!!
Salta to Cachi
I took the public bus to Cachi early in the morning on May 1st, which is the national holiday. Most businesses , museums , restaurants and even some bus routes were closed. The scenery on the road was spectacular but I really struggled to see it as I was passing out for the lack of coffee ( it was closed as well). I was forcing myself to open my eyes for at least part of the road. Next to me was sitting a women who was an Argentine educated in England and spoke with an English accent, who made a point to tell me that “they (indigenous people) are different from the rest of the Argentineans”…
Cachi is a tiny beautiful village in the volley, with houses made of orange mud. There is not much you can do here, but that’s what attracted me to go there. As soon as I got there, I realized that it’s REALLY-REALLY SMALL… besides, it was a national holiday so everything was closed….including the museum and the tourist office. The only thing I was able to do there is to wonder around, eat, and visit the beautiful cemetery on the top of the hill.
Right away, I tried to find a way to get to the next town Cafayate, which is inaccessible by public transportation. Everybody kept telling me that I have to come back to Salta, and take a bus from there to Cafayate (9 hours of travel time). It’s because to travel from Cachi to Cafayate, you need to travel via unpaved Ruta 40 (the public transportation had been terminated some time ago there). I had tons of time on my hands and asked around in the village if anybody knew of anyone who would be travelling via Ruta 40 in the direction of Cafayate. Finally, when I approached 3 police officers on the main plaza, they told me that they knew someone who will be making a trip. They told me to wait at the plaza while they went to find the young boy who would drive us (Us is me and another German couple that I recruited earlier) so we could agree on the price. The road was truly spectacular, with the landscape changing every minute… Ruta 40 is the national road that runs from Patagonia (starts in Ushuaia) all the way to the border with Bolivia, all in all 5000 km through the whole country. Wow! I was riding it 3 months earlier in Patagonia… the same road…
Cachi to Cafayate
In Cafayate, we checked-in into a very beautiful hostel right in the center, overlooking the main plaza. Cafayate, is a bit bigger than Cachi, located in the volley, its famous for its wineries and its only 20 min away from the beautiful canyons, called Quebralda del Concha. Right away, Cafayate seemed like a much bigger town with so much to do! The hostel offered free wine tour and degustation in the morning… after breakfast … Hmmm… Baracha time before lunch! :)) There, I also had visited Quebraldas on the tour… which was actually not bad, because it was not expensive and involved a lot of walking! Beautiful red, green and yellow mountains!
I had to pull myself out of Cafayate several days later…… It was hard to leave because it was very unique and special little town… So, the plan was to take a 1.30 bus and to go back to Salta to get my big backpack, stay in Salta for a few days and then … head to the province of Jujuy. At the bus station I ran into Ian, an American boy that I met 3 months ago in Bariloche, in Patagonia who was now on his school break from his university in Buenos Aires.
JuJuy to Purmamarca
I decided not to go back to Salta and just continue on travelling to the North and ended up going to JuJuy province with Ian as it was fun to travel together. We made many bus connections in one shot: Cafayate to Salta to Jujuy city to Purmamarca! Purmamarca is even tinier little indigenous village with the famous mountain of seven colors. We arrived after the dark, and the only hostel that was advertised in the Lonely Planet had a sign “Cerrado” and a lock on the door. But no biggie, I did not even have any time to freak out, as we found the little family place, owned by the local Garcia family, who took us in. It was a very simple room with bad mattress and dreary sheets that I chose not to study closely, in the traditional little house made of orange mud, called “Adobe House”. Oh, well… not the first time… and it was very cheap, 20 pesos… Finding the place to eat was a little challenge too… We were able to score an average meal in the place called “Mama Coca” . Later, we ran into Jose, the owner of our house who had his cheek full of the Coca leaves, and told us that the Dengue fever and Swine flu is all negative propaganda and it was all meant to steal tourism from Latin Communities….. In the morning when I saw my surroundings, I had to pinch myself to believe how beautiful the surroundings were. We were lucky guests in this beautiful traditional village. From Purmamarca, it’s also very easy to visit the Grand Salinas, or the salt lake of Argentina.
We took a car service to Grand Salinas for a 4 hour trip (3 hour drive both ways)… It was like a little tease… Definitely not enough of actual time there for me… But I will, hopefully make it soon to the bigger solar lake in Bolivia, called Solar Uyni.
Purmamarca to Tilcara
From Purmamarca, we took the bus to Tilcara, another pretty small town in the mountain, full of artists and hippies. This is where I decided to separate from Ian, because he had to travel fast in the short period of time… And I wanted to spend some days here in Tilcara. In the hostel in Tilcara, I was the only foreigner and there were also staying Argentinean girls from Buenos Aires, 4 psychologists and 1 medical student, who were doing their hospital rotation in the hospitals and clinics around Tilcara. Really cool chicas, one of them enjoyed cooking and was kind of very seriously forcing us to eat her food. She even made some delicious empanadas for all of us… I can’t really complain.
Tilcara to Iruya to Humahuaca
From Tilcara I followed one of the girls lead and went on the long bus ride to see the cute village Iruya that has probably no more than 10 streets. Iruya seemed to be artificially carved into the high Andean mountains. When you arrive to Iruya, the road literally ends… there is nowhere else to go from here. Unfortunately, after I ate lunch there , I only had about an hour to walk around before heading back by the 3pm, the last bus. So, Iruya, was kind of a small blur… back and forth about 8 hours on the bus on the crazy mountain road and motion sickness… and only 1 hour to spend there. 
Humahuaca, was the next destination. Beautiful… another tiny place where I got stock for 4 days… It’s the kind of place where you know everybody after the 1st day. Loved it there. The hostel owner even made me take the Folkloric Dance (indigenous dance) class with him in the center twice that week with a real cool group, mostly people from Buenos Aires who escaped the busy city life to leave in the mountains. The dancing involved clapping, tapping, dancing with the scarf, polka, jumping, twirling skirts, making some strange sounds, etc… It felt like I joined some sort of cult :)) But after the initial shock, I got into it, the dance… when I was able not to think about the outside world. Humahuaca has also brilliant trekking, very easy, just take the bus… walk around the villages and see the beautiful red canyons, get back on the bus… No tours are needed here. Humahuaca was also the place where I met a lot of cool backpackers , some of whom I will hopefully be meeting up again on the road.
The hostel in Humahuaca, Posada del Sol, was like a 5 star hotel to me!!! It’s a family owned, the owner, Ruben is very friendly and sooo sweet!!! He served us breakfast in the morning, personally prepared the Nescafe and made foam for each and every one of us. :) I had a semiprivate simple room in the annex with just a mattress on the wooden floor … It was a great place to relax and feel like human being again. I guess my standards had changed a lot these days: Nescafe foam and a nice mattress make me happy these days :).
Oh yeah, I can’t not mention this story… It was a beautiful night, full moon, when I was walking to the hostel, and…. I was kind of attacked by a dog, which bit me..., but did not break the skin… just a soar and a scratch, and of course,I was about to drop a tear from feeling sorry for myself… But, again, when you are travelling alone… nobody really cares… so instead I turned it into a funny ha-ha story to tell when I got back to the hostel. hmmm...
Humahuaca back to Salta
The 5 hour bus ride from Humahuaca back to Salta was spectacular!!! Beautiful day, blue skies, I had a huge window in front , so I had 180 degrees view all over the canyons of Humahuaca. And, besides, I had a great company! My next seat neighbor on the bus was Javier, the sound engineer from Buenos Aires, who was working in Humahuaca, recording the folkloric album for the local musicians. Wow! Javier would never shut up during the whole trip … :) but in the good way… He was such a fun companion! We talked all the way and even ended up eating some bad pizza in the restaurant in the bus terminal… to finish our conversations… before… we each headed our way, I stayed in Salta for several days and he flew to Buenos Aires. That’s life… on the road, you only get those moments to share with people and you probably will never see them again!
That evening, in Salta, I went to see the folkloric show. Those were the dances that I learned in Humahuaca!!! The next thing I know the performer gives me the big skirt to put on and invites me to participate in the show to dance Cachara! I had nothing to lose!
The Northeast of Argentina is for sure one of the highlights and I will try to get back here one day!
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