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Published: June 24th 2008
Scenery in Northern Argentina
There are lots of these fantastically canyons with diverse rock formations..Hey everyone, its Jenny here writing with relative leisure since were stuck for now at the argentine border town of La Quaica. Apparently theres some kind of protest on the Bolivian side so we'll try to get across tomorrow morning and see what happens.......
Anyway back to Cafayate. Our route from cafayate to salta happened to be through a canyon with lots of spectacular rock formation en route. These included the ampitheatre and "the devils throat", both formed by long gone waterfalls. Bit of (rock) climbing was needed in order to see the devils throat but it was definately worth it. On the way out we bumped into pete and Janey again; they were on their way back from seeing the rock formations, and would have been riding bikes but one of the crappy hire bikes had completely fallen apart. (for bikers, the whole rear mech fell off, very similar to what happened to me near chipping, tony!) So we had an impromptu picnic with them and left pete to scoot and run the 15 miles back!
I would challenge anyone to seriously dislike the city of Salta. We stayed 3 days there and could have spent longer chilling
canyon time again...
This one is the rudely named Quebrada de Conchas from Cafayate down to Salta..looking out for Wile E Cayote and Roadrunner out in cafes, looking round the museums and art galleries, doing a bit of shopping and eating out!! It was also surprisingly good value, none of the usual inflated city prices.
The archelogical museum was really intersting with exibits of the 3 mummies and atefacts found with them on a mountain top at 6700m! They were thought to have been human sacrifices by the incans and were amazingly well preserved; so much so that i couldnt believe the mummy on show was actually real! The museum also has a great cafe on the ground floor that became our favourite haunt... couldnt help going back for another helping of the pasta!
Theres also a cathedral that looks like a pink iced cake and a striking church thats white and oxblood.
One night we checked out a "pena", a sort of folk music club that also serve food, and ok it was a bit touristy but still really good with singing and dancing and drumming from people in traditional criollo costumes.
There are loads of trips you can go on from Salta and we decided to pretend to be proper tourists for the day and go on a
guided driven 4wd tour just so we could see one of the massive salt flats that form on the altiplano. There is just white hard salt as far as you can see, and people dig pools in the salt so that as the sun evaporates the water, pure salt crystals are left behind that can then be harvested. They only get 80 pesos (about 12 quid) for a tonne though...explains why all the foods so salty!!! On the way back we took in the 4000m plus paso to Pucamarca; that would have been a good one on the bikes!
From Salta we headed north to Jujay through a green valley that provided 60 miles of great rolling cycling along side a lake with "4 fingers". Jujay wasnt remarkable...DONT go to the greek "zorba" resaurant its rubbish and a rip off....and then we got locked out of our hostel due to some key/lock working shenanigans..ho hum.
Jujay onwards is all up, from around 1200 to 3500 at the border, so we had to have more overnight stops than usual to acclimatise along the way. It was 60 miles or so up mainly gradual climbing apart from crazy dual carriageway
pass near "El Volcan", to the first stop at Tilcara. Tilcara is a little tourist town but still very pleasant, lots of places to stay and eat, and it was nice to have a look around the market the next morning, as we only had 25 miles and 500m up to the next stop of Huamahuaca.
Jenny given in / got bored!! so ian again...
Yeah Tilcara a nice place but definately on the tourist trail, gringos and Argie tourists alike, tourists equal tat..well its not tat its all like indegenous made hats and gloves and rugs, llamas etc etc...its so tempting to buy a load as its all pretty cheap but i suspect its all made in Bolivia and will be even cheaper plus who is going to carry it all..well me !! will hang on for all the present buying till lima i think..although we did but hats back in Cafayate and i got a llama flute for 30p!!
Jenny will want me to tell you about the fantastic chocolate volcano desert she got in a restaurant here..im not joking but that plate did not need cleaning after she had scraped every last atom of
Tastil
wonderful un-restored historil site at 3000m. Human bone fragments in the sand..used to be 3000 inhabitants here but is a mystery why they all left. choc off it..make the most of it jenny!!
Rd up to Humauaca, was pretty gradual as we climbed another 500m to 3000m, we did pass through the tropic of capricorn so now we are in the tropics. Humahuaca is the biggest village in this valley and quite typical. All the houses are made of adobe brick and low down, and most of the people are indiginous looking, some wearing traditional garb, its like getting a little taste of Bolivia before we get there.
Nice and warm during the day, shorts and T-Shirts job but the second that sun disapeers it goes arctic (or i suppose antarctic as we are nearer!)..minus 5 i was told tonight...no heating in any of the rooms since ...ooh i cant remember, probably about 2 weeks ago...its down sleeping bags out in the beds to keep warm!
Yet another 500m overall gain the next day up to a little...ermm...town? called Abra Pampa..topped out over a pass after a wonderfully colourful gorge at 3780m, from here its all..well not downhill actually. This is the Argentinian altiplano or Puna, a high level plain with reasonable vegetation, herders and Llamas and alpacas everywhere!! Abra pampa
is not exactly pumping...and totally missed by the tourist trail. Many buses and coaches drive straight past on towards the Bolivian border 70km away, and to be honest we only stopped out of necessity. As most towns in Argentina, and spain i guess, the way to find the centre and if anything is going on is to head to the Plaza Major..not much going on here but eventually managed to find a half decent place to stay although looked half like a building site with no progress for the last 6 mnths., finding somewhere to eat proved more difficult and cometh the dark cometh the cold, just as we thought we would have to go for some street food (some kids had chips in a cone!!) or get the trusty stove out back at the building site we come across a small eatery which doubled as a telephone booth. We have noticed loads and loads of places with telephone booths in so people can come in and use them...so we guess not a lot of people have telephones, if this is the case then who are they ringing? they always seem to be busy ringing someone!! Lost Llama help lines
Salinas Grandes
The biggest salt flats in Argentina, at over 3000m high...pretty impressive!!...like G after a summer A run!! (by the way LLamas are pronounced Shjama here) I got a headache climbing the stairs with the bags here which is due to the altitude and my body letting me down ...had headache on and off for next couple of days...they recommend drinking plenty of fluid which i did but i think i got G and Yetis disease as i aint stopped taking little breaks at the side of the road...WELL hydrated if you know what i mean.
Next 45 miles to the border were brillaint...great puna scenery, plenty of wildlife and super smooth with a tailwind..even my headache subsided for a few hours!!
Border town La Quaica was everything i expected, dusty, plenty of buses (they had been passing is for 4 days so must have been going somewhere), cheap hotels and eateries..some dutch guy told us the border had been shut all day so dont know when it would be open again something to do with prices of petrol and water so a small mob formed on the other side stopping people from coming across ..power to the people eh..we went down for a bit of a nosey and it was pretty interesting with loads of Bolivains hanging
around in traditional wear waiting to get back home. some people were crossing the dry river to avoid the line of people but its all about the stamps is this crossing, many people walk across all the time but to officially leave the country you need to go through migration which can take a bit of time sometimes.
Next day the coast was clear so to speak and we headed into the poorest country in South America.
You imagine the main border crossing between two nations to be a big queue of cars and trucks but not here. its all people on foot crossing (and two people on bikes). Even the buses dropped people off for them to make their way over by foot.
You hear about places like Villazon but seeing it first hand for the first time certainly is and experience. The hustle and bustle as soon as the border is crossed, a line of stalls selling everything you can imagine, all half the price of 200m away in Argentina. Women in Bowler hats, men chewing coca leaves, kids..just being kids and messing! As many people just walk across the border without being stamped or checked
Pucamarca market square
A Tatfest...all authentic Tat though im sure most of the stuff has been smuggled one way or another!!
Next 4 (hopefully ) days are heading up to the silver mining centre of Potosi all on rough track as they dont have tarmac roads in southern Bolivia ..Hablamos Luego
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