http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Argentina , Jujuy en-us Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:43:53 BST Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:43:53 BST soo last wedensday becca and I got on an 18 hour bus to salta from retiro at like 615 in the evening. they played bomb movies premonition made of honor 27 dresses and fed us delish alfajors and an edible dinner. we got to salta the next morning around noonish. we dropped off our stuff at backpackers hostel city and made out for the city to do some exploring. we saw some linda churches http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Purmamarca/blog-329935.html North of SALTAOff to the Querada de Humahuaca region. Got our car and some empanadas and hit the road. Feels good to be in a car. Paul's driving as he's the only one with a drivers license even though its issued from Cook Island long story. I left my at home and am a bit bummed cause I do love to drive. But it's been nice to look out the window and just enjoy the landscape. The road just north http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Quebrada-de-Humahuaca/blog-322746.html North of SALTAOff to the Querada de Humahuaca region. Got our car and some empanadas and hit the road. Feels good to be in a car. Paul's driving as he's the only one with a drivers license even though its issued from Cook Island long story. I left my at home and am a bit bummed cause I do love to drive. But it's been nice to look out the window and just enjoy the landscape. The road just north http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Quebrada-de-Humahuaca/blog-322743.html einige tage spaeter dann noch in eine kleinere salzwueste aufgebrochen.. das war auch gaaaaanz toll.. wie ihr merkt.. zurzeit ist grad alles ganz schoen und toll in leckeren farben.. was wahrscheinlich den ursprung hat dass sich meine reise langsam dem ende neigt und ich zu erfassen beginne dass es langsam abschied nehmen heisst.. und in dem war ich halt schon immer ne nuss http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-318252.html Hi Everyone Right now Dain and I are at the front desk of our hostel in the city of Salta waiting for our car rental to show up its already a half hour late. We are going south to visit the cities and national parks south of the town of Salta. First we will head towards Cachi making a stop halfway to trek and explore. Then well move towards Cafayate again stopping at a halfway point to get http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Purmamarca/blog-308582.html Chapitre 1 Detente a Humahuaca du 17 au 19 JuilletSalut la compagnie nous avons donc finalement quitte notre chere Bolivie pour entrer en Argentine. On zappe San Pedro de Atacama au Chili pour rallier Tupiza a la Quiaca tout d abord. Et oui nous faisons l impasse sur cette belle ville de San Pedro car archi touristique parait il et car elle parait il ressemble quand meme pas mal aux ville http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-307601.html Dag 43. Bilen skulle hente oss paa hostellet kl 0700 saa vi maatte tidlig opp. Selvfolgelig var dette argentinsk tid vi ble hentet litt over halv aatte.Vi hadde bestilt turen med engelsktalende guide og det viste seg at vi var de eneste som ikke var fra Argentina. Saa vi fikk en guide helt for oss selv. Kjempekjekk jente Anna. Anna er 35 aar og har laert seg englesk paa egenhaand veldig d http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-305316.html Mandag d. 14 Juli Tur nordp til JujuySundhedstilstand Inger og Per er blevet blandingsmisbrugere. Vi lever nu p sugetableter nsespray og Asperin Ibuprofen.Vi vgner frst kl 6.30 men nr at vre klar til bussen kl 7. Igen er de frste timer ren transport. Derefter begynder Humahuaga dalen der er udpeget som World Heritage omrde. Det skyldes bde landskabet og indianerkulturen. Ved den lil http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-303798.html Buenos AiresThe capital of Argentina and what a great place to start our big trip. We were lucky enough to arrive on a Sunday when the weekly San Telmo antiques fair was on. Its held in Plaza Dorrego and we happened to be staying around the corner. With the market came lots of live music and we even caught some live tango later in the evening.First impressions of Buenos Aires is that its s http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-301155.html Our first set down in the Argentinian Andes was Salta. Salta for me was pleasant enough but it suffers a bit in comparison with the last few towns weve been in Buenos Aires Bariloche and Mendoza. However its a pretty interesting comparison as its nothing like the rest of Argentina. Instead its got more in common with the Andean regions of Peru Bolivia and Ecuador and not just because i http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Quebrada-de-Humahuaca/blog-297518.html As we were reserving our hire car the American guy who had been before us and had gone out to take his car came back in and asked if they had any automatics....turned out he'd never driven a nonautomatic and had just assumed that all cars in Argentina would be just like in the US We saw him and his girlfriend walking towards the bus station later in the day looking rather down isn't it funn http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Tilcara/blog-295831.html 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. http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/La-Quiaca/blog-288614.html Ok you caught me I'm actually writing this Tuesday morning. Ok tuesday mid day.Yesterday again was incredible. I took a 14 hour excursion. We left Salta at 640 in the morning and headed to the province of Jujuy for a very full day of sight seeing.Our first stop was the pueblo of Pumamarca in the Valley of Seven Colors. Pumamarca is famous for their artisean crafts market which we got to http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/blog-288490.html We are currently chewing cocoa leaves local remedy for altitude about to take a 2 hour bus to enter Bolivia and cant wait to get there. So where have we been in the last couple of daysA night in Salta was a great stop. We stretched our legs by skipping the gondola ride and climbing the 1070 steps to the lookout for panaromic views of the city. It was Sunday and mid afternoon siesta time so n http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-278703.html Saturday was an even earlier start as we headed out to a hilltop Pachamama memorial and then to the HUGE salt flats. There is no road through the salt flats but the idea is to drive around on them wherever you wanthellipthis is where having rented a car and being on my own with a couple other people would have been FUN. The salt flats were pretty similar to those in Utah except much bigger and http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Purmamarca/blog-275272.html In case you donrsquot want to read the whole thing herersquos the highlights Intensely precise indigenous flute players Multicolored mountains A night out at a bar in Tilcara Argentina Numerous giant cacti PingPongDrinking games with the bus driver Incredible stars lying next to llamasOk now onto Jujuy Tilcara Humahuaca La Quebrada Los Salares y Purmamarca. If all those names http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Tilcara/blog-275271.html Salta was a really pleasant surprise after Mendoza. To start with on the way there fable became truth which then became legend for us when we actually got a FLAT BED seat on our overnight bus from Mendoza. Yes its true gasp shock horror.. For those of you who havent heard us whinging about it we have been trying to find and book one of these bloody beds for the last 6 weeks but every ti http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/blog-268067.html It was a bad ball bearing day. New ones were fitted to Richards front hub and I had new pedals for my bike as no more new bearings were to be found. Thus refurbished we bade fond farewell to Ramon and his family getting up extra early to wave them off to their respective workplaces. Mother Tina saw us off with presents of chocolate rabbits and easter eggs to complement our new collection o http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/San-Salvador-de-Jujuy/blog-263667.html After nearly six weeks in Argentina it was time to move on. For my final few days in the country I headed to Tilcara a small village in the Quebrada de Humahuaca north of Jujuy. It was absolutely beautiful....you know how sometimes you get off the bus somewhere and you just know you've made the right decision going there Tilcara was like that. It's an interesting combination of modern and tra http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Tilcara/blog-263017.html Heading NorthHumahuaca is north of Salta on the way to Bolivia and we decided rather than take another bus journey we would travel this far on another trip. A very good decision as the La Posada travel agency came up trumps again with another fantastic tour. There were just 4 of us which was great as it meant the guide changed the itinery so that we didnrsquot miss out on anything by not doing http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-262961.html English version belowJuz wiele razy zdarzylo mi sie w czasie tej podrozy ze bylam w tak cudnym miejscu iz sadzilam ze nic piekniejszego juz nie zobacze. I tyle samo razy Argentyna mnie zaskakiwala. 2 lub 20 godzin jazdy autobuses i znow roztaczaja sie krajobrazy piekniejsze niz moglabym sobie wyobrazic. Na polnoc od Salty znajduje sie kilka wiosek z ktorych mozna podziwiac Quebrada Humahuaca http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Purmamarca/blog-255080.html Today I rode to Salta from Humahuaca. Started early as I could. I encounter rain on both sections. My rain gear worked very well and My engine had no problem exposed to the rain. The only problem was my rear pack that took on water and I did not place the tent and pad in plastic bags. Toward Salta I took route 9 that turned into a very narrow paved road that wind up and down some beatiful mo http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-253491.html In the morning we arrive at Villazon by overnight train well rested and excited about our trip. Today we say good bye to Bolivia and hello to Argentina. Catch a cab from train station to border. Spend our last bolivianos as we dont want to take it home and pointless to change the few we have left. I purchase some bread and some coco mate leaves. Enjoy some breakfast at the border bread and http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/La-Quiaca/blog-224564.html We left El Calafate on the 22nd. Before we left though we had the chance to go on a less advertised tour. It was probably the single most enjoyable day weve had so far because we got away from the crowds and really got to see some neat things in nature. We went into the Patagonian step which is arid desert region and the views of the mountains and glacial lakes were pretty amazing. There http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/blog-214081.html Quebrada de HumahuacaStunning scenery great hiking a UNESCO world heritage site and the chance to see a way of life that has all but disappeared in the rest of Argentina are just some of the memories we have from seeing the Quebrada de Humahuaca.Jujuy may be Argentina's poorest and leastvisited province but it's rich in natural wonders with one of the countrys finest sights the Quebrada de http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Quebrada-de-Humahuaca/blog-214075.html It took about 20 minutes to get to Yavi in the remis. The driver dropped us off outside the church and as it closes at midday on Saturday and Sunday we took advantage of our 1130 arrival with a quick visitThe Iglesia de San Francisco may or may not be the oldest church in Argentina. We had this in Susques a few weeks ago The lady tending the church claimed it was built in the 1500s and is t http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/La-Quiaca/blog-192533.html The last time we were in La Quiaca was when we crossed from Bolivia into Argentina for the first time almost two years ago now. We took a taxi from the border to the bus station which seemed to take forever giving us the false impression that it is miles away. In fact it is quite simple to walk the 20 minutes to and from the borderThat's what we did on arrival at 7.30 am this time and again http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/La-Quiaca/blog-192527.html Entering Humahuaca was a welcome change to the rest of South America we had been experencing. Dusty dry and very hot suronded by catus forest it is a stereotypical South American town. The long bus ride from Iguazu Falls through Salta gave us an upclose look at some diverse and interesting landscape. The citys gave way to multicoloured sandy layered mountains of unusual pinks and reds and http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-188772.html And so to the last leg of this memorable winter holiday in the Northwest of Argentina. We didn't want to do the whole trip from Humahuaca to Salta in one go nor did we want to go back to the city of San Salvador de Jujuy. On the map we found the Termas de Reyes thermal springs and thought it would be nice to stay somewhere around there. That's how we ended up in Yala.Ruta 9 saw us retracing our http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Yala/blog-187259.html From Tilcara we continued up the Ruta 9 through the Quebrada de Humahauca and past the Tropic of Capricorn. We paused for a while to take photos by the sign delineating the line of the tropics and were pestered by kids wanting us to pay to have photos taken with a goat the symbol of capricorn. Of course we declined At the site was a huge monument which we later found out was a giant solar clo http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/Humahuaca/blog-186237.html