Argentina - San Salvador de Jujuy, Tilcara and Purmamarca

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David here...

First of all, I have to say this, there is nothing to do in San Salvador de Jujuy. 2 nights was far too long, even for us who like to take our time getting to know a place and just wander. We arrived at the new out of town bus terminal and bought onward tickets to Tilcara. We faced an hour walk into the centre of town. Then we spotted a line of bus stops and identified a location that appeared to be near our hotel. We jumped on one of the buses, asking the driver if he was going to 'el centro'. He said yes and I handed him 20 pesos and he used his own Sube card to pay for us. Within 10 minutes we were standing outside our hotel.

Casa Flores was alright, not like the apartment or boutique hotel in Mendoza, but it was clean and we had some space. Credit to whoever did their photos on Booking.com though as the room looked great in them, not so great in reality. Also, the breakfast was actually a basket of small cakes and wafers that is replenished each day, not exactly what you'd expect. We dumped our bags and headed out into the town to take a look around. We hit the centre, around Plaza Belgrano, which is lovely, and saw all the sights. Literally all of them. We didn't realise it at the time but there really was nothing else to do.

After taking in Casa Gobierno and the cathedral we walked to Plaza San Martin, bought some ice cream each and sat in that park, though it was a bit chilly and far too dusty. We ended up walking round the whole town before heading back to our room. We decided to go for pizza at Pisa Almacen de Pizzas. While we enjoyed it, we couldn't recommend it really. The atmosphere was nice and the rocket salad was good, but the cheddar and bacon pizza tasted like cheese on toast. This was good for us as we had just been discussing things we missed and cheese on toast was right up there!

It was then back to our room to do some forward planning for the next day in Jujuy (no further museums or sights mentioned anywhere) and also our next few stops. I have to admit at this point we had found ourselves doing the same things. The places we've been recently are so similar and lacking in things to actually see and do. It's a shame that it is too cold to head to Patagonia as that might've given us the difference we're craving. It left us looking forward to Chile.

After a nice long lie-in and our 'breakfast' we wandered into the centre again, looked at the famous statues around Casa Gobierno, refused to pay the 15 pesos each to go into the cathedral and wandered round the shopping centre. In the end, after walking for about an hour, we decided there was only one thing to do... have a steak lunch. This would use up some time and the prices at our chosen place, La Estancia, were among the cheapest we'd seen. We both ordered Bife de Chorizo with chips (180 pesos + 40 pesos) and a big bottle of Sprite (65 pesos). We also got bread and dips thrown in, as normal. We were expecting maybe a small, weedy bit of steak but what we got was a good 350-400g steak each that was well cooked, tasty and thick. Even the chips were home cooked. We absolutely loved it and at £25 in total, another bargain.

After lunch we sat in the main plaza in the sun for a bit before making our way back to the room to read and relax. We'd heard from the bus company that the road to Chile was still closed and we needed to mail them again on the Thursday to find out the latest, just 2 days before we wanted to travel. We feared we might end up flying after all.

The evening meal was at Viracocha Restaurante that specialised in local cuisines. The menu was not unlike what we had in Peru and Bolivia. I had the Pico lo Macho and Suzanne had a traditional lamb stew. Both dishes were pretty good. We also resisted alcohol, that was 2 days running now.

The next day started with another couple of small lemon cakes and coffee before checking out at 11:00. As our bus to Tilcara wasn't until 13:00 we decided to get the exercise and walk the hour to the bus terminal. Our bus turned up on time and we were soon whizzing through a changed landscape of mountains and valleys. The journey took around 2 hours and we stepped out into the small but touristy town of Tilcara. The whole town is surrounded by hills and mountains and looks stunning. We quickly realised that it wasn't Argentina we were bored of at all, just cities.

Our hotel, the Hotel Boutique Vientonorte, was a little bit more expensive but was worth it as the room was comfortable and very quiet. It also had views out over the mountains and a balcony. We quickly got out and spent a few hours looking round the small town. It was dusty but had a lovely, busy, bustling feel to the place, amazing scenery, and tons of options for food. The weather was perfect so we stopped for a couple of beers before making our way back to the hotel to freshen up before the evening.

We decided to go to Arumi Sabore, the second highest rated restaurant in town, saving the highest rated place for the next night. We shared empanadas and tamales as a starter and both had a delicious cut of steak with potatoes and vegetables for our mains. All washed down with a red wine. It was lovely. We finished off the evening as we normally do, with wine and music on our balcony despite it turning a little chilly.

After a hearty breakfast we were out and about before 11:00 and were walking to the pre-Inca ruins just outside of the town. The views all around us were stunning. Desolate but rugged with colours and features that drew your eyes. The ruins are spread out around and on top of a hill, with cacti everywhere. We spent around 2.5 hours in the site which included a botanical garden, again full of cacti. On the way back to the hotel we stopped off at a little hostel garden in the sun for a beer and tamale each. This soon turned in to 4 beers before we headed off. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the sun in and around the heated outdoor pool at the hotel, very nice.

We did have some stress as we found that Geminis, the bus company we wanted to use to get into Chile, had suspended their service for another week so our only option was to book on the 03:40 Andesmar bus, which may or may not have been running. We could book tickets though, and we knew that the border crossing was now open for a couple of hours during the day. Trying to get some sort of confirmation at 19:00 was impossible so we just booked the tickets and crossed our fingers.

After printing the tickets out (a real chore as wi-fi in these parts is really sketchy) and showering we headed to the number 1 place in town to eat... and found it shut... on a Thursday... when it should be open. With the hassle of the bus and now this, it didn't feel like our day. We ended up at another highly rated place called La Picadita where I had Llama cottage pie and Suzanne had Locro, a meat and bean stew. All very home cooked and pretty nice. The evening again was finished off with red wine and music in our room.

We woke up to no updates or messages about our onward trip so felt rather unsettled over breakfast. When we got back to the room we found a message waiting for us saying the the border was open and currently the bus was running, so we packed up and headed to the bus station. The next bus to Purmamarca, just 30 minutes down the road, was due in 2 minutes and we promptly paid, jumped on the bus and were soon walking into the centre of town.

Due to the uncertainly of our plans hadn't booked anywhere in Purmamarca. But we had picked out Hotel La Valentina as an option. As we would be leaving in the early hours and didn't need breakfast we hoped for a discount. We got a double room with private bathroom for about £15 cheaper than booking with Booking.com. This was the first time on this trip we had turned up somewhere without a booking.

Our next task was to find where the Andesmar bus picked up from. There is a new bus terminal in town but it was still being built. We'd stopped off nearer the centre and the tourist office told us it was the other end of town. Fortunately Andesmar responded to our twitter message and confirmed it was near to the new bus terminal.

We then walked round the '7 colours hill' and took lots of photos. The landscape is amazing, with rock seams of lots of different shades. As Suzanne said, it looked like a landscape from the original Star Trek. The loop walk took about an hour so as the sun was shining we sat outside a cafe and enjoyed 3 cold beers each and a cheese empanada, enhanced by the hot sauce I'm now carrying with me (Argentinians don't like spice).

After a few hours back in our hotel room, with even worse internet access, we headed out to eat at La Posta, the number 1 rated place in town. We did look at 3 other places, twice, but 2 of them had live music and one was Italian. La Posta was a big, airy place that felt very relaxed. We had cheese and meat empanadas to start and I had Llama ala Creme and Suzanne had Pollo Picante (it wasn't picante). All washed down with another bottle of lovely (and final) Argentinian Malbec. It was a lovely meal.

Back at the hotel, we showered and were tucked up in bed for 10:00. The alarm woke us at 03:00, we got up, cleaned our teeth, packed up and walked to where we believed the Andesmar bus stopped. There was noone else around, no offices open, no shops or sellers and no one else waiting for the bus. 03:40 came and went and by 03:55 we firmly believed the bus was not coming. As the wi-fi in town was so bad, even if someone had mailed us to let us know we wouldn't have got the message. Anyway, we finally saw some headlights on the highway from what looked like a bus. Sure enough it was the Andesmar bus, 17 minutes late, but we were so happy it had arrived and it stopped right next to us. We jumped on sat down and found that the bus heating was set to sauna, but not even that could dampen our spirits as we waved a fond farewell to Argentina.

We loved our time in Argentina. It has been a food and drink paradise with great steak and wonderful beer and wine at every turn. There was a bit in the middle where we did the same things over and over in each new town and we were getting bored, believing that we'd seen all that Argentina had to offer us but thankfully Tilcara and Purmamarca really lifted our spirits and gave us something new. We look forward to coming back in a few years to see Patagonia, in the meantime, we'll look back with great fondness on a country we were excited to be visiting on this trip.

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