Iruya, a remote outpost of the Salta province

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Iruya is a tiny village deep in the mountains of Northwest Argentina. The only roads leading there are from the province of Jujuy, but because of a bizarre boundary on the maps, it is actually in the province of Salta. We had wanted to visit Iruya ever since we watched the film Rio Arriba at MALBA in Buenos Aires last year. It looked such a beautiful place surrounded by spectacular countryside. The cinematography really was THAT good and it inspired this short trip from Humahuaca.

It's not an easy journey there and we were certainly pleased to have left the Uno parked outside our hotel whilst we journeyed by bus. The bus was full, and not just of tourists either, and during the trip you place a tremendous amount of faith and trust in your driver.

The first part is straight up the Ruta 9 which is easy going, but uphill, and therefore the bus went at a tedious pace. Then we left the main road and onto a ripio track which occasionally became a river bed in various stages of defrosting from the bitter overnight cold. The road snaked its way through the hills to Irtube where we stopped briefly. The souvenir hawkers were there in force, but I don't think anybody actually bought anything.

The second part is the climb up to and above 4000m. Bearing in mind that this bus seemed to struggle up the smooth asphalt of Ruta 9, we were quite concerned that it might not make it up the constant hairpin bends required for the ascent. We actually made very good progress and some of the views, especially on the 180 degree turns, were breathtaking!

After levelling out at the top, the descent soon begins. Now this was hair-raising, a true white-knuckle ride! The bends were tighter with just enough spare road for the bus to get around. At times it seemed there were only a matter of centimetres between us and disaster as the precipice was quite frightening in places! Still, our very skillful driver successfully negotiated the descent and soon we were pausing for touristy photos of our first view of Iruya. Getting there had taken a little over 3 hours!

Taking the first bus there and the last bus back gives you around 4 hours to explore. It is plenty unless you want to do some serious walking in the hills. We had decided against stopping over simply because of the cost of accommodation. When we got there we found several unlisted hostels, so I guess it would have been cheap enough had we taken the plunge.

We bought freshly made empenadas and sandwiches from a small sandwicheria in one of the back streets. Having been warned that we would be ripped off at every turn, we were pleasantly surprised to pay less than we would have in Salta! With lunch in hand, we began the climb up to Iruya's mirador (it's a small shrine and a big white cross). Maybe it was the altitude, maybe it was the cobbled streets, maybe it was simply tired legs from a 3 hour ride in a bus, but we found it quite hard going! Once we arrived at the mirador the view of the valley was splendid. We had lunch there and rested for a while taking in the mountain air.

On the way back into Iruya we stopped off at the cemetery. It is very typical of all Andean cemeteries to be adorned with plastic bottles and bright fake flowers. This had them in abundance! It was nice to walk around but not the sort of attraction to keep you there for hours!

We then decided to walk out of town away from the route the bus had taken on our arrival. This was quite a rewarding walk as we only saw 2 other tourists. We passed the pig pens with their enormous hogs and unforgettable smell!! Then we were out into the open countryside (if countryside hemmed into a valley with high, steep mountains on either side can be described as "open"!) and it was gorgeous.

Knowing we had a definite time for leaving, we returned to Iruya and had a quick look inside the church. It is more picturesque outside than in! Then we made our way down the valley until we had a great view of the church. We sat there for a mate before returning to wait for the bus. As we sat there we saw some dogs terrifying some donkeys. I really wanted to push one of the dogs off the wall and down the ravine; nearby a little girl had the same idea and very nearly succeeded. It made us chuckle anyway!

The journey back to Humahuaca was no less spectacular or scary! In fact, the climb up to the highest point was probably more frightening than coming down had been. This time we had a better view of just how close to the edge we were!! Possibly it was because our driver was a lot younger and maybe more maverick than the driver who took us there!

All in all, Iruya is definitely worth the day trip out from Humahuaca. We loved it.

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Photos

Iruya
Probably the most famous view of the village of Iruya.

Mountain Village
See how this place is built on the slopes.

Mirador
Out of breath!

Andean Cemetery
Plastic bottles and fake flowers a-plenty!

Cobbled Street
Note the little boy in the cowboy hat using the gutter as a urinal!

Bus Stop
The buses drop off and pick up outside the church.

Splendid Isolation
Walk a short way out and you are on your own.

View From The Valley Floor
The letters spelling IRUYA are on the rockface wall underneath the church.

Truly in The Middle of Nowhere
In this photo you can just make out the road snaking its way through the landscape.

Comments

[Mark Mesle]

How is your spanish coming these days. Are you 96 percent fluent or 100 percent fluent.