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Published: March 21st 2009
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I spent a great week in Salta (after getting over my stomach bug.) I ended up hanging out with a great couple from the UK as well as another guy from the UK whom I had met a few days before at the hostel in Buenos Aires.
The highlight of my time in Salta was when the 4 of us rented a car to do a 2-day road trip to visit the nearby sights: the Quebrada de Humahuaca, with the famous "Mountains of Seven Colours", as well as the salt flats, and several small picturesque villages along the way.
We started out by driving along the same pathway that the "Tren de las Nubes" (Train to the Clouds) would normally follow. We couldn´t do the train trip because it´s closed until April....poo. The scenery was full of green, rolling hills, dusted with low-hanging clouds as we climbed further and further in altitude.
We then visited a tiny town called San Antonio de los Cobres, where we got some tourist info and some delicious lunch. The gravel road between there and our next destination, the salt flats, was unbelievably rough. At some points we were only going 20 km/hour
because of the quality of the road (Route 40 - a warning to anyone attempting to trip this route!) The bumping up and down and the rattling noises were almost unbearable, and we had to put up with it for 4 hours... but when the paved road appeared, we erupted into the Halleluiah chorus!
We climbed steadily in altitude all day, reaching over 3500 metres at one point. We stuffed our cheeks with coca leaves in order to prevent altitude sickness, but even still we were all feeling sleeply, slightly nauseas and short of breath throughout most of the day.
We got to the salt flats at sunset, which was very striking, and then headed into the tiny town of Purmamarca to stay for the night. We ate dinner at a restaurant with live, traditional folkloric music. I actually ate goat!! While the others ate llama (couldn´t quite bring myself to eat the llama... maybe next time.) Anyways, the goat stew was delicious! Who knew?
Waking up in Purmamarca was incredibly peaceful: I don´t think I have ever been anywhere more remote and quiet in my life, and the mountains towering so close in all directions were
breathtaking.
From Purmamarca we drove up to a quaint little town called Tilcara and then up to the cactus fields north of Humahuaca. We stopped in the teeniest village, famous for its old church containing 17th-century paint¡ngs of angels holding guns. There were some kids there playing with old rusted bicycle wheels; they were asking for money so we gave them the chocolate treats we had left in the car, after the oldest girl among them had agreed to share the treats fairly amongst the whole group.
Descending back to Tilcara, we did a hike up the mountain and along a deep gorge - a difficult task when you´re still adjusting to the altitude!
Then it was time to head back to Salta, and this is where things took a bit of a turn for the worse...
The main road back to Salta from Jujuy on the map appears to be Route 9, and setting off from Jujuy, we appeared to have enough gas and enough time before nightfall to make it back to Salta.
Little did we know that the thick, straight line representing Route 9 was totally erroneous, and that the alternate route
(which appears on the route as a massive detour) is actually the route people take! Too bad the woman at the tourist office, the travel agent and the car rental agent neglected to mention this fact to us...
So we found ourselves on Route 9 which suddenly turned into a very narrow (barely wide enough for 2 cars), indescribably winding road, which wound its way UPHILL for 35 kilometres! By the time we realized that we were, in fact, driving up one of the mountains north of Salta in order to get BACK to Salta, it was too late to turn back. There was nowhere to turn around (being on a narrow road on the side of a MOUNTAIN!), and we didn´t have enough gas to double back, so we just had to keep pushing forward!
The S-curves of this road were so intense, it seemed like a cruel joke, and night was falling. Our excellent driver, Pete, was handling the road really well and driving extremely carefully, honking the horn before each bend, but even still, we were on the edges of our seats. Then, night fell... and it started raining... cows wandered into our path... and
STILL the road was climbing, using up so much more gas than we had planned for!! What a nightmare in every way. And yet, it gets worse...
We kept seeing road signs for a tiny village called La Caldera, so we just prayed that we would be able to get there before our gas ran out, and then beg or borrow gas from a local resident to get us the rest of the way home. We arrived in La Caldera in the dark and the rain, but luckily there was a little corner store open which was being run by a very capable boy who couldn´t have been more than 10 years old (!) He was full of useful information, including the fact that there was another corner store around the bend that could sell us some gas.
Unfortunately, they didn´t have any left, but the owner set off to see if she could find some for us. In the ensuing confusion, exhaustion, hunger, darkness and anxiety, amidst telephone calls at payphones (using my messy Spanish - since I had the best Spanish of the group!) to the rental agency which was not particularily helpful... amidst all of
this, the car key was passed around amongst the 4 of us... and, lo and behold...
... the car key disappeared.
Yes, the car key was no longer. Using head torches and flashlights, and with the help of local residents (friendly people, these La Caldera residents!), a thorough search was made of the inside of the car, the wet ground around the car... every pocket and bag was emptied, every possibility was considered, every curse word was uttered into the great beyond. But alas, the car key was history.
In the end, a rescue mission was made: two of us chartered a cab back to Salta, met up with the rental agent´s partner, who was more helpful, and who drove us back to La Caldera with the extra key and a container of gas.
We all made it back to Salta safe and sound, but the key was never found... and we had to pay 500 pesos to replace it 😞
However, we all made it back in one piece, and the trip up until that point was beautiful, so in the end I think the trip was a success! I´ve posted some photos... hope
Village of Purmamarca
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