Salta, Cachi, Jujuy, Purmamarca, Tilcara and Humahuaca


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South America » Argentina
May 9th 2006
Published: May 11th 2006
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I've spent the last 2 weeks in the northern Argentinian provinces of Salta and Jujuy. The city of Salta is known as "the beautiful one". It has well preserved colonial architecture, luxurious churches, exuberant parks set to the backdrop of the Andes.

Jujuy province, although it is the poorest part of Argentina has the Quebrada de Humahuaca. A valley that stretches from the city of Jujuy to the Bolivian border. The Quebrada de Humahuaca has striking indigenous Quechua speaking towns set against stunning multicoloured mountain sides. It has been a major trade route for 10,000 years, so it has archaeological remains from hunter gathers and the Inca´s empire. As a result the whole area is a world heritage site.

At the end of the last blog, I promised to tell the story of the journey over the Andes to Argentina from Chile. On April 28th I left the city of Calama in the Atacama at 10am. The bus was empty for the first hour and a half until we stopped at San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro de Atacama is a small town with far more tourists than residents. Soon after the tourists joined the bus we stopped again just outside the town. I was a bit surprised to find the Chilean border post so near to the town. Then we continued climbing steeply up the Andes in the no mans land between the border posts. The views were spectacular.

A couple of hours into the journey before we reached the Argentinian border post, the man sat next to me stood up and walked to the front of the bus. He spoke to the driver. We stopped, then reversed for a km. I had no idea why.

Once we were stationary the driver asked for a doctor. It was only then that I realized the problem. There was a red car on its roof 20m away from the road. Remarkably the driver and his passenger weren't dead. They were just bruised and suffering from shock.

We continued on through the Ar gentian border, stopping just before sunset at a hotel and restaurant for supper. (The price of the sandwiches and the cup of tea was included in the bus ticket). The hotel was in the middle of nowhere, but the sunset was spectacular.

It was several more hours before we started passing through any towns. Suddenly at about 11pm the engine of the bus cut out. The bus moved off the road under its own momentum. We were sat on the side of the road for hours, whilst the driver tried to repair it. After a while a mechanic appeared on a moped. The mechanic and driver lifted the floor at the back of the bus to get at the engine. Eventually after a very dangerous looking spark came out of the engine the bus started. All this time that we had been sat at the side of the road, we had only been half an hours drive from our destination.

Finally we rolled into the bus station in Salta at 2am. I was lucky to find a hotel open within half a km of the bus station. The Hotel Continental only cost me 65 pesos ($US21). Frankly at that time of night I would have paid a lot more.

The next few day I took it easy, enjoying the fine colonial architecture and nice restaurants. The Monday was May Day Bank Holiday. The May Day rally in Salta was pathetic. It was as small as the demos organized by Leeds Trades Union Council, always used to be; when I used to live in Leeds.

I was very impressed by a visit to one of the museums in Salta. The Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montaña (MAAM) is fairly new. An expedition to the top of Mount Llullailaco found 3 buried children at an Inca ceremonial monument. They were perfectly preserved - frozen solid for hundreds of years. Mount Llullailaco is 6,700m above sea level. It astonished me that the Incas not only carried out religious ceremonies on the top of a mountain over 6km high, but also built a ceremonial platform there. The air is very thin at 6,700 m above sea level. This part of Argentina was part of the Inca Empire. The 3 children were buried more than 500 years ago during the height of Inca rule, just before the Spanish Conquistadors arrived.

On Weds 3rd May I went on an all day tour to the town of Cachi. The route traveled through a winding road up through the beautiful mountains of the Parque Nacional los Cardones to Cachi.

The next day I went on an all day tour of the Quebrada de Humahuaca. We went through beautiful towns and scenery. The tour included a visit to the Pucara de Tilcara, which is a pre-hispanic fort and settlement.

On Saturday May 6th I left Salta for Jujuy. I had visited Jujuy on the tour, but we had only been there for half an hour. Apart from a few nice buildings in the citys central plaza, Jujuy is not a nice city. It is run down and shabby, it looks poor. The four star Jujuy Palace Hotel was only 100 pesos a night.

Then on Monday May 8th I went to Humuaca. I had already been there on the tour a few days earlier but it deserved a longer stay.

On May 9th I carried on to the border town of La Quiaca. It was a couple of hours journey to La Quiaca. I didn´t stay in La Quiaca. I walked straight to the Bolivian border and into the sister town of Villazon.




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La Cuesta de ObispoLa Cuesta de Obispo
La Cuesta de Obispo

Parque Nacional los Cardones. View from a mountain top of the road that winds through the park


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