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Salta Province
Salta Province
April 2023
Salta
We drove across Argentina in 3 days, staying one night at a YPF petrol station, and one night at the side of a railway line, desperately trying (and failing) to spot anteaters. We drove about 500 km a day, with lots of podcasts to keep us going. It wasn't too hot, so it was much more bearable to do long driving days than the first 2 times we'd driven across Argentina. The only thing that did get a bit tedious was all the police checkpoints. These popped up every few miles where we were asked where we'd been and where we were going. Ever amused with our right-hand drive vehicle, the police wished us a good trip, and on we went.
We arrived in Salta late in the afternoon and stayed at a municipal campsite in the city for £5 with the biggest swimming pool we'd ever seen. It was out of season, so it had been drained. 90% of the campsite was this pool, so we walked across it to get to the showers. The next day, we had a touristy day in Salta, which, despite the cloud and forecast rain, was very nice! We went to see the cathedral in the main square, had coffee and cake for lunch (becoming a bit of a habit), and went up the cable car to the top of Cerro San Cristobal for views over the city.
The cable car was painfully slow, and despite there barely being a queue, we waited 40 minutes to get on! At the top, we befriended some street dogs who were wearing little coats with "Don't steal, I get cold too." in Spanish on the back. Opting to not waste more life waiting for the cable car back down, we walked down the hundreds of steps to the bottom. However, Em was wearing Converse trainers, which made her ankle feel horrible. We had booked 2 nights in an Airbnb just north of the city centre which had a gym and a pool, for £15 per night. We headed there, made dinner, and headed out to a strip of bars nearby. The bars all had traditional bands playing and traditional dancers. We went in one bar, ordered half a litre of wine (for £1.35), and within minutes, Justin had been heckled to the dancefloor to be taught Quecua dancing. Em's ankle was conveniently very sore from the hike, so she opted to be the camera woman (and primary wine drinker)!
While we were in Salta, we luckily met up with some friends we'd met 6 months ago when we both shipped our vans on the same cargo boat to Uruguay. We had been on wildly different journeys in the meantime, but we happened to be in same city at the same time, so went for a coffee and then back to their much more fancy Airbnb for wine.
Cathedral Basilica de Salta
A convenient nun
The cable car
Going up Cerro San Cristobal
Cerro San Cristobal
Em making friends with the street dogs
"Don't steal."
Salta
Our Airbnb in Salta
Catching up with Pawel and Marcelina
Parque Nacional los Cardones
We left Salta and drove 2.5 hours southwest, climbing over 2,000 meters up to an altitude of 3,500m. Most of the road was tarmac and climbed steadily over numerous switchbacks higher and higher into the mountains. We stopped to admire a roadside llama, and Justin bought a 20p fruit pie. Justin had to re-enter the little shop minutes later to declare his girlfriend had eaten his fruit pie, and he needed another.
We reached the national park, and at the top of the mountain pass, there was an enormous plateau that had a landscape like Mars, if Mars was covered in huge cactuses! Jagged orangey-red mountains and vast expanses of flat land peppered with spiky giants. There was an information board that taught us that cactuses need a nursery plant, in this case, creosote bushes, which shield the young cactus from frost and sun, allowing it to grow 5mm a year. Once they are 10 years old, they really step it up a notch and start growing 5cm a year! The ones here were hundreds of years old and towered above us.
The road was poker straight through the plateau and followed the same path the Incas took centuries ago. We spotted herds of Guanacos galavanting across the desert. We chose a camp spot 5km down a gravel track just off the main road surrounded by mountains as they lit up orange in the sunset. A German couple in a zebra print campervan asked if they could join us, and we, of course, shared our spot. While the sun was setting, we cooked some sausages on our outdoor camping stove and kept adding layers until we were wearing everything we owned as the temperature quickly dropped. At that altitude, it got very cold very quickly. The Germans told us they'd just had a -6°C night in northern Chile where their olive oil froze, so this felt warm to them!
Overnight, it was about 5°C and we got to use our diesel heater and all the blankets we'd been carrying around for the last 6 months. It was the driest night we'd ever experienced, and our sinuses felt like they were going to explode. The only way we can describe it is like the air on a plane that makes you feel stuffy and congested whilst having an itchy, dry throat. We made it until 1 am when we realised we were both wide awake and suffering with the dryness and shortness of breath.
We did eventually get some sleep and got up for a very cold sunrise before heading back down to earth where we could breathe again (obviously stopping for more 20p fruit tarts on our way). We had lunch in El Carril at a traditional restaurant where we shared empanadas, tamales, and a weird corn mush stuffed into a leaf that went by the name of 'humitos'.
Guanacos
Views of the national park
Our side door view at the camp spot
Staring down a 300 year old giant
Emily at one with the Cacti
The otherwordly surroundings
Empanadas
Tamales
Humitos
Ruta 68 - Salta to Cafayate
From El Carril, we joined the Ruta 68, a breathtaking paved road that winds through valleys with insane mountainous scenery. We had to stop every few hundred metres to take photos, the main attractions being Garganta del Diablo, El Anfiteatro, and Tres Cruces. The first two are remarkable stone structures where extinct waterfalls have carved cavernous openings through the mountain. Tres Cruces is named after 3 crosses at its entrance but is a viewpoint over orange-brown mountains with lush greenery running alongside the river in the valley. At El Anfiteatro, named after an amphitheatre, an excited British guy, came running over, having seen our licence plate. He and his girlfriend are travelling for 4 months and are 1 month into their trip. He was from Dorset and went to leave us to it but it was one of the few British accents we've heard for the last 6 months, so we chatted for a while.
We camped at Garganta del Diablo and befriended a cat with some ham. We drove the rest of Ruta 68 to Cafayate, stopping at El Sapo, where Em spotted a little fox running alongside the river. We saw a baby donkey on the side of the road that had a broken leg, and his mum was doing her best to protect him. We also stopped to admire Quebrada de las Conchas, La Yesera, El Obilisco, Las Ventanas, and Los Castillos.
This car is a prop left here from the filming of 'Wild tales'
Inside 'Gargata del Diablo'
The view out to the valley from inside Garganta
Tres Cruces viewpoint
Baby and mama donkey
Los Castillos
Jagged mountains on Ruta 68
El Obilisco
Our temporaty pet Ken(gibre)
Los Castillos
Cafayate
Cafayate is a very quaint little town and we sat around the square with ice cream and coffee and bought some souvenirs. Justin got a mug and immediately smashed the handle off. We visited Casa de la Llama, a house with a huge carved llama over the doorway, and filled with handcrafted artifacts. Later, we bumped into a Dutch couple we'd seen at a campsite in Salta who were having some mechanical issues with their van. Our chosen camp spot was near the vineyards near a local community that offered guided hikes. We got some funny looks during our morning yoga and shower.
We explored the town a bit more before heading to Cafayate Goats, a lovely vineyard at the foot of the mountains that make its own wine and goat's cheese. We strategically parked between the vineyard and the town so we could have some wine and walk back into town for dinner. We had a wine tasting with 6 different goat's cheeses for £2.60 for two people! The star of the show at the vineyard was a big grey cat that couldn't get enough strokes.
The rest of our time in Cafayate was spent doing yoga, lounging around in the park, and drinking coffee and wine. We drove back up Ruta 68, stopping for another night at the entrance to Garganta del Diablo back with our cat friend, who we were having serious thoughts about abducting, he was so lovely! We spent the afternoon revising our Spanish verb conjugations.
The next day we drove back into Salta for another night at our trusty municipal campsite, as we had booked Pedro in for a service the next morning. Unfortunately, due to Argentina's rampant inflation, prices had risen 15% and the cost of the service was more than in the UK. Instead of getting a full service, we just got the necessary work done - the coolant tank cleaned out, the oil changed, and the power steering leak fixed (after a garage fashioned a new pipe for us!). We also treated ourselves to a new stereo with Bluetooth as ours had broken, and the shop owner kindly fitted it for us. We also got Pedro washed and topped ourselves up with cash from Western Union, groceries, and diesel. After a couple of nights back in the municipal campsite in Salta, chatting with fellow overlanders, and ticking off all our chores, we were ready to hit the road again!
Quaint streets in Cafayete
A local man and his dog repping an Argentina shirt
Inside a typical artisanal market
La casa de la Llama
Strange masks inside the Llama house
2 men on a moped casually holding a bicycle
Cafayete Goats vineyard
Goats of the vineyard
Jujuy Province
Jujuy Province
May 2023
Humahuaca, Purmamarca & Tilcara
From Salta, we drove north to Jujuy province. The valley was spectacular again with huge colourful mountains and tiny, indigenous towns dotted across the landscape. We first went to Humahuaca, at 3,012m. The main attraction of Humahuaca is the '14 Colours Mountain', reachable via a 20 km, steep gravel road that takes you to the viewpoint at 4,350m. We naively set off up the track, but it very quickly became clear this was near Pedro's limit. At the higher altitude, he has less power and is less able to efficiently cool his engine. This, coupled with the strenuous uphill gravel road proved too much and at 4,100m, close to overheating, we turned round. We had been warned about this happening by some overlanding friends who had just done this journey, and sure enough, as we reached the town again, our check engine light and transmission warning light came on. Great.
We have a small Bluetooth OBD reader and it was showing an error related to our diesel particulate filter. It was unable to regenerate because Pedro was working too hard at the altitude. We were also aware of an issue with diesel in Argentina, as is the case in much of South America. The high sulphur content of the diesel here can cause blockages in the DPF, meaning it needs cleaning more regularly or an additive is needed for the diesel.
Humahuaca is a very small, very indigenous town with one mechanic. We found him and after a few attempts, and breakdowns in communication, Monday morning came and he was able to see us. One such breakdown in communication, we arrived at 8 am as instructed, Em jumped out of the van to say hello, the mechanic went round to the driver's side, ushered for Justin to move up, jumped in, and off they drove, leaving Em coatless in the freezing morning not knowing if Justin had just been kidnapped! The Monday morning was also after a Sunday night of a big football game, and the results of the local elections. 45 minutes after opening time, we sat in Pedro anxiously waiting outside the garage, when the mechanic turned up clutching a Red Bull and a litre of water, so we assumed it had been a heavy night.
While we were waiting a few days for the mechanic to have time to see us, Justin had got a tour in a Vauxhall Zafira (definitely not a 4x4 as advertised) up the mountain that we had narrowly failed to ascend ourselves. The driver used his horn about 300 times to warn other drivers he was coming as he hurtled past everyone (including 4x4s!) on the narrow hairpin bends. Em was suffering from altitude sickness so decided to give it a miss. The view from the top was spectacular! As the name suggests, the mountain has lines running across it that look like two rainbows (14 colours). These were formed between 14 and 50 million years ago, as a result of various waterways eroding the rock to reveal different coloured minerals. It isn't known why they separated in such a way, and why they are in perfect lines!
We also drove to a nearby ceramic shop, Paseo Arte Guanaco, with an enormous llama statue over the doorway, where we could try our hand at making bowls - see the video below for Justin's hilarious attempt. While we were there, they showed us a 15m tall cactus in their grounds, and let us feed their baby goats!
We drove down the Ruta 9 to the towns of Purmamarca and Tilcara. We spent a night in Purmamarca, another lovely little market town, where we enjoyed local street food, hiked in the Cerro de los Siete Colores (another colourful mountainous landscape), did a bit of shopping for llama wool jumpers, and bumped into some South African overlanding friends we had met in Salta.
The '14 Colours' Mountain
Feeding the kids at Paseo Arte Guanaco
A 15m, 700 year old cactus!
Justin Swayze
Paseo Arte Guanaco
Paseo Arte Guanaco
Our nights were very cold due to the altitude. Most nights it wasn't much above zero degrees, so we had to use our diesel heater and all our blankets, shoving anything we could find into every drafty gap in the van. At about midnight on one night in Humahuaca, Em said she could smell gas. For once, it wasn't coming from Justin's butt and after some investigation, we discovered that our 10kg gas bottle in the back of the van was leaking, despite the valve being securely closed. Hauling it out of the van, we carried it down the road to the YPF garage (the same brand as the gas bottle) to see if they could help. They couldn't swap it until the next day, so we took it back to the van, hid it behind a tree, draped it in a sleeping bag liner, and hoped the good people of Humahuaca wouldn't steal it in the night (they didn't). It was around this time when the local election winners had been announced, spurring people to take to the streets, beep their car horns in a conga-style traffic jam through the town, and set off fireworks - all a bit nervy when you're carrying a heavy, leaking gas canister.
The mechanic was able to successfully clean the DPF, but the ordeal had got us seriously re-thinking our plans, and obsessively mapping all our intended routes on our new favourite app, OsmAnd which provides lots of detail about the steepness, altitude, type and quality of every road in most countries in the world. We had planned to drive ourselves up to Salinas Grandes, a huge salt flat, but after some reconsideration, we opted to take a tour. We had also planned to drive from Salinas Grandes into Chile crossing into the Atacama desert and continuing into Bolivia. Instead, we decided to head straight into Bolivia from northern Argentina, a much flatter route...we had had enough 'vanxiety' for a while!
Freezing, foggy mornings in Humahuaca
Humahuaca once the sun had come out
Our favourite cafe 'La Casona'
Monumento a los Heroes de la Independencia
Taking our leaky gas bottle for a walk at midnight
Hiding the culprit in a sleeping bag liner behind a tree
Happy to be back on the road again
The streets of Purmamarca
Locals selling hot tortillas
Our camp spot in Purmamarca
Our matching llama wool jumpers
A cute note from our South African friends who had tracked us down!
Let's play 'Find the Justin'
Hiking in Cerro de los Siete Colores
Tilcara
May 2023
Salinas Grandes
We drove to Purmamarca, with a vague idea we could get a minibus up to Salinas Grandes from there. We arrived at 10.50 am and by 11 am, we were on a minibus, with 10 other passengers frantically sucking on coca leaf caramels in anticipation of the high altitude. As Em had popped a travel sickness pill, she, for once, wasn't the kid on the bus being sick. The actual kid on the bus being sick made the whole minibus stink but we couldn't help but feel sorry for him and thrust a plastic bag his way, as we swayed around the tight hairpin bends to dizzying heights. Although it was a good quality, tarmac road, we were glad we didn't try and take Pedro up there. Especially, as the 3-hour tour only cost £6 each. Along the way, we spotted vicuna and donkeys, one of which poked its head right through the minibus window for a nose scratch!
Once we reached the flats, we had a quick pit stop to buy hot tortillas and use the toilet, then a local guide got on the bus, and we drove out onto our own private part of the flats. We weren't clear but it seemed like you weren't allowed to drive yourself onto the flats without a local guide. Salinas Grandes are the third largest salt flats in the world, at 82-sq-miles, and 3,350m above sea level, and were voted one of Argentina's Seven Natural Wonders. We were fascinated by the strange hexagonal pattern on the surface of the white immensity. From a quick Google (our Spanish wasn't good enough to understand the guide's explanation), it is the product of water evaporating leaving behind salt that shrinks and contracts, which builds tension and makes the cracks grow until they meet another crack, forming a polygon. Then, salt blown by the wind builds up in the cracks and becomes an elevated 'frame' around the polygon.
We were also interested in the industrial side of the salt flats. Lithium is contained in salt-water brines beneath the salt flats here, and at the two larger salt flats, in Bolivia and Chile. These three countries form the 'lithium triangle' known for extraction of the 'white gold'. Brine is extracted with pumps and directed into large pools, where the water evaporates, leaving a mixture of lithium and other minerals. These are separated using a chemical process, and then sent off and used to make batteries. It is estimated that lithium from these three salt flats accounts for more than half of the world's lithium! Investment and development in lithium mining in these areas have grown in recent years and are in danger of destroying indigenous ways of life. This is because lithium extraction requires a lot of water, diverting the resource away from the activities indigenous people rely on to make their livelihoods - rearing llamas, growing vegetables, and artisanal salt harvesting. Having studied similar controversial topics in her Conservation Masters, Em found it interesting to witness first-hand a place where those least responsible for climate change - indigenous people in the Global South - are paying the price for the shift away from fossil fuels.
With all that in mind, we could still appreciate the raw beauty of the natural wonder and had about an hour up there to wander around and take pictures. The guides were great at helping everyone get clever optical illusion photos. We then bid farewell to our guide and hurtled all the way back down the mountain, stopping to admire the view a few times. The driver seemed to be struggling with the altitude and looked a bit wobbly on his legs at one point!
Wild vicuna
The winding road
The highest point, 4,170m
Local stalls at the entrance to Salinas Grandes - some selling llamas carved out of salt!
Safely back down in Purmamarca, we went for a 50p shower in the bus station (glorious unlimited hot water!) before driving the few hours to San Salvador de Jujuy to finally sort out our leaking gas bottle. We found a proper place that would swap our bottle and only cost £4. We also dropped off a heap of washing at a laundrette and found a local restaurant to shove chicken and mash into our faces. We weren't expecting much from San Salvador de Jujuy but we were pleasantly surprised. It was full of life and we could easily find everything we needed, which was a nice change from the tiny towns of northern Jujuy. We drove a short while out of town to a municipal campsite where there was loads of sport being played and a weird German guy sat in his camper who didn't seem to want to talk to anyone. We soon realised we were parked right under the runway of the local airport but luckily the planes didn't keep us up overnight.
In the morning, we enquired about a shower and the gardener led us to a weird building in the corner of the park which apparently had hot water. It's funny how things like this become perfectly normal to you when you've been on the road for a while. The room was disgusting, the door didn't close and there was nowhere to put your towel or clothes, but we just got on with it and enjoyed a nice hot shower. With our fresh laundry, and stocked up with groceries, we got a quick lunch at a local restaurant, which is where we discovered a very delicious dish called 'Picante de Pollo', a spicy chicken stew served with rice, potatoes, and salad.
We had a new plan to cross straight into Bolivia from northern Argentina, so headed for the border, stopping for the night in Oran. The town was a bit manic and there was absolutely nowhere to peacefully camp for the night, so we ended up outside a YPF petrol station, which was fine. We had read that foreigners in Bolivia can have a hard time buying fuel. You can only go to specific petrol stations and they charge you a much higher rate. They also have some very high-sulphur, nasty diesel, so we knew we would have to be careful where we fill up. With this in mind, we went and bought two jerry cans, filled them with premium Argentinian diesel, and hit the road!
Fresh gas!
'Picante de Pollo'
One of the worst Messi murals we've seen
Our final sunset in Argentina
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