A journal of a fabulous road trip

I’ve taken the liberty of sharing with you the details of a fabulous road trip around Salta in northwest Argentina.

Ania and I met a couple of Londoners who were also on a round-the-world trip. We decided to rent a car together and explore the outstanding landscape around Salta. To be an explorer one has to have a car in this part of the country. Here's my account.

First day – We drove south of Salta along Ruta 68. We stopped for lunch at beautiful Lago Embalse Cabra Corral. Then we resumed our drive south along Quebrada de las Conchas, a mountain range with stunning colors. We saw a few main highlights such as Garganta del Diablo and El Anfiteatro. , …(see first picture). We finally arrived in Cafayate, a quaint little town that specializes in producing a white wine called Tonrrontes. We stay Rusty-K Hostal, a great hostel loaded with atmosphere.

Second day – Our main objective for the day was Cachi, a town located on Ruta 40. But before we headed for Cachi, we visited pre-Columbian ruins south of Cafayate called Quilmes ruinas. Quilmes ruinas are nice but a bit underwhelming (read my other post on that matter). We climbed on top of a near hill to get a good bird’s-eye view of the ruins. A very nice feature of these ruins is the gigantic cactuses found on the site. After Quilmes we headed back to Cafayate where we took a left on Ruta 40. Ruta 40 is the most famous road in Argentina – it spans for more than 5000 km from the tip of northern Argentina to Rio Gallegos at the doorstep Tiera del Fuego. At this point Ruta 40 is unpaved and in ok to poor condition. On our way to Cachi we stopped to admire Quebrada de las Flechas (see second picture) before we resumed our course due north.

Third day – We left Cachi early in the morning and drove high above the clouds, some 3000 meters above-sea level on a very windy road. At some point we had to stop the car because a small landslide had put rocks on the road. While we were waiting for trucks to remove the rocks on the road another driver told us that one of our tyre was punctured! We fixed our punctured tyre and continued on to Purmamarca, our destination for the day. We drove through the Los Cardones Nacional Parque, a park with a high concentration of cactuses. Unfortunately we found out that the cactuses in the park are smaller and less impressive than the ones we saw in Quilmes the day earlier. After Los Cardones Nacional Parque we drove non-stop to Purmamarca, a beautiful little town north of Salta. We arrived in Purmamarca just in time for supper. Tonight Ania and I chose to cook tuna, onions, and rice for the group. With lots of red wine on the table, our simple dish easily became a success.

Fourth day – We started our day in lovely Purmamarca (see third picture) where we took plenty of pictures of the local wonder, Cerro de Los Siete Colores. We also took a couple of hours to explore the great arts and crafts market. The colors were wonderful. Early in the afternoon we drove towards the Salinas Grandes, a massive salt desert deep in the Andes. The Salinas Grandes were very impressive and were a great preamble to our visit to the gigantic Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia. The landscape on the way to Salinas Grandes was magnificent. We chose to sleep at Tilcara. Another perfect day.

Fifth day – A combination of bad luck and poor decision-making made us unable to reach our objective of the day, Laguna de Pozuelo. First we left too late from Tilcara and along the way we got stuck for an hour and a half as protesters blocked the only asphalt road in the region. After we cleared the barricade, we took the wrong dirt road leading to Laguna de Pozuelo. The road was terrible and after we drove 25 km in the middle of nowhere and almost brought our small Chevrolet Corsa to its knees, we decided to head back as it was late afternoon and the thought of sleeping in the Andes on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere did not enchant anyone. At least the llamas looked happy (see fourth picture) Disappointed, we headed back to Tilcara knowing what could have been.

Sixth day – We stayed in Tilcara where we explored the ruins and hiked around town at Garganta del Diablo (no, not the same Garganta del Diablo as in the first day). After hiking for an hour and a half Ania and I reached a small but deep canyon (see fifth picture). The hike was demanding but ultimately rewarding.

Seventh day – We slowly made our way back to Salta. The trip is over.

Here’s my ranking of the attractions and the towns we saw along the way:

Lago Embalse Cabra Corral: great

Quebrada de la conchas: superb

Cafayate: great

Quilmes ruins: ok

Quebrada de Las Flechas: superb

Cachi: ok

Los Cardones Nacional Parque: ok

Purmamarca: superb

Salinas Grandes: great

Tilcara: great

Northern Argentina is a magic place. Fans of Andean culture who make the Bolivia-Peru trip should go down south and explore the stunning landscape around Salta. Salta is a place where Spanish culture meets Andean culture. It is also the starting point of a culture not defined by physical borders. I’ll have more on that later.