NW Nomad

Salinas Grandes

The salt flats, like much of the landscape of Salta and Jujuy, never tires me- I can travel there with visitors repeatedly and am always amazed.

When we leave from Cafayate we take mystical Ruta 40 up through Molinos and Cachi then continue on the rough ripio road to spiritual La Poma with its Inca ruins and San Antonio de las Cobres at 3775metres above sea level (the stop for the Tren a las Nubes).

Leaving from Salta is faster and less intriguing until we reach Purmamarca with its famous Hill of Siete Colores (best viewed without the mountain of tour buses in front) and then take the beautiful winding road through the cerros to Salinas.

You need to wear lots, pero lots of sunblock and spare a thought for the people who eke out a living cutting the salt blocks and hauling them out to dry before shipping them out. They remind me of the tiny men in Star Wars - all covered up in hoods with only two tiny lights for eyes. This is a harsh environment but stunning.

We can continue on to the pueblo of Susques where some visitors elect to be dropped in order to catch the bus through Paso de Jama to Chile or return to Tilcara for a longer journey or to Salta.

Eco-Patagonia

I am concerned that Salta does not become the New El Calafate and lose its soul to tourism. The glaciares are astoundingly beautiful but the town and the infra-structure is ruined because of the rush to cater to the masses of people anxious to snap a photo in front of a famous sight.

Visiting a special place in the world is so much more than snapping a photo. An excursion is so much more than stopping the bus at the same point every day and lining up visitors to snap at the same vista - usually when the light is all wrong anyway.

In El Calafate it is impossible to travel anywhere without using the middle-man excursion agency and in some instances Salta and Jujuy are becoming this way in that the tour agencies offer the same standard bus trips with too many people, all stopping at the same 'famous' sights.

In this case it is our intention to simply go further away with a small group, searching our adventure and solitude without damaging our environment