The word seems to be out about Iruya these days. Many more visitors to Salta are taking the extra days to travel to this village coddled deep into the mountains just below the Bolivian border. Fewer realise that it is not an easy trek that can be completed in one day and that although there is a bus from Humahuaca that makes the five hour ride once a day, it is best to travel by car.
The road is ripio (gravel) all the way and after the village of Iturbe, there are no facilites for three to four hours until the sky blue roof of the Iglesia at Iruya peeks into view. The deserted small church on the hill twenty minutes outside Iturbe appears to have been built for the goats.
The road is steep and winding until the summit on the border between Salta and Jujuy provinces at 4000 metres above sea level. Once this cloud-swamped peak has been crossed, there are glorious views of the road hairpinning down the valley towards Iruya.
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