NW Nomad

THE Local Guide to Salta - Available Now!

Finally...We have been working for ages on this guide ever since we stopped the monthly, then bi-monthly publication of NWNomad News (mostly due to constant printer problems and late delivery).

Publishing the ultimate guide to a location has to be spot on and we think the BACK.Yard Guide to Salta (and Jujuy) - the first of many BACK.Yard Guides to follow, is just that.

What you'll see in BACK.Yard Guides is...

A local's advice on the best itinerary and how to make the most of your valuable time, What to bring, when to go, driving and renting a car. Each area, from Salta city, to Cafayate, to the pueblos in the north have a dedicated page featuring what to do, where to stay and eat and some history of the sights and sites. It's just like having a guide with you on the road although BY Guide is best read before leaving home as it offers a ton of invaluable and, more importantly up-to-date, information on the area you're investing your hopes in.

All about renting a car and managing driving in a foreign culture, BY Guide helps all the way.

There are special pages on handicrafts, local foods and even a recipe for the revered Salta Empanadas.

Even better, the 36-page guide makes a great souvenir, loaded with professional photos.

The BY Guide to Salta is only $7.99 and can be purchased here or by clicking the "BUY NOW" button on the sidebar. Please come back and let us know what you think.

 

Coming soon - BY Guide to Buenos Aires and BY Cook Salta.

Vicuna on the Puna

Vicuna are the wild members of the camelid family, llamas being the domesticated side and in fact, Vicuna will not be domesticated, like Masaai warrior the stress from contact with humanity can kill them. When the Inca arrived there were almost two million in the NW, they almost became extinct thanks to the Spanish passion for the soft wool.

In Molinos there's a criadero, not always easy to reach as the river has a sandy quicksand bed (See rainy season posts of us being tractored across. I was too occupied to shoot the occasions we began to sink and water came over the sills) where they raise and guard the remaining animals.

Seeing them wild feels like a privilege as they frighten easily and are well camouflaged in their landscape, the puna (Cold desert in Quechua) at 3400 to 4600 metres above sea level. Sometimes I feel as though I'm on African safari (and south African visitors I've guided have noted the similar landscape) when the Vicuna run wild.

They are most likely to be seen on the road through the Cactus park close to Cachi and on the road to Salinas Grandes salt flats where they seem to be becoming ever more accustomed to humans passing.

But when you head for La Quiaca, en route to Bolivia, where no tour buses tread, there are llamas galore wandering across the road and truly wild vicuna. We were lucky to spot this group grazing on the dried up bed of the Rio Grande but even the sight of us, high above on the cornice road caused the leader to emit a high-pitched scream commanding his harem to flee. We followed them running at 50km/hour along the valley (unfortunately I haven't yet mastered driving and shooting photos at the same time) but suffice to say, it was thrillling - A photo committed to memory.

Driving &Tours in Salta - How the Roads Are

Just back from a five day tour with three Aussie chicas - great fun with the food and wine adventurers but this trip was amazing for highlighting almost every situation possible with the roads in Salta and Jujuy, NW Argentina.

This is Ruta 68 from Salta to Cafayate through the Quebrada de las Conchas - Shell Gorge. Goat herds think nothing of wandering along the highway and you have to be careful on curves so as not to run smack into a horse, cow, goat, chicken, pig etc.

Same with ruta 40 although this being ripio and loaded with washboard ruts, it's harder to get up much speed. There are however plenty of animals along the way and other forms of traffic.

We'd stopped for a photo of this unusual modern church with a bacofoil-like roof when the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse appeared from nowhere on the 'highway' - Ruta 40 is Argentina's iconic road running 5200km from the Bolivian Border down to Tierra del Fuego along the Andes. Up on the Puna in the National Cactus Park, you will encounter donkeys and possibly Vicuna on the highway.

Beautiful snow on the Nevado de Cachi after witnessing two tourists smash their car into the jutting sidewalk in Cachi pueblo, totally destroying their axle. Next morning we encountered a landslide on the Cuesta del Obispo and had to wait for the ever-present digger to remove it while four English tourists changed their flat tyre.

Back to civilisation and we stopped in Cerrillos outside Salta for some fantastic local empanadas. The owners got as many snaps of the Aussies, juice running down chins as traditionally required of a good empanada, as we did of them.

In the north llamas crossing is the adventure and currently, many road blockages thanks to an unstable political situation.

I think of London and the current violent protest riots unlikely to achieve anything but rancour whereas the 'cortes de rutas' in Argentina often find people showing solidarity despite being blocked from continuing their journey for an hour or two.

These people in Abra Pampa, a small and non-picturesque pueblo north of Humahuaca on the way and close to Bolivia, had had enough with the lies from central government. Many people in the NW claim to be forgotten, far as we are from Buenos Aires and with insignificant population for votes. Madame Kirchner made one of her grandstanding Evita promises last November that every child in Argentina would have a netbook computer. The people in Abra Pampa are not only still waiting for theirs, they have been asking for the last four years for the second stage of the construction of the school to be completed.

My clients know that we have a charitable foundation at NW Nomad to help out with school supplies and other things necessary but forgotten for schoolkids. When I first came to the NW, the schools were in a terrible state. Then Madame was criticised internationally for lack of attention to education so all the schools received a bright coat of paint and visitors see a school that appears cared for. Inside and out of touristed areas, everything continues the same.

In Abra Pampa they have to operate on four turns every day from early morning to night for each of the levels to get a few hours of schooling in - they need more classrooms.

One of the wonderful Aussie gals had brought a ton of supplies and her friends at home had given her money for aid here and in Peru - thank you Aussies in Brisbane. This was a great opportunity for her to hand out the pencils and books she had carried so far and everyone was fascinated and very grateful for the items she gave.

I dropped two gals in Bolivia and came back to Salta with the third. We had to wait an hour again at the roadblock and were diverted off the highway at San Salvador as fires had been lit, blocking it off - there have been serious riots in that capital recently over land grabs and evictions.

Thinking that not much else could possibly happen, we were pulled over in Guemes and told I'd run a red light (You can't say you did not) and that as it was night, the car would have to be impounded and a 1800 pesos fine paid in the morning. The Aussie had her flight home in the morning. It was obviously a shakedown but with foreigners, they won't take the usual 100 backhander. 900 was the absolute minimum to be allowed to pay on the spot. Much arguing later, I got it down to 400 pesos so long as I didn't need a receipt and said nothing.

Upshot is - give yourself time to get places, don't travel the highways at night, keep a near empty wallet for bribes.

Ruta 40 Cafayate to Cachi

The trip is only 165km but will take you all day with stops in the Quebrada de las Flechas, Molinos and Seclantas.

Dont miss the camino de los Artesanos to see the handwoven llama shawls and watch out for the animals in the middle of the gravel track road.

Summer Snow in Cachi

The tormentas of rainy season are finally over and although there are still diversions where roads have washed away or fallen into the rapids, they are generally good to drive.

The Car to the clouds has been in business through rainy season

The flooded Salinas Grandes

The salt flats which was under water through most of February and March and looked like nothing more than a pretty lagoon, has dried out and can be walked on as before.

Even in high summer there has been snow on the mountains in Cachi and Tucuman. These shots show the view from the Estancia we use for visitors visiting Cachi.

3 Day Trip with English Guides in Salta

What a gorgeous group of six English folks we had last week and how they rolled with the punches of the road down from Cachi - They had wanted to go over Abra del Acay but it was out of the question due to the state of the roads.

We had two cars for security and the followers took this shot of me hacking through the flash floood. It had calmed down from its usual width but everyone has been getting stuck in the rolling pebbles. It is also wise to take precautions as the water is powerful and a car can roll over the edge.

We managed to walk out through the flooding on Salinas Grandes (Salt Flats) and find a dry spot. Very happy, but guys You're supposed to jump together!

Rainy Season Salta with English Guide

Having started slowly, so slowly that farmers were worried about crops, the rainy season kicked into full force in Mid January.

The Cuesta del Obispo between Salta and Cachi has been especially treacherous with flash floods coming down the mountain and across the road. sadly we took no photos of being tugged out of the water by the local bus. It was tough even with a tow and four burly gents pushing - the wet pebble gravel that gets dragged down by the water just makes the wheels spin deeper with no traction. New tyres and hubcaps all round.

Going to Colome has been a task. That road is rough at the best of times and water just washes it into new configurations. If you can get across to even try the battle - the flood across the road at Molinos has prevented crossing unless the tractor shows up.

Just as photos don't do justice to the landscape, it is hard to see how rough the water has been or how large the rocks covering the road in the landslides.

I'm glad I wasn't under that one when it came down

The entrance to the Quebrada de las Conchas between Salta and Cafayate has been really bad. We were turned back from going up to Cachi when the police closed the Cuesta del Obispo, so we made our way to Cafayate and had to wait two hours in traffic for a flash flood to calm down.

This week, the river through the gorge has been ferocious and cut back into the land right under the road. It was strange watching huge pieces of earth calve off and crash into the water like the ice at Perito Moreno. Gracias a Dios no one was washed off the road.

Check the crack ready to calve off

The salt flats at 3350 metres above sea level have experienced way more than their usual 100mm of rain per year and are now a salt lake.

You can't drive on to them as usual so people were rolling up their pants and paddling in, however last week with the 15 days of rain, it was too deep in water to step on and looked nothing like a salt flat so much as a very pretty lagoon. We felt so sorry for our six English guests who had been eager to see a salt flat but as Don Diego says - 'Mother nature will have her own way'.

All photos copyright Tracy Johnson and Diego Gambino

Salta and/or Mendoza

Just spent three days on the road with a great pair from Vermont who have been three times to Argentina and as wine aficionados, especially love Mendoza. They intended to spend five nights in Salta and make day trips but when they requested a different return route from Cafayate, I recommended they spend a night there so as to make the return journey via Ruta 40 through Cachi, even though this is the ‘kill the driver’ trip.

Above Ruta 40 through Quebrada de las Flechas

I flip-flopped the route so they would have better light in each of the two quebradas and when we stopped for lunch the first day just outside Cachi overlooking the mountains, they were already saying they wished they’d booked a second night on the road.

They then asked me to take them to the north and having run out of time, we took a day trip to Purmamarca, Tilcara and Salinas Grandes. I took them through the cloud forest drive and when we arrived in Purma, they said that Salta definitely had it hands down over Mendoza, that if people knew, they would definitely head to Noa rather than Mendoza.

They only wished they had organized their time better to take in more sights and tarry a while in some of the great boutique hospedajes along the way. The day trip to the north is especially long – Heading to Cachi or Cafayate for a day trip is long but the landscape is the journey even though you only have a couple of hours in each destination. Heading North takes two and a half hours of industrial highway before you reach the destination and you can’t fit in all the pueblos as well as Salinas in the available time.

Vineyards just coming back for springtime

Best 4-DAY Itinerary for Salta and North West

People often ask about the best itinerary for the North West region and this is detailed at the post 'Best Six Day Tour'. The tour covers both the Northern circuit into the Jujuy pueblos and the southern circuit to Cafayate and Cachi.

Wide angle required!

If you don't have six days? What should you miss out? You can do the tour more rapidly in four days by passing from north to south in one day and by missing the second day in the north. Uquia and Humahuaca are popular pueblos on the tour bus circuit because they are next to a major highway and easy for them to access.

My advice (and I canvass opinion from every one of my clients as well) is not to miss the Southern portion from Cachi to Cafayate. Others may recommend giving it a miss because the road is rough and they don't want the extra exhaustion in driving it nor the potential damage to the car. You dont need a 4x4 to drive it but having driven both, it is much much more comfortable in an SUV.

DAY 1 - Salta to Cafayate and Quilmes Ruins

DAY 2 - Cafayate to Cachi

DAY 3 - Cachi to TIlcara

DAY 4 - Purmamarca and Salinas Grandes

WIth this route you see everything and manage to exhaust the driver.

The pueblos along the Southern route are unspoiled by idling minibuses (although I plan our route to avoid these as much as possible) and uncrammed with people hawking 'artesan' goods from Ecuador. Instead, you might get asked to stir the locro being made on an open fire for school lunch and chat to the dinner ladies in Seclantas.

Photo Manfred Hellberg

It's not the usual kitchen but the locro smelt good. The school is across the cobbles from the pale pink church with hand-painted marble columns inside.

The Iglesia at Seclantas

Winter Frost in Cachi

Although it seems strange in this current midwinter heatwave, just two weeks ago we were in the middle of a big freeze.

It was surreal to see frost covering the trees and shrubs during the climb over the Cuesta Del Obispo toward Cachi.

The gravel road was its usual winding dangerous self, depending on how many dirt bikes, or pedestrians loomed in the mist

And as usual various species of animal life

Nevertheless, we continued through the cloud - como siempre, at the optimal moment my electronics gave out. Usually it's my laptop (two dead thanks to dust), cellphone (never delivers messages - could I sue Blackberry?), this time my camera battery. So luckily, the lovely family from Montreal have now made it home and sent me their fantastic shots.

We topped out in Cachi and had lunch as 'though we were in Italy' outside on the patio, the proprietor curious as to why we were so bundled up. And then we continued through the Quebrada de las Flechas to Cafayate - The driver at the end barely able to stand.