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.

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.

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

Cafayate, Salta, Argentina

There have been some pretty amazing skies in Cafayate recently - Even the Canadians were struck by the hugeness of the North West - Imagine how it is for the English or Europeans.

Now we are into the temporada of El Zonda - a wind with its own name that picks up moisture over the Pacific, speeds up the Andes, drops its load on the mountains and whips down at 160km into Cafayate, making sandstorms and windstorms and raising the temperature.

I never get tired of my commute to work through the Quebrada de las Conchas. Anyone coming to visit Salta should not miss the drive through, whether a day trip or as part of the Valles Calchaquies circuit. It's best from north to South as it gets more outlandish in its rock formation but if you haven't travelled that way and are in Cafayate, you can travel out to the sand dunes at km6 and on to the coloured rocks at La Yesera at km15 with rental bikes or a remise.

Excursion Salta to Tucuman with English Guide

 
An excursion to Tucuman may be accomplished either from Cafayate or Salta. From Salta we drive the Quebrada de las Conchas to visit bodegas in Cafayate. Stay the night in Cafayate with a full day in Tucuman starting with Quilmes Ruins, Pachamama Museum and lunch or tea in Tafi Del Valle. Trip available at www.northwestnomad.com 

 
People often take the day trip with me from Cafayate - especially the crazy cyclists wanting a day of rest for their aching thighs.

English Guide in Salta - Best Six Day Trip

Private tours at www.northwestnomad.com covering all of North West Argentina.

After conferring with our clients we suggest our favourite five night tour of North West Argentina after arriving Salta and spending a day or two wandering the lovely colonial city.

Day 1 - Drive through Quebrada de las Conchas to Cafayate. Visit Bodegas. Overnight Cafayate.

 
Day 2 - Drive to Pre-Inca Quilmes Ruins. Continue to Pachamama Museum in Tucuman province and Tafi del Valle. Overnight Cafayate.

 
Day 3 - Drive through Quebrada de las Flechas to Angastaco, Molinos, Seclantas and the Camino de los artesanos to Cachi. Overnight Cachi.

 
Day 4 - Drive through National Cactus Park down over the Cuesta del Obispo. Lunch Salta/San Lorenzo. Continue to TIlcara. Overnight.

 
Day 5 - Visit Pucara (Pre-Inca fort) and continue to Humahuaca for lunch. Return to Uquia to see paintings in church before arriving at Purmamarca for overnight.

 
Day 6 - Hike 'Los Colorados' around the seven colours hill - only 400 or 500 million years old. Lunch and drive to Salinas Grandes over 4000metres Cuesta de Lipan. Return Salta or airport.

Fully customizable - You can add bits on, take bits off or run the driver ragged and do the trip in three days - contact us at trips@northwestnomad.com for a quote or advice on how to have the time of your life in undiscovered Pre-Andean North West Argentina.

Grape Harvest - Finca las Nubes, Cafayate, Salta

A beautiful Saturday at Bodega Mounier - Finca Las Nubes - in Cafayate. Everyone picked a few grapes but the real draw was the party - All said it was like a civilised Serenata. To me it seemed like a swanky wedding with everyone under a marquee shading from the fierce heat of the altitudinal sun, drinking great wine straight from the bodega and dancing folklorico along with the pros.

The Quebrada de las Conchas

 
The light in the Quebrada yesterday late afternoon was so surreal, I had to stop and get a few photos even though I only had my pocket camera (I am starting to wonder whehter there is really any difference in quality apart from lenses)

 
These were just snapped from the side of the road in between dancing to a bit of disco.I can't wait for the client coming this month who is an abstract photographic landscape artist - Surely he will find the best inspiration here.

Grape Harvest Fiestas

Just when you thought it was safe to stop partying after La Serenata in Cafayate and Carnavales everywhere - the vendimia or grape harvest, is upon us.

For anyone travelling the North West in the next couple of weeks - Finca Las Nubes has a huge party for their harvest with participation in picking, music, food and of course vino. This year it starts at 8am on Saturday March 13th and goes on, like everything in Argentina until laaaate.

Finca Las Nubes is the divinely located Mounier Bodega located high in the hills at the top of the Divisadero/25 de Mayo street in Cafayate.

Just before that for non-wine lovers is the Festival de la Chicha on the 12-14th (Chicha being the hooch made from almost everything that grows and falls off a tree). The Festival has held in La Caldera for the last twenty years and features some of the most famous folklorico bands in the country.