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.

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.

Day Trip to Bolivia

The Australian lunas de miel (honeymooners) ended their trip through NOA at the border with Bolivia, intending to take the train on to Oruro/La Paz.

The Independence memorial at Humahuaca

They had planned to be dropped in La Quiaca on Sunday but it turned out the train departed Monday so we spent a relaxing extra day in Tilcara then continued north. Traditionally, the tours, including the day tripping buses from Salta, only go as far north as Humahuaca. la Quiaca is another 160km over the puna.

Puna is high altitude desert, from 3400 to 4600 metres above sea level, stripped bare of vegetation, open and barren. In Argentina, also very beautiful for the open skies and galleon clouds.

Above Humahuaca there is only one town before la Quiaca and many llamas wandering free, or that is wandering off their farmland across the road. This little doll is only a week or two old, not often seen so pure white.

At La Quiaca, there is always a stream of human traffic running across the border bridge weighed down with goods in each direction. The most respectable ladies offer to carry your contraband across the border as the Bolivians aren't harassed by aduana (customs) as everyone else.

I crossed with the honeymooners as there was a huge line up at migracion and if they missed the train or it was full in ejecutivo, I would have to get them on a bus. Other travellers also needed help at the border - if you're staying 90 days, they ask you to show sufficient funds.

Walking across the border, you cross to another world within a few minutes. Bolivians are loud and colourful. The city of Villazon is loaded with contraband goods and all manner of food and drinks sold by bowler-hatted and plaited ladies on the streets.

I left the honeymooners at the station and walked back into town with my 200 zoom. Tough to shoot in blistering white heat against deep shadow. i stamped out of Bolivia and back into Argentina no questions asked.

Ruta 40 Salinas to San Antonio

A great 6 day trip with South Africans - We did Everything!

They mailed me their wish list and we worked to fit everything in and it was a superb trip seeing every different landscape the NW Andes has to offer. Sand dunes to high altitude passes and deserted puna pueblos.

First we went north for the pueblos and iglesias then over Lipan to Salinas Grandes. The winter light is playing some funny tricks at the moment and the early morning mist has not been burning off.

The road to Chile snaking up the Cuesta de Lipan

And down the other side with Salinas Grandes glowing in the distance

From Salinas we went down the little-travelled old ruta 40 (they've moved it over now) across the puna towards San Antonio de los Cobres. Awesome emptiness.

The deserted town of Tres Morros 

And the hillside cemetary beside the village

This is non-touristy journeying in Argentina and of course venturing even further west into the Puna and high Andes.

Only herds of guanaco and vicuna eyeing us curiously.

We avoided the usual lunch restaurant in San Antonio, with all the tour buses parked outside (it's expensive because of the large kick-back they give the tour companies) and went to the hosteria for good food at half the price. Although San Antonio is not a pretty town, it's interesting as a wild mountain mining town and the South Africans wanted to see the viaduct at La Polvorilla. 

The 17km sand/gravel road is the most brutal of all the ripio roads but at least the Train a las Nubes was on the viaduct when we arrived. You can see the path snaking up the side in the shadow. From the road you get the good shot - From the train you don't.

We returned through the Quebrada del Toro dressed up in its glorious afternoon light and stopped at the ruins - empty of tour buses as usual.

People often mail me to say they want to avoid the touristy villages. All the villages in the north are heavily bussed - at least with a guide or your own car (if you know the times) you can avoid the throngs. Between Purmamarca and Tilcara there is Maimara - a non-touristed village but not very interesting apart from the hillside cemetary and the Painters Palette. 

A house at Maimara

The Painter's Palette Rock formation - 15 curves over 6.5km

If you want to see real villages, you have to travel further but they are generally deserted and without facilities. The best option are the villages in the Calchaqui Valley from Cachi to Cafayate - tough road so no tour vans.

The Afrikaners saw the three pre-Columbian ruin sites and couldn't decide which they preferred. Tilcara is rebuilt so you can imagine it better but it is ruined by the tacky mausoleum on top. Tastil is deserted and in a great setting. Quilmes is huge and has a cesto and morteros.

Windswept ruins at Santa Rosa de Tastil

We did a last day from Cachi to Quilmes with an overnight in Cafayate and back to the airport through the Quebrada de las Conchas in the morning.

Day Trips from Salta with English Guide - Itinerary Advice

First advice  - A time to be avoided is Semana Santa - Holy Week of Easter. This year even more crazy crowded with Portenos and other travellers from around Argentina, choking every pueblo with car fumes and traffic jams.

 
Second advice comes via three New Yorkers who recently  insisted on taking day trips from Salta rather than travelling the circuits as they didn't want to be changing hotels every day. When you are planning your trip from home it makes sense but when you get to NorthWest Argentina, it becomes a bad idea.

 
The North West is huge and the distances travelled over mostly rough and/or winding roads regularly shrouded in rain or cloud fog or dust storms. If you take a day trip five or six hours of the day is spent sitting in the car getting out and thus coming back to Salta - The return is taken over the same terrain and the afternoon from 4 until 7 wasted in going home when you could be enjoying a new pueblo with the tourists gone.

 
I as the guide had to push them a little harder to continue on in order to see everything they wanted to see (something I hate doing) so they lacked time to relax and simply enjoy wandering. Then you get back to Salta between 7 and 9 too tired to do much but eat and crash. It really is advisable to spend at least one night in the south and one in the north. Do check with us for any advice on your travel plans all over Argentina in order to optimise your travel experience.

English Speaking Tour Guide from Salta

Just back from a great week with four guys from the States. We started with Bodegas and ruins in the south along with photosafaris in search of colour and texture in the landscape.

 
The second leg of the trip took us from Cafayate back through the Quebrada de las Conchas to the North via the Cornisa, passing through the lakes area.

 
Yes that is the old highway - one lane that snakes through the cloud forest on an incredibly winding road. The two most tiring roads to drive in the North are 52 to the Salt flats and this, the old Highway 9 from Salta to Jujuy for the curves and the speeding oncoming trucks.

 
I don't really advise driving this road if you are renting a car. It's a small enough road that makes it perfect for blockades.

 
Michael and I walked to the front to chat with the demonstrators which their leader found highly amusing - invoking the labourers to 'Smile for the Foto but don't break the camera. Jajaja'.

 
We had four nights in the North - a good time to relax, enjoy the pueblo as well as drive out on excursions to far-flung places. The two nights in Purmamarca at the 'Star Wars' Hotel were truly memorable.

 
It's situated right on the hike around the coloured mountain and the colours in the morning before the day trip tour buses arrive are really spectacular. The white rock dates back 400 million years and has magical properties. I carried some out in my sack and it discharged my Blackberry.

 
From Purmamarca we drove up over the Cuesta De Lipan to 4000 Metres - another winding road - then back down with the glow of the salt flats in the distance.

Another Star Wars landscape, it is worth visiting for the diversity of the landscape, the light in the clouds and the altitude of the puna.

 

 
  - vicunas and guanacos are often visible at the side of the road but they are accustomed to the landscape and know it's not the healthiestplace for sunbathing.

 
This trip can be done in a day but it's much nicer to stay the night and continue on to Tilcara and Humahuaca the following day. Tours available at www.northwestnomad.com

Tour to Purmamarca - The Seven Colours Hill

Purmamarca is growing rapidly. It seems every week there is a new boutique hotel or restaurant (now an artensans mall also). It is also firmly fixed on the Hippy Trail in the North West which means that in Januarand February, it is crammed with bourgeois Porteno teens sporting dreadlocks for the summer and camping in private gardens.

Everyone comes to see the Hill of Seven Colours into which the pueblo is cradled. It's a nice 2-hour walk around the back of the hill, emerging on the other side of the town. What I make every effort to avoid when escorting visitors is the mass of tour buses letting people off for ten minutes.

Salinas Grandes - the Salt Flats - is a stunning 70km drive over the Cuesta de Lipan and there are more tour buses that will take you from Purmamarca. I don't understand why anyone would want to spend their trip stuffed into a minivan and let out at the rigidly proscribed spots for a fast snapshot.

Natural beauty needs to be enjoyed with solitude and with the right light for taking photographs. There is a gentle hill to climb above the pueblo and watch the seven colours change in the light.

And then it's back to the marketplace.

Iruya

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.

Tilcara

I never get tired of taking clients and friends to Tilcara. Even in winter when the wind whips the gravel streets up into your face, its wildness is stimulating.

Tilcara, Jujuy

Last week we were in Tilcara and our clients were so taken with the simple hippy vibe of the pueblo, they refused to leave.

It is not essential to use a guide to get to Tilcara unless you are under time constraint. The bus leaves from Salta costing around 30 pesos - not the most comfortable in summer though. The bus station is Tilcara is in the centre of town - rather quaint.

At this time of year the weather is unpredictable, although even on a rainy day, the views can be marvellous when the clouds encircle the mountains like pearls on a Dowager's neck.

The Pucara just outside the pueblo is a good place to start a walk - avoiding the hours of the tourist bus day trips. This area is part of the Inca Trail that ran down the Andes from Peru. I prefer the reconstruction of the Pucara (Fort on an awkward hill in Quecha, the ancient language of the Incas) to that of Quilmes in Tucuman.

The houses were constructed with stones that blend into the landscape, mud and wood from cacti between 1000 and 1594 AD. Climb to the monument at the top for a stupendous view of the painters palette rock formation in the pueblo of Maimara (Where we started our community project for schools) 10 miles away and in the opposite direction, far up the Quebrada de Humahuaca.

Cross the iron bridge and turn left to take the path to the Gargantua del Diablo waterfall. Tourists tend to drive up the hill for their photo opp, but the hiking path diverges from the road pretty soon. We continue on from the fall to hike higher and be totally alone with the cacti and the view across the gorge.

The sun is fierce in Jujuy and the walk along the narrow gravel trail is tiring. Thankfully a great dinner of llama on the parilla with wild mushroom sauce and quinoa risotto awaits us at the best restaurant in Tilcara - top secret but available to anyone who asks.