NW Nomad

Plastic Rage - Recycle or Abort

New Year - New Newspaper.

The first issue of North West Nomad News is now out. It covers the five states of NOA down to Mendoza with all the questions and answers a traveller has.

One of the pet peeves of the editor is the excessive use of plastic in South America, especially bags and bottles. Patagonia has banned plastic bags in gorcery stores because of the rubbish pile ruining the landscape. Now that full on summer has arrived in NOA with temperatures ranging from 30 - 50 degrees (Yes that does say 50 degrees centigrade!) water must be consumed constantly but bottles do not need to be discarded.

This is a Christmas Tree just off the plaza in Salta constructed from plastic bottles and plastic bottle tops. Sponsored by COKE.

I haven't been able to find out what will happen to the bottles tonigh, Twelth Night (Noche de Reyes) when the Xmas hoo-hah is demantled.

Please get a steel bottle and re-use.

Quebrada de las Flechas

I took a photographer client out through the Quebrada de las Flechas and he couldn't stop shooting the sky. The clouds hang like luminescent balloons, sun and rain dancing around making light play like a John Ford movie.

Taking their turn, the rock formations change constantly with every appearance of the sun peeking between clouds.

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.

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.

Patagonia

North West Nomad is currently Southern End of the World Nomad, navigating treks and journeys in Patagonia.

Check back for information on the trip from Salta almost 5000 km down the backbone of the Andes to El Calafate or Ushaia.

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.

Cafayate - Rio Colorado

Rio Colorado is a gorgeous half-day excursion very close to the city that we take clients on as part of a package. Hike or drive to the start of the track through endless stretches of vineyards.

When travelling South and stopping in Cafayate for a few days - the Colorado is a short option although it can be a strenuous trek and it is best to take a guide who knows the route as they are not marked.

We use the guides as they are local and it is their livelihood - They always have tales to tell. Our clients were quite adventurous so we went up the route with more scrabling and a small section of caving where bats can be seen at night.

The guide Franco showed us his scar from his run-in with a puma in the hills. That's him leaping across the rocks beneath the waterfall like a mountain goat.

The Colorado is like a hidden valley, very lush and secret surrounded by hills.

Cafayate - Quebrada de Las Conchas

Quebrada Las Conchas has again usurped lo de Humahuaca as my favourite after spending the last week hiking and photographing it in all its rainy season glory. The light changes constantly as the rain clouds do battle with the sun.

And the clouds draping themselves around the mountains here at 1662 metres above sea level are like a reluctant bride.

We can guide the Quebrada for a day trip either from Salta or from Cafayate, although I prefer the latter for the loveliness of the pueblo and its proximity to the gorge - leaves more time for trekking and picnicking. From Cafayate we went along ruta 68 to Medanos - Salta's mini Sahara - reaching it meant fording muddy water to thigh level after the rains.

Then continued directly into the Quebrada. The amazing rock formations were formed in the collision of two land masses hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The varying colours are created from the mineral deposits of copper and iron. Unlike the day excursions from Salta that simply stop off for five minutes at photo-ops along the road, we took our travellers hiking deep into the quebrada to experience the silence and colours without buses idling in the background. Our guests got engaged in the gorge - Its pretty romantic in there plus it was Valentines Day, or Dia de los Enamoradas.

Rainy season is full throttle in NOA at the moment and the rain has caused flooding to the road and tracks. Even the rio at Los Castillos was running high.

Cachi and Back

As usual, an early morning start to go to Cachi. From Salta it's a 4-5 hour drive with a couple of brief photo stops.

 

We pass through the Valle de Lerma first where the minerals in the soil create a rainbow of colours through the hills.

 

And pitstop at the only cafe on route for the last bathroom break before lunch.

The road that snakes up through the Quebrada to ---- metres above sea level is ripio, or gravel and the curves must be taken with care.

After the highpoint,we pass into the parque de cardones, a National Park to protect the cacti, some of which are 500 years old.

To show how this paisaje is so like the American Wild West, imagine it in sepia tone.

There is a brief stop in the National Park to purchase spices and locally produced jams from the people

Then we hit the mythical Ruta 40, the road that travels 5000km along the spine of the Andes from the Bolivian Border to the tip of South America in Tierra del Fuego before finally arriving in the remote village of Cachi

Cachi is a tiny place surrounded by mountains at ---above sea level. The people are lovely with simple lives that can induce a strong wake-up call in some Westerners who visit - It can be like travelling back in time a couple of centuries.

 

We leave Cachi and return to Payogasta for lunch at our favourite hotel,the Sala de Payogasta. The view from the rooms is heavenly and there is the option to stay overnight, maybe hike the next day and continue on to Cafayate a day or two  later.

The outdoor parilla serves delicious grilled local kid- the four-legged kind and homemade goat cheese.

The change in the landscape is very noticeable when we come back down into the valley from the puna.

 

Tilcara to Iruya

We set out fairly early in the morning although it is always tough to leave the beauty of the hotel in Tilcara - the gardens framed by the Quebrada. However, our visitors, now new friends,  wanted to make the most of the day in Iruya. Pressed for time in their visit to the NW, we had recommended that they stay in Tilcara and we would run the trips each day from there. It allowed a modicum of relaxation without the need to check out and cart luggage about. The new hotel in Iruya is nicely designed but unless you have time to hike from the village it is very remote for evening entertainment.

Coming out of Tilcara and heading North we stopped for coffee in Humahuaca and enjoyed the artisans in the square before the day trippers from Salta arrived.

We continued North with the amazing hills surrounding us on each side until the turn off point for Iruya - a gravel track. The last pueblo before the drive over the mountains is Iturbe - untouristed and very quiet. We stopped to buy some supplies (and beer) in the only grocery store - a real 1940s throwback.

The first part of the track is quite uninteresting apart from the isolated buildings along the way.

And that winding gravel is the road all the way to Iruya - 3 or 4 hours of it. Once you start to climb and finally reach 4000metres above sea level, you truly are up in the clouds.

The road to Iruya is tricky especially when the weather changes.There are no signs indicating the fall off the edge either.

The Gorge is quite overwhelming even when you see it regularly, the light is always changing.

And that is the road skidding away all the way down from 4000 until you come around the bend and are greeted with the picture postcard view of Iruya in the distance.

The village is tiny and you can't take cars through except up to the hotel where there is a nice lounge for a cafe with a good view.

There is nothing much to do unless you spend more time and take the 5-hour caminata (hike)towards San Isidro, but it is interesting as an example of a simple pueblo living off the land at the end of the world. 

This is starting to change though,especially with the recent addition of a Personal cell phone mast- what an incongruous sight but more and more typical  of the modern world. Our visitors were delighted with their visit and it was tough to get back on the road quickly so as to get over the pass before nightfall.

The setting sun over Iturbe. We just drove over the top of those mountains!