NW Nomad

Driving Tucuman to Tafi del Valle and Cafayate

Just returned from over two weeks solid on the road including the 1000 miles to Buenos Aires (and 1000 miles back) and culminating in waking up to the earthquake in Chile and feeling the 6.3 that hit Salta this afternoon. Began with a circuito of the Valles Calchaquies with three lovely Canadians who weathered everything, including a stint in Cafayate's hospital for one. Never underestimate the quantity of water required at this altitude and with the high desert sun. Before travelling, they had inquired whether to rent a car or be guided by me of for which routes. I recommend the Northern part - Purmamarca and Salinas and Tilcara for driving alone as the road is paved, mostly highway and very friendly compared to the steep curves and ripio in the south. I inquired at the end of the trip whether they would have done it alone, Salta to Cafayate, to Tucuman and to Cachi and Salta and they said no.

It was unfortunate that the hotel had experienced a tidal wave of mud when the river flooded down the mountain and was still suffering the damage from being waist deep in mud. Tourists had to wait two days at the hotel for their rental companies to send out a new car from Salta after the mud rolled the car over. Buenos Aires rained every day with 97% humidity. A month of rain fell in an hour and a half causing flooding and blackouts. People were riding down Santa Fe Avenue on surfboards. It was a relief to leave and take the open road.

Catamarca has a salt flat that's a little soggy but the road and sky are wide open. Take the autopista into Tucuman to avoid driving through the villa and having kids chuck rocks at the car. Tucuman is bigger and better equipped but doesn't have the visitor infrastructure that Salta does - it's almost impossible to find a decent value for money hotel - as it is in Cordoba.

Taking the road out of town and turning into Las Sosas is a dramatic and delightful change. This must be one of the loveliest drives.

There's a reason it's called cloud forest.

Sometimes the road falls into the river but at least lower down it's sunny.

Up higher, the cloud envelops the trees like fingers in tangled hair and the steep switchbacks on the precipice cause visitors to crawl along at 10km.

Once you emerge and observe what you have driven through, the view of the cloud below the horizon is magical and the people in Tafi del valle are super friendly.

Climbing again to 3000metres to the infernillo outside of Tafi, the road is still full of potholes. The view at the top is marred by plastic bottles and rubbish even though all the land is owned by one very prominent family.

People are not always happy driving along this narrow precipice cut into the side of the mountain.

But the view across the cactus park to the Nevado de Aconcagua is spectacular especially in the afternoon.

Only a few floods across the road but check the depth to be sure before driving through very slowly.

Tour Salta to Cafayate and Cachi

People often ask which is the best way to make this circuit of the Valles Calchaquies from Salta to Cafayate and Cachi - clockwise or anti-clockwise?

After pondering this every time I go out there, clockwise seems best for a number of reasons. Although the Quebrada de las Conchas from Salta to Cafayate looks different from every angle at every hour of the day, I think heading south may have the slight advantage.

Arriving in Cafayate in the afternoon means there's time to try out some tastings at the bodegas before supper.

Driving to Cachi is long and juddering and sometimes dangerous/boring. The best part is the Quebrada de las Flechas between San Carlos and Angastaco, closer to Cafayate. Then you can stop in Molinos for a lovely lunch and snooze to Cachi. Coming South from Cachi, there is nowhere decent for lunch if the Finca is closed as it was yesterday. It's a plate of chips in Angastaco and arrive at Arrow Gorge hot, tired and hungry.

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.

Ruta 40 - The Road from Cafayate to Cachi

'How is the road between Salta and Cachi and Cachi and Cafayate?' People frequently want to know whether they need a guide or whether they can rent a car and drive independently. For some the question is completely moot. There are people who would never want to be driven anywhere and some who enjoy the service - It's a matter of personality but it causes some scuffles on forums like Tripadvisor.

The truth is the road between Salta and Cafayate is totally paved but has some steep curves and rocks in the road from landslides. Remember that there is no insurance coverage on rental cars from Salta, if you get a flat tire orworse, you pay for it! The road between Cafayate and Cachi is only paved as far as San Carlos and then turns to rough gravel - a devil on tires. There are bends and holes and rocks in the road. It is tiring to drive as you must stay focussed and not take your eyes from the road for a moment. For this reason some people prefer to enjoy the scenery as it passes rather than 6-8 hours with eyes glued to ripio.

The Quebrada de lad Flechas (Arrow Gorge) is not to be missed but the road is narrow at places and if the rains come through and flood the road it is imperative to turn back and not try to drive through water - the dips in the sand can cause irreperable damage to the engine.

Past Cachi the road is again paved but the weather can be perilous. The beautiful Cuesta del Obispo can turn from this

 

to this in a very short period of time and it is 20km of steep curves on sand/mud descending from almost 3400 metres of altitude. I have just returned from a trip with a client who did not much enjoy the white knuckle ride along a cliff edge as trucks approached head on from two metre of visibility.

Either way the route is an amazing piece of scenery - one of the great drives of the world and not to be missed.

To Bolivia and Salar de Uyuni

We have been getting a number of requests to travel across the border into Bolivia and head down into the high desert at Salar de Uyuni. It isn't an easy undertaking - apart form the terrible roads and complete lack of services, it is always a hassle to go across the border with an Argentine car, you can't take tourists across the border between Chile and Bolivia at Laguna Colrado - you have to tranfer them to a partner agency and you can't do it at all with a rental.

The scenery is amazing but there are the same giant salt flats and high mountain lagunas in both Argentina and Chile with less hassle but some people really want to travel rough and so we went.

I wouldn't do it again - the terrain is too harsh on the car -and the driver! So we now work with a tour company running out of Iyuni and a more expensive company running from Tupiza (the advantage from Tupiza is that you miss the convoy of jeeps heading across the Salar and stopping at the same points for three days)

Bolivia doesn't have the same tourism infrastructure that Argentina has - nor the strict government controls on tourism agencies and many people come off the Iyuni tour feeling very upset with the broken promises. The secret is that you must get everything in writing and do not go if the car looks like an old banger.

The Isla de Pesca is a unique sight - an island of cacti marooned in the ocean of salt that really depicts how the salt flat was once under the sea.

The lagoons of flamingos are defintely worth seeing and are guaranteed in Bolivia whereas they are more isolated through Argentina, not used to convoys of tourists and therefore more likely to fly away, which happens regularly when we take travellers to Pozuelos.

Going solo? I would probably recommend the bus from Jujuy to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile which crosses the Salinas Grandes and passes through coloured hills. If that's merely whetted your appetite for more then the tour from San Pedro to Uyuni while more expensive will probably be more reliable.

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.

Eco-Patagonia

I am concerned that Salta does not become the New El Calafate and lose its soul to tourism. The glaciares are astoundingly beautiful but the town and the infra-structure is ruined because of the rush to cater to the masses of people anxious to snap a photo in front of a famous sight.

Visiting a special place in the world is so much more than snapping a photo. An excursion is so much more than stopping the bus at the same point every day and lining up visitors to snap at the same vista - usually when the light is all wrong anyway.

In El Calafate it is impossible to travel anywhere without using the middle-man excursion agency and in some instances Salta and Jujuy are becoming this way in that the tour agencies offer the same standard bus trips with too many people, all stopping at the same 'famous' sights.

In this case it is our intention to simply go further away with a small group, searching our adventure and solitude without damaging our environment

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.

Into Tucuman

From Cafayate it is a hoppity skip across the unmarked and unpoliced provincial border into Tucuman - where in summer you have to change your clock again as they elect to keep time with Capital.

There is a fairly drastic change in the landscape and even the light. It's a long drive to 3200 metres above sea level so a guided tour is best for the day. However, the local bus out of Cafayate chugs along to all the points of interest - just not in one day.

First stop on a day trip are the Inca ruins at Quilmes - open again after the dispute with the local tribe. This is a historically interesting large site of terraces, much less reconstructed than the Pukara at Tilcara.

Next stop is Amaicha del Valle where we visit the Museo de Pachamama - An impressive building created by an artist and a shrine to his work. There is an interesting guided tour in Spanish showing the formation of the geographical layout and the tribes who lived there.

Then we drive across the mountains and down into Tafi del Valle - the Garden of the Province. Green and verdant, Tafi is the summer refuge for rich folks from San Miguel de Tucuman - the capital, which regularly hits 40 degrees on the thermometer. Clients may elect to stay the night and next day take a trek from Tafi in 4x4s or on horseback.

I persuade all guests to continue on from Tafi to pass through the Natural Reserve 'La Sosa' - which must be emulating Heaven - its hills covered with cascades of trees and ferns. We either return to Cafayate after a stop in the verdant silence - or drop clients in S.M. de Tucuman to continue their journey back to Salta ciudad or otheoints in Argentina.

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.