The Salta and Jujuy provinces are a popular place for backpackers to rent a car and start a road trip. I wasn’t very keen on driving, so I was happy when I saw a message from Freek, whom I’d done some day trips with in Córdoba. He would be in Salta on the same day! We just had to find other road trip buddies. There was a message from a girl named Kris in the Hostelworld app. We created a group chat and went from there. I arrived in Salta late on Friday night and still wasn’t sure if we would leave on Saturday or Sunday. The next morning I met Kris at breakfast. Freek arrived by night bus that morning and we asked him to join us at the breakfast table. Ideally we’d have another person to split the costs with, but we were pretty much happy to just get on the road. And this is how three Dutchies ended up on the road together.
After looking at contracts, insurance etc. we received our almost new, white rental car. With our gear loaded in the back, we first made a stop at the shopping mall to stock up on snacks and get cash. Then we hit the road South. We had about 200km to go to Cafayate. With our spontaneous start, we didn’t have a set plan and were figuring it out as we went. Luckily I had some points of interest on my map already and I had the Lonely Planet I was gifted by a fellow traveler. First we drove through a bunch of small towns. There were many vendors along the road and even though we’d bought stuff for a picnic, it made us fancy empanadas. So when we saw a busy roadside restaurant, we pulled over and set on the cow hide-covered wooden chairs. We would sit on many such cows during our trip. We shared a bunch of local food, like llama empanadas, tamales (meat-potato mix wrapped in corn leaves) and locro (a type of stew). It was divine!
Totally happy we continued our way into the Quebrada de las conchas. The road here was good, asphalted, and followed the river towards Cafayate. There were several scenic spots, where we saw other tourists as well. First up was the Devil’s throat. We walked a little bit into a canyon to find a sort of steep and slippery surface. A whole group of people was trying to come back down. After watching them struggle, we climbed up and walked a bit further into the canyon. It was all red and dry, covered in red dust. Soon my clean skirt was too! Getting back down wasn’t so easy. I found some grip on the rocks and slid down slowly, my body against the rock. Stop two was the amfitheater, which was very crowded. We tried shouting some animal sounds, with Kris doing a bird whistle with her hands, but the acoustics were underwhelming. Stop three gave a similar disappointment. There was a rock shaped like a toad. It even had a fence around it. Yet behind the toad we found a little hill with a view where we had our picnic.
Our last stop of the day was a little hike at los Estratos. We were the only ones there. The sun was about to disappear behind the mountain. It was very unclear where the walk was supposed to go, because there were dozens of side trails where people had gone to explore the little spaces between the rock walls. So we picked a few and admired the colorful stone. There were multi-colored, horizontal ridges, like a big stack of pancakes. Sometimes they’d tipped over and were diagonal or even rounded. The rock seemed fragile and you could easily scratch some off. It was beautiful around every corner. We climbed up a rock and saw the bright red color slowly disappear as the shadow covered the landscape, until the sun was completely gone. We didn’t have far to go to Cafayate and stopped at a hostel we’d seen on booking websites. It was bookable online, but when we arrived we were rudely told they didn’t have space. Perhaps it was for the best, because we found a room closeby in a hospedaje with a cute courtyard. Cafayate is a region with many vineyards, mostly Malbec and Torrontés. So after settling in we walked into town to try a Malbec ice cream. It really tastes like wine! We picked up some street food near a local dance event and returned to go to bed.
Our first full day began with an adventurous walk. On the outskirts of town is a walk called the 7 waterfalls. We didn’t have time to complete the 4 hour circuit, but we set off walking into the canyon for a bit. For the full walk a guide is recommended and I’m pretty sure they charge an entry fee. Yet somehow we’d parked in the wrong spot and ended up on the other side of the river. I used my offline map to navigate us to the trail, and we’d circumvented the official entry. We passed a few small houses. People had made a trench to take some river water to their properties. Then we entered a canyon with a small river (it was the dry season after all) and many cacti spread among the red rocks. There were a lot of boulders and obstacles in our way and at times we had to cross the river. It reminded me of the walk Freek and I had done near Córdoba, only with cacti this time. We saw some tiny cascades, but nothing I would really call a waterfall. I guess they were further on in the loop. We decided to turn around as we still had 156km to cover, mostly on a gravel road. We wanted to get petrol, but the petrol stations were still closed due to this morning’s power outage. We tried the towns on the way put, but without luck. Then the road changed and we had to drive slower into our adventure.
There wasn’t a lot to see for a while. We passed a car occasionally and there were some random towns of three houses, but overall it was quiet. Just us and our playlist of quarteto music. I saw on my map there was a mirror sculpture, so we kept a look out for it. It turned out to be a long strip of mirrors, mounted on some poles. It was very random, but it gave us a chance to stretch the legs. The highlight of the route, and one of the most impressive landscapes of the trip, was Quebrada de las flechas. Rocks stuck out of the landscape, I guess like arrows, flechas. The area had a much lighter color than yesterday. We drove right through it and stopped for some pictures. At one spot we could walk uphill to get a better view. It was spectacular. Behind this area we saw a river surrounded by green. The contrast between the dry desert and the green fields was dazzling. Way out in the distance rose epic mountains. But was that snow on top? Or was it just a lingering cloud?
Moving on, we tried another petrol station in Molinos, but it was siesta time and we couldn’t find anyone. So we continued. Past Molinos they were working on the road and had completely closed it. Therefore we had to take a detour over the old Ruta 40. It brought us along the river, past some villages. By now we were driving on our fuel reserves. If the petrol station in the next town was closed, we’d have to wait for it to open. Hopefully they’d have petrol! As we were pulling up, a man walked onto the terrain. Was he the owner? But then a woman came out to fill up our car. Never has petrol smelled this good! We could drive to Cachi without fear.
Cachi is a very cute town. There are some beautiful buildings in its center and we found an excellent restaurant. I ate some pieces of beef with a delicious paprika sauce on top. It came with potatoes and egg. We also tried our first Torrontés wine and played some games of Monopoly Deal. With accommodation we were less lucky again. The place we tried had just been booked over the phone. So we ended up in an old farm house, in a big dorm. It was run by an old couple with an energetic dog. The shower was a bit strange and I couldn’t get the hot water to work, but we had the place to ourselves and it was right in the center. In the morning we left early to walk up a hill and see the town in the morning light. We weren’t quite early enough for the sunrise though. In our view was a strange place. It looked like a star and some piles of stones. A UFO landing spot. Apparently the artist had had a dream to build this for the extraterrestrials. After admiring the carefully placed rocks we left Cachi behind. Well, after completely filling up our tank!
There was 272km to go to Tilcara, in the Jujuy province. It was a day we’d been looking forward to, since it went through the national park los Cardones. It’s the park of cacti and we were quickly surrounded by them. In general the landscape this morning was fascinating. There was a sort of table mountain, with the 5000+m mountains behind it. There was indeed snow on top of some. We drove on the recta del Tin Tin, in a straight line towards the mountains. Behind it, started a crazy road with hairpin turns and insane views. We stopped at the highest point and were greeted by a fresh wind. As we descended the temperature got more pleasant. We drove through some water streams that were probably proper rivers in the rainy season. There were traces of waterfalls on the mountains. Towards the bottom we found a café, where we had a brunch before the long rest of the way. We rested another time in General Martín Miguel de Güemes for an ice cream and still made it to Tilcara in good time. From here we started the Northern loop of our road trip, but that’s a story for another day.
