Iruya is a small mountain village in the province of Salta, way up North in Argentina. Funnily enough you can only reach it from the Jujuy province. There’s a “bus” from Humahuaca that takes the main road towards Bolivia and then turns into a gravel road, to continue on a windy and slightly scary road into the mountains. At first we were in a small van where not everyone could sit, but luckily we changed to a bigger model just outside of town. Then the bumpy journey really started. We made a stop in Iturbe, where only a donkey sat in the playground. Then we continued past some farms and occasionally someone boarded the bus. Instead of taking the direct road to Iruya, our bus took a loop through nearby mountain towns. We drove down into the valley, slowing down for hairpin turn after hairpin turn, the cliffs on my left, and at times driving through a small river. This longer route is only done in the dry season. The scenery is quite dry at this moment, but demands respect. As we entered Iruya I saw the most amazing section of mountain walls. The many shades of red and purple are incredible.
After a roughly 4 hour bumpy journey I was happy to arrive. It’s a long journey to stay for just one night, but it’s also a very, very small town. We walked uphill to find El Caucillar, a large and empty restaurant with accommodation. The rooms turned out to be in the building next door. After dropping our bags we decided to walk straight to San Isidro. This village is only about 6,5km from Iruya, but cannot be reached by regular car. Four wheel drives can take a road that crosses the river about 10 times, but only during the dry season. In the wet season the only option for the residents is to go on foot, while still crossing the river all those times. It’s a gorgeous walk, but we’re at 2780m and I notice it! I’m glad the walk is mostly flat.
First we left town downhill, discovering Iruya has been expanding down the valley. There’s a football pitch without any grass. It’s a red rectangle among the red mountains. At the bottom of the road we found an intersection. The road straight leads to San Isidro, to the right to Las Higueras. Both require a 4WD. You could also do longer or perhaps multi-day hikes in the area since there are more villages hidden among the mountains. San Isidro is one of the more touristy ones, with accommodations and some restaurants, although it’s unsure which ones are open. We still had a while to walk when we came across our first river crossing. It seemed like there were some rocks on the side you could use to hop over. All the crossings had them to some extent, but sometimes it seemed quite dangerous, with deep water surrounding them. I hadn’t brought my poles, so at a certain point, perhaps crossing number four, I decided it was safer and easier to just walk through the lowest point of the water. Instantly the water entered my boots and I would slowly walk it off until the next crossing. Honestly, I was pretty grumpy at the start, but I slowly started to give in and see the fun in the situation.
Luckily I’d brought my sandals, so when we arrived at the staircase of San Isidro, I could swap my shoes. Poor Jorge had to keep going on his drenched sneakers. But even with dry feet I looked up to the staircase with some concern. I was tired and those stairs looked long. At the bottom of the staircase stood all the jeeps. From now on everyone had to walk. In the town they’d made a loop you could walk to get an impression of the town and area. It was extremely quiet. A lady was gathering bottles. She was so old, completely wrinkled face, shuffling her feet slowly. Life must be tranquil but hard out here. We passed hospedaje Teresa, the only place where there seemed to be some life. Then we looked into the other side of the valley and turned the other way again, following a small trail up to the cemetery. Even San Isidro was bigger, more stretched out through the valley, than I’d expected. I could never live in a place like this and was surprised so many people did. After the cemetery we dropped down again on the other side. A man was just coming uphill. Below, we could see some farms with donkeys in the yard.
We honestly weren’t very excited about heading back again on foot, through the rivers and at the very end, uphill to Iruya. Fortunately we met an Argentinian couple at the end of the loop. They said they’d passed us in a jeep as we were walking towards San Isidro. They’d paid for the transportation there and back and said they still had space. We could join them to their meeting point and ask how much it would cost to drive back. This sounded like music to ears and we got a good price. We sat at hospedaje Teresa for a cold drink and waited for our ride to leave. There was a big group of ladies on a hiking trip, but some of them also decided to take the jeep. So with a full car we made the trip back. It was so much quicker. After a shower we went out to look for food. There were plenty of restaurants, but it was quiet everywhere. We ended up in a comedor that was literally a small dining room underneath the people’s house. The food was made upstairs and we were sitting there freezing! So we quickly ate our llama schnitzels, which were delicious, and went back to the hotel, which had a heater.
The next day I wanted to take the afternoon bus so we could still explore Iruya and have a relaxed morning. It was nice not to have to rush or get up early. When we arrived at breakfast, once again there was nobody in the huge restaurant. There was a table made for us and we saw lots of cakes and pastries on the buffet table. Ok strange. There’s no bread. So we got our hot drinks and piled up the cakes. A while later the lady running the place came to our table with bread and eggs. It was delicious. Bellies full we had the energy for another hill viewpoint. The center of town consists of a few streets in a grid, some of which being quite steep, and a small square at the iconic church. We had to walk to the end of the street, where the one fancier hotel was. On this Sunday morning we didn’t see many people. There was a donkey hiding in the shade next to a tractor. From here we followed the trail to the town hill. The sun was out, but the wind was fresh. Yet it was a pleasant point to relax and just take in the scene.
We made another round through town. We visited the church and sat in front of it, where a few people were selling souvenirs, api (a sweet hot drink made of purple corn) and tortillas. This Sunday a lady had prepared a big pot of lunch and some locals came out to buy a portion from her. We picked up some things to eat on the bus back and then decided to have lunch at our hotel. One more time I could eat some delicious empanadas and tamales. We also played a game of pool and then headed out to the bus station. This time we had a bus straight to Jujuy and via the shorter way. But the bus ride to Jujuy takes about 6 hours and in the big bus driving next to the cliff edges was even scarier. The journey went smoothly though, until a very drunk guy boarded and started talking to everyone. For us it was just annoying, but he got aggressive with someone else. As we entered Purmamarca, the bus driver talked to the police officer stationed at the entrance of town. After dropping off and picking up passengers, we stayed at the bus stop for a while. Then a cop entered to escort the guy off. A couple of hours later we drove into the city of Jujuy. It was my last night in Argentina.
