20 hours and three bus changes later from the Parks del Valle Fertil, we arrived in Salta on April 14 in late morning, rather (very) tired ... Salta is the largest city in northwestern Argentina, located at 1200 md elevation and dominated by the Cerro Torre at 1500 m, above which it is mounted in the cable car to have a beautiful view over the city and surrounding mountains. Salta is a beautiful city but it was still a little disappointed because we expected s has a smaller town with colonial architecture more ubiquitous. In reality the historic district is restricted to the central streets around Caseros de la Calle and Plaza 9 de Julio with its beautiful cathedral, the convent church of San Bernardo and San Francisco. Much traffic in the city it is far from beautiful colonial towns that can be seen in Mexico for example. In the AC, Salta is particularly the starting point of discovery of the valley south to Cafayate and north toward the highlands of Bolivia. We rented a car over 5 days (a small Corsa 3 door) to discover all these wonders ...
Day 1: We went to Cachi Salta, a small village, very old houses with whitewashed walls, located at 2200m above sea level. The road is not tarmac throughout, far s necessary, but it is passable. The decor is breathtaking: it goes through red and green mountains, you climb up the Col Piedra del Molino at 3400 m just after making a small detour through the Valley Echantee ... Col after you cross the Recta Tin Tin, a large arid plateau at 3000m with mountains on both other and especially huge cactus, up to 7 m high, and all forms of guanacos in the middle .. . These amazing cactus, a real treat these landscapes so unusual, we wanted to photograph everything with our eyes, our senses ...
2nd day: We recovered the Ruta 40 Cachi Cafayate which oscillates between a dirt road and narrow stony track. It is far from what we imagine to be a national road yet! We pass through small hamlets and villages which, if they don have a few adobe houses, still have their beautiful white church. Between Cachi and Molinos, we see people working in fields and dry chillies or weave ponchos wool sheep or lama. The scenery is especially interesting when you cross the Quebrada de las Flechas with sharp rocks that climb to heaven. In Cafayate we visited a winery and tasted the local wine, including cabernet sauvignon and malbec. The region of Cafayate is another great wine-producing regions of Argentina.
3rd day: From Cafayate to San Salvador de Jujuy, the road is paved, is ca. We pass through 50 km, until Alemania hamlet in the beautiful Quebrada de la Concha along the Rio of the same name. C is probably the Quebrada that was preferred. Wonderful, wonderful, there is a lack of qualifiers. Gradations between colors perfect white, tan, red and brown, a marvel. Then Route 9 between Salta and Jujuy through a dense forest and humid, almost tropical. It is very narrow and winding, with balcony and is very nice but it should not be news ...
Day 4: Our itinerary allowed us to visit the villages of Quebrada de Humahuaca Jujuy and between the village of Humahuaca. They all look a little like finally: a central living with a white church and cobbled streets with low houses in Pisa. What we love most particularly on this section: La Posta del Hornillos, drop created by the English in the late 18th century, allowing passengers to change their horses. Admirable as the view of the paleta del pintor (the painter's palette, stunning mountain striped degraded) from the heights of the small cemetery in the hamlet of Maimara flowers, and the views across the Quebrada that it has since the ancient village Pukara which dominates the village of Tilcara. We walk among the cacti of several meters high, c is impressive. We slept a Purmamarca on the road the next day ...
5th day: A big day Purmamarca between Salta and return via Salinas Grandes and San Antonio de los Cobres. Route 52 departing from Purmamarca tarmac climbs up the neck is 4170m, the views are superb. It descends on the Salar Salinas Grandes of 120 km2, the largest salt lake of Argentina. Then AC is bark ... is recovered Ruta 40 towards the remote village of San Antonio de los Cobres. We hesitated to do this stretch drive because we knew that the road is particularly bad: sand, rocks, holes ... but it is happening with our little corsa! a long journey through a desert plain. We met several herds of llamas, drinking from the water points, crossing the road or quietly grazing a few grassy tufts. San Antonio is dreary, c is one of the villages the highest of Argentina (3750 m) ... From there, we come back to Salta through the mountains and the Quebrada del Toro, as colors and cactus again ... The route follows that of the famous Tren de las Nubes (Train to the Clouds), one of the railroads still the highest in the world. It took 27 years to build and is crossed several times.
Throughout the region, people do a lot of goats cheese. The cactus wood is used to make many items of handicrafts, furniture, and is also used for framing of churches, altars ...
Overall we traveled about 1200 km for our trip of 5 days to do, great. Not bad police checks all the time: in 5 days it was monitored 3 times.
Salta city
Region Salta by car
The starting tomorrow April 21 for a loop unplanned Bolivia: it rises to cross the border at 8am at The Quiaca Bus Salta and then we'll see !!!...
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