Back on the bus! We bid farewell to Chile and head up out of the Atacama Desert into the vast altiplano. The road is now paved but still very remote, with only a few llama shephards and stone huts along the way. After crossing into Argentina we dropped down an amazing series of switchbacks.
The city of Salta felt almost tropical after the desert and high planes. It was once a colonial capital of the country and had a great plaza and really good music venues.
After a couple of days and catching up with business we rented a car and headed south to explore the northwest corner of Argentina. The first day took us through a tobacco-growing region with crumbling classic buildings in small farming towns.
Then we found ourselves in red rock country that shimmered green after a good wet summer. It reminded us of home and since it is April if felt kind of natural to be exploring the canyons as we usually do at home this time of year.
We spent only one night in Cafayate (Not Calafate for those who remember that town in southern Argentina). We thought about staying in a campground but it was so ugly we did a 180 and checked into a new hotel with a roman-style pool.
Our brush with luxury
The hotel owner was ecstatic to find out we were from Colorado. He is friends with a couple from Snowmass who recently opened the best restaurant in town. We went right over for dinner and discovered that Charlie and April know several of our Paonia friends. They had a great menu and are almost ready to open their own brewery.
From there we were back on dirt roads (actually it is Route 40, the same highway we traveled on in Patagonia that runs the length of the country.) It took us through more amazing rock formations and through small pueblos, farmsteads with red chile drying in the sun and green valley bottoms.
Cachi was another desert town that had 20,000′ peaks looming over it. The little plaza was a typically relaxing place to hang out (and park our rental car).
From here it was time to make a beeline for the Bolivian border. We drove back up through Salta and by a quirk of navigation found ourselves on a back highway that took us through a section of cloud forest. Then it was time to climb back up to the altiplano. We stopped in Purmamarca, a small adobe village surrounded by painted rocks.
The next town, Tilcara, had real gauchos….
and wanna be’s…
Tilcara has pre-Inka ruins that became an Inka stronghold for holding off the Spaniards. (The woman in the photo is actually a statue, but she fit right in to the restored scene!)
On our final jaunt to the border we couldn’t resist taking one more side trip that we hoped would take us to a salt lake known to be great bird habitat. We found the lake but couldn’t get to the shore.
It was great anyways as we gave a local woman a ride to her homestead. Many of the homes looked similar to the ruins we just toured, except some now have solar panels.
We checked into a simple hotel in the border town of La Quiaca where we turned in the car and chased down a list of items for our Bolivian visa. More soon!
