Despacio...dejame en Paz!Day two taught us that we had a back seat driver in Arnoldo who always told me to slow down (Despacio, Despacio...I wasn't even driving fast!). We stopped in Amaicha del Valle for a delicious lunch and continued on to Ruinas del Quilmes. The ruins we in shambles, but the day was gorgeous. Later that day we arrived in Cafayate, a small pueblo with nice artesanias and endless Bodegas. We spent the night, packed up early and headed toward Salta. The problem at this point was my health. I hit terrible fevers, sweats, chills, etc. and was in bad shape. The next few days I was the driver and NOTHING else. But, the views en route to Salta were spectacular with a few nice stopping points like the anfiteatro.
Red Rocks, only smaller!We arrived in Salta, picked a hostel and settled down. I spent the whole time in Salta in bed sweating a shaking. Dani and the fam visited the city which had amazing architecture and awesome sandwiches de miga. Also visited the MAAM (Museo Archeologico de la Alta Montaña) to see the Incan mummies, the Mercado Artesanal, and got the best massages at Touch Spa. A few nights later we hit the road for Jujuy...
...this road to Jujuy, AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING. Curvy, windy, narrow, tree lined, valley ridden and lucious green. Enough said, a beautiful route! We stopped in Jujuy for lunch but trucked on to Tilcara where we spent the night and I laid in bed more. En route to Tilcara we stopped in Purmamarca to see the Montaña de 7 Colores, barbaro! We woke, bought artesanias and trucked on to Humahuaca. There we found peace and tranquility. I was getting better and Humahuaca was the nicest of the small northern peublos. Nice artesanias, good food and a quaint hostel. We turned back to Jujuy where we dropped off the car and said chao to Margotchi and Arnoldo. Dani and I then spent way to many days in Jujuy waiting for the bus to the Atacama Desert, which only leaves three times a week and was unfortunately delayed a day due to road construction. By the way, the city of Jujuy is BORING!
More like 9 colores here!Therefore, we rented another car and road tripped to the Salinas Grandes (Salt Flats) and visited the amazing Garganta del Diablo, again in Tilcara. Amazing trip with some great hiking to get into the Garganta. The north afforded some of the most spectacular colored mountains we had ever seen. After an EXTRA day of waiting for our Atacama bus, we finally left the northern road trip in the dust, literally!
Amor en las Salinas Grandes
