5 november 2018: Don't cry for me Argentina (we'll be back)

We had a fabulous drive from Cafayate to Salta, until we decided to take a detour as we were early. Around a nice lake via route provincial 47 and 48. Save bet ay? Well, the road was a wide gravel road, at first. Higher up in the mountains where it had rained and the fog was thick it was reduced to a donkeys track. Slippery, narrow and scary. We made it but were too late for our meeting with the AirBNB people and for Ajax - Benfica. Our car had just had a make over at the lavadoro in Cayafate, this is how it looked the day after our trip through the muddy mountains.

Salta turned out to be a boring, chaotic town. Air pollution was not a top priority for the local council and neither were safety measures as you can see here.

We were quite happy to leave Salta and head north for Purmamarca. What an amazing colourful place.
The mountains are shaped by the elements over billions of years and coloured by minerals. Each landscape is a painting - can't believe we have not seen more local artists here getting inspired by this.

We loved finally finding some Dutch - orange - mountains. Made us think of a famous '80-s song from the Nits 'in the Dutch mountains'. Kiwi's can't really image this but obviously the song was making fun of the fact that Holland is indeed as flat as a pancake.

Checking out the local tourist market - nice stuff but managed to only buy one pair of pants for later in the Amazon. The car is full so we only can start buying at the end of our trip. Difficult because the Andes markets are just so colourful and I love colour.

Settling for a llama salami then which was very nice indeed.

Love all the colours.

The next day we did a reasonable walk up into the valleys around the villages and checked out small very colourful gorges. It was hot but definitely worth the effort.

We were clearly above the clouds.

One more day trip from Purmamarca we decided to drive to the Salar Grande and that was an amazing drive. A very impressive road that climbs up to around 4400 m. with lots of large trucks driving to and from the border crossing with Chile. Not for the faint hearted. Just before the flat we found this lovely comodor where we had a coffee. Pretty good eh

This salar is a bit more touristy then we have seen in the desert and lots of day trips go here from Salta. That's why you'll find a llama and cactus made out of salt.

First salar where we saw the salt mining up close - a very big operation. Since it almost never rains here thanks to climate change you sort of wonder when they will stop or how new salt forms so they can keep on mining.

The first view of the salar driving down is always a bit of a surprise the bright white in between the coloured mountains. This was actually on our way back 'home'.

On the way back to Purmamarca yes, we just had to take more pictures. You'll never know if we will ever be back!

In the next village Tilcara we checked out quite impressive pre-Inca ruines.

Here I am standing in the temple (or iglesias as they weirdly enough call them here)

An yes, we did found another mega cactus so Hans is showing how high they can get.
Even after Purmamarca this was very very beautiful and we were there with late afternoon sun which was great. Always some people that

From where were staying in a hostel we drove to the Serranias de El Hornocal, to see the 14 colour mountains as they call them here.

On our way up we picked up 2 Argentinian girls who's car refused to go any higher. Funnily enough almost none of the Argentinians walked down to the cliff. Their explanation was that if you walk down you have to walk up again as well. Johan Cruyff could have said that. To be fair, it was an exhausting climb.

Our next stop was Iruya, a village tucked away on a mountainside land inward from the main route. A more than 2 hour drive but very beautiful again and a well maintained gravel road which was nice for a change.

Valley views from the village.

After arriving there was enough time according to the hotel staff so we walk up to the Mirador del Condor. Very steep up about 500 meters from 2700 to 3100 m. Very do-able but the heat and the high altitude make it that much harder and turned my face tomato red..

Rewarding view back to the village and yes we saw two condors!

I love donkeys and we see and meet them everywhere, these two just trotting down the streets of the little village. They are often used to carry stuff around in the villages but also between villages.

On our second day in Iruya we walked to San Isidro and back, about 14 kms.

Trough a beautiful valley following a 4x4 track which was steadily going up but easier to walk than the day before.

Beautiful colours again and many many river crossings.

It was hot, very hot and when you finally see the village, it's tucked away at the end of a gorge on top of the cliffs which meant another climb plus a set of stairs to enter the village.
Oh man it was so hot and this cold dark beer tasted very good after all the hard work.
As this village can only be entered via the set of stairs, the goods for the local eatery are dropped off at the bottom and then it's up to the locals to get it where it needs to go.

Hans was good and carried a large pallet of toilet paper on his head to the eatery. Some boys were also helping out but when we left the local flock of donkeys was doing the bulk of the work carrying water bottles up the stairs.

On our way back the valley looks different and so do the Dutch mountains.

The view from our window in the hotel was over the local cemetery very peaceful and quiet surrounded by colour and a condor's nest. We watched them fly quite close from the terrace, very special.

When we were in Iruya we finally received the email with our 'poder', which meant that our car is now registered in our name and we can cross the border to Bolivia! Much to our surprise we were able to print it in a dark local shop where they even laminated it for us. From Iruya we travelled straight (well, about 60 hairpin bends) to La Quiaca, the last town in Argentina 500 m from the border.

We decided to spend a night there to be able to cross the border early. Nothing special this town but in the evening the streets came alive with kids dressed up and celebrating Halloween with trick or treating. Who would have thought in the North or Argentina. They also went into the hotels (here in ours) and shops and everyone was handing out candy.

Hans was very lucky as when we were having dinner in the hotel (apparently the best place to eat in La Quiaia) he was able to watch the semi final of the Copa Libertadores. Palmeiras (Bra) - Boca Juniros (Arg). Luckily for all the locals who flocked in during the game, Boca won.
For now our last blog from Argentina. Tomorrow we'll try to cross the border with Bolivia.