After an indulgent weekend in Buenos Aires, Bunny and I flew to Salta, a province in the north of Argentina. To be honest, I pretty much knew nothing about it, except that some friends said they’d loved it, and some quick reading of message boards called it out as a highlight of people’s Argentina travels. Sometimes my way of traveling is “let’s just show up and someone will tell us what to do here.” Which is exactly what happened! And it was definitely a highlight of my travels!

We flew in to the city of Salta which was pretty much dead because we got there during the celebration of Carnivale, where everyone takes to the surrounding towns to celebrate, leaving the usually-thriving city extremely quiet. We checked in to our hostel, Las Rejas, and had a lunch of empanadas and tamales, (which this region is especially known for) at a place nearby called La Criollita. YUM

As you can see, these empanadas are very tiny so we obviously had to order more

I’d decided after extensive (10 minutes of) Internet research that renting a car was the way to go. So first order of business was to find a car to rent. Almost every rental storefront in town was closed, but a guy saw us looking in the windows, and ushered us into his office. Just as I’d hoped, this guy told us exactly where we should drive, what towns to stay in, and what we’d see there.

[BTW for anyone going to Salta who wants to rent a car, I can HIGHLY recommend Alpha Rental Car, Armando the owner was extremely reliable and great to work with every step of the way, even gave me a free ride to the airport! His cell is +54 9 387 4829473]

Do I remember how to drive a stick shift after 10 years of driving automatic? Yes, I do!

With that business taken care of, we did a little sightseeing, riding a funicular up to a nice viewpoint, where they were selling wine and popcorn, and then continued to eat lots of good steak at a parilla called El Charrúa, which was luckily open despite the holidays.

First stop on our gringa road trip was Tilcara. We loaded our stuff up into the car, I remembered how to drive stick shift, and we were on the way! We made a pitstop in Jujuy, not very cute, and also very closed due to Carnivale, and had a nice lunch and stretched our legs before continuing on. We swung through the town of Purmamarca (more on that later) on the way to Salinas Grandes, which are some salt flats in the wayyyyy North, almost to Bolivia. It was a steep and winding drive about 2 hours from Purmamarca but totally worth the journey! The drive there was beautiful! I was jealous of Bunny’s passenger-seat view, but managed to take my eyes off the road a few times to enjoy, and of course we stopped for some photos along the way.

After two hours of twisting roads and views, we reached Salinas Grandes! It had rained a bit the previous day, which gives the flats the appearance of a mirror, and makes for great photos.

After our photo shoot, and picking up some salt/llama themed souvenirs, we departed the salt flats and headed to our hostel in Tilcara (Antigua Tilcara). When we arrived, the Carnivale partying was still going strong! We had take some detours since the streets were completed packed with revelers. For dinner, we checked out a spot recommended by our hotel, La Picadita, where we had a shepard’s pie made with llama meat (very common there as there are tons of llamas), and an amazing bottle of local wine.

The next morning, we hit up some ruins in Tilcara. They date to before pre-Incan times, and also offer some nice views of the surrounding mountains. To me, they weren’t the most exciting thing in the world, but a nice way to spend the morning nonetheless.

Afterwards, we took the opportunity to browse the souvenir offerings in the town square (llama stuff galore!) and had yet another scrumptious meal at a restaurant recommended by a local shop owner, called A la Payla.

It'd be hard to overstate how obsessed with these balls we were. They are. EVERYWHERE. At first I thought they were lame then ended up buying some because Bunny convinced me they're cool.

Tummies full, it was time to hit the road again! We headed north, with the destination of Humahuaca in mind, where our map showed a cool viewpoint of some more cool rocks. Unfortunately, we were not very successful in seeing said viewpoint. First we drove up some wrong road, then we came back down, and found what looked like the correct road. We started driving, and it started raining. Unfortunately that road is made of something like clay, which then turned into mud in the rain. When our car started hydroplaning, we decided to turn around before things got worse. I’m sure the viewpoint is great on a sunny day, but sadly we’ll never know! [There are no photos from this part of the trip because even Bunny, the photo queen, was too scared to take her eyes off the road/my driving]

Slightly discouraged, we headed straight for our hotel in Purmamarca (Colores de Purmamarca) and headed up to a viewpoint to take some photos with the town’s famous Seven Colors Hill. In town, I noticed post cards with way better views than what we were seeing from the viewpoint, so I asked a woman working in one of the souvenir shops where we could take THAT picture. She showed me on my small map, and we were determined to check it out.

We had dinner in town at a place called Tierra de Colores, because our first choice restaurant was closed, and it turned out to be super fun and lively. They had a live band and the singer asked every table in the restaurant where they were from….everyone but us and one other table was from Buenos Aires!

The next morning, we got a somewhat early start and walked about 3K around the Los Colorados (the seven colored mountain) and obviously did a cool photo shoot on the rocks:

Then we went in search of that viewpoint from the postcards. It was actually really easy to find. We had to cross the freeway (there aren’t that many cars so it was safe), walk across a dried up river, and hike up about 5 minutes. And then, voila! The views we’d been craving!

The BLACK pen with the squiggly at the end is how you get to the viewpoint. This is pretty accurate to how we navigated the whole of Salta.

Satisfied with our views, we got in the car and drove North again, to the village of Uquia, where we were able to do a small hike in Las Señoritas, stunning red rocks. We stopped at the “information center” which is like, one dude who has a gift shop, and he told us how to get to the hike, and directions to what is probably the one restaurant in the whole town (Doña someone) where we had what I expect was a very authentic meal (and also there were tons of flies).

The hike was an easy one but, as usual in this area, incredibly impressive! We loved the contrast of bright red rocks with green shubbery here and there.

That evening, we had a pretty long drive back to Salta. Now that Carnivale was over, the town was back to normal, and was a super bustling city. Believe it or not, it was harder to park in Salta than in San Francisco! I ended up keeping the car in a garage overnight, not wanting to drive around endlessly searching while angry Argentinians honked at me. Feeling pretty tired we, decided to have our last dinner together back at La Criollita.

It was so sad to say goodbye to Bunny after an amazing week together (and actually I didn't say goodbye, because she left at 4 AM and I was asleep), but alas, it was time to get on the road solo again!

My first stop was Cafayate, a pretty substantial drive from Salta. I took about 4.5 hours to get there, with frequent photo stops. The first part of the drive was nothing to write home (or blog) about, just some small towns you have to drive through, then, all of the sudden, you find yourself driving through scenery that gets more beautiful at every turn. I kept stopping about every five minutes to take a photo! At one moment it looked like you were driving through a lush red canyon, and the next looked like something from another planet. Unfortunately I don't think my camera accurately captured the awesome-ness of the scenery, but here are a couple photos to give you an idea:

Garganta del Diablo "Devil's Throat" rock formation

Rocks near El Obelicso (a big rock that I found less impressive than the stuff around it).

Vineyards and mountains as you drive into Cafayate

I arrived late in the afternoon, so settled in to my hostel, Casa Arbol, and walked around the sleepy town a bit before enjoying a local wine flight and dinner at a restaurant called Bad Brothers Wine Experience with a great patio.

The next day, I was considering a visit to some ruins, but wasn't really in the mood to drive a bunch more, so decided to partake in one of the most popular activities in the area, wine tasting! I met another girl from San Francisco in my hostel, and she joined me for tours and tastings at Domingo Molina and Piatelli.

Domingo Molina was a small, laid back winery with a beautiful outdoor space where we enjoyed a leisurely tasting.

Sorry Napa, but I think Cafayate is prettier!

Piatelli was a bit more upscale and reminded me a lot of Napa (but way cheaper- tour + tasting was about $7!). They have a beautiful restaurant where we enjoyed some lunch among posh Argentinian tourists, and then joined a tour where we got to see some of their wine making in action since they just began the harvest.

That evening, I ate ice cream for dinner and called it an early night! The next morning, it was time to head north on Route 40, a mostly unpaved road that I was a little nervous to drive. It turned out to be totally fine, just slow going. You may have started to notice a theme here: the drives are jam packed with jaw-dropping scenery. This drive featured some more intense rock formations, but in subdued, desert tones and with huge mountains further away (the camera never does a good job capturing those). It was easy to stop and take photos, because there was almost no one else on the road-- I probably saw 20 other cars the whole day.

I stopped for lunch in a town called Molinos. I think there are two restaurants in the town, and I happened to pick a very cute one in the lone hotel in town (Hacienda de Molinos). There was a small group of tourists from San Francisco also dining there, and one of them even owns a building on my block. Small world!

Amazing salad in the most random of places!

It was lucky I ran into them, because they were on their way to a winery called Colomé which ended up being a Salta highlight. A friend of mine works at a winery in Napa and he recommended Colomé to me, but I wasn't sure I'd make it since it was about a 60 minute detour from my route. But, not really having anything else to do, and seeing that these San Franciscans were excited about it, I decided to go. Their tour guide called to make a booking for me, because I guess you need an appointment (also lucky they told me that!)

To get to Colomé you take an even more unpaved road from Molinos for about 30-45 minutes (45 if you drive slowly like I do). You go through two small rivers, and pass no one else coming or going. When you start to wonder if you are actually going in the right direction, finally you see a couple of signs, and then a big metal gate where you buzz and are let in (if you have an appointment!). Then, you are shocked to find that the winery is super modern, and that there is a James Turrell museum on site.

It's kind of hard to explain how cool it was to find this winery there- LITERALLY in the middle of nowhere, it comes as a complete surprise. But let's actually talk about the museum. When I heard there was a museum there, I wasn't that excited, but it's a collection of nine James Turrell works, and they are freaking MIND BLOWING. They don't allow you to take anything inside, so I don't have any photos, but the coolest works basically feel like magic in your eyeballs- like you're staring into infinity or floating. Super cool.

We also had a short tour of the winery, and an expensive tasting ($20 for two tastes, but well worth it for the whole experience).

These vineyards don't look like anything too special, the cool part is how hard it is to get to!

The only downside to visiting Colomé is that I was a little stressed about getting to Cachi (where I'd stay the night) before the sun went down- the road is not only unpaved but of course also unlit, so not a place you want to be driving at night. I made it to my hotel, only to find that they were booked up, despite the fact that I had a reservation, but they sent me over to their sister hotel a couple blocks away. The room was nice, except for the bathroom which smelled horribly of mildew and had a "shower" that was a small dribble of water. Oh well, for $45 in the middle of nowhere you can't have too high of expectations!

Cachi is a really small town that I didn't get much time to explore, since I got in late and left early. It has a cute little square, and hotels and restaurants for tourists. I had dinner at a vegetarian pasta restaurant (so un-Argentinian of me) called Ashpamanta, which was friendly and delicious.

The following day, I left Cachi early (for me) at 8 AM to return to Salta. Surprise! The drive was gorgeous, and the scenery again totally different from the previous day: snow covered peaks in the distance, and huge, lush green mountains with clouds resting among them.

In case you're wondering how we navigated our way through Northern Argentina, it was ALL this map. And some help from Google offline maps :)

I dropped off the car in Salta and had an afternoon to spend walking around, which turned out to be super boring, because everything closes down for siesta, so I spent a lot of the time in McDonald’s using their free wifi to do some trip planning.

Last night, I was supposed to fly to Iguazu Falls for a day to check out one of the wonders of the natural world. Unfortunately, the flight was canceled, and the airline’s plan was to fly everyone to Buenos Aires (arriving at midnight) and put them on a flight at 5 AM to Iguazu, which would essentially mean sleeping 2 hours or not at all. Since I would only have one, exhausted day at the falls (before flying to Peru), I opted to skip them, and just fly to Buenos Aires, which is where I am now. I had a free night saved up from Hotels.com, so checked myself in to the LOVELY Home Hotel, where I am currently relaxing and catching up on things like blogging, which require reliable internet. Tomorrow I’ll enjoy some more time exploring Buenos Aires before I fly to Lima in the afternoon, to spend my last couple of weeks of sabbatical in Peru!

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