Day 32 - 33 Norte Treasures

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Photo Album: Norte Treasures
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After spending an exhilarating long day exploring and enjoying the spectacular moonscapes of  in Cuyo and later the majestic walls of Talampaya National Park in one day, we stayed the night at Villa Union, a village north of Talampaya National Park.  For the past week, we were essentially driving north along the wilderness on the western side of Argentina, the foothills of the Andes.

This was going to be our course for the next few days.  Based on my research, some great landscapes were still ahead.

We were hoping to get to Chilecito, 111 Km away on Rt 40,  in about an hour an a half from Villa Union, so as to get some grocery shopping done at a larger town, with better selections.  It did not workout. The trip involved navigation over another narrow mountain pass with only loose gravel roads and a lot of roadworks in the process of widening it.

But the view is wonderful, looking into the deep gorges along the way.  And these roadside shrines were getting pretty regular.  

Got into a conversation with a local 4x4 tripper who was on his way to Machu Picchu in Peru, and asked him what they are about, some of them are adorned with red flags, bottles, and plastic bottles.  They are much like the local gods in China, blended with their Christian believes etc. worshiped for the usual suspects…. for better health, things…etc.  Simply put, superstitions, neuro-opium on top of more.  Nevertheless, this is a local custom.  Here is a link to shed more lights on the different shrines in Argentina, Shrines in Argentina.

So a one hour trip turned into a near 3 hour one, and the high expectation of better choices in Supermarket also turned into hot air...there just wasn’t time nor the language needed to figure out where the locals do their shopping.

But good roads returned, we were on solid bitumen again.

The highlight of the day was the breaching of the 10,000 Km trip mark…and it was duly celebrated with a banquet of ½ a tomato, a bread roll with egg, a nectarine and wow!, a cup of yogurt…..

The hot rising air made a range of mountains looking very smokey… serene.

So we cruised along, enjoyed the scenery, and reached Santa Maria in Catamarca Province, the Norte Region of Argentina.  It was a long day with long mileages.

Santa Maria was our stop for the night.

When we set out in the morning to seek our promised treasures in the Norte Region, Google map and my GPS unit led us up the garden path, or rather, an old track that was on the map, has now become a farm midway. which I thought is a short cut to RN 40 out of Santa Maria, that wasted about 45 mins, on a day, that was expected to be long, was not very helpful to say the least.

But everything went well otherwise.

The first bit of treasure was the Ruins of Quilmes, an ancient settlement of Quilmes Indians, that resisted the Spanish Colonialization to the end, even after the Inca Empire was decapitated at Machu Picchu.

The Indians there are very friendly, although their ancestors were very fierce fighters in defending their homeland.

We were lucky to have an English speaking guide, who was able to explain the history, interpretations of the various elements of the ruin ( houses, meeting centers, guard posts & fortifications etc. ).

After a good hour of wandering around Quilmes Ruins, it was time to resume our drive to the north towards the township of Cafayate.  We went back to RN40, crossed the provincial border of Tucuman into Salta Province.

Another 20 minutes later, we drove into Cafayate.

With a short drive through Cafayate, which is really just a tourist town, what else can I say about that, other than that the YPF service station had no long queue there.  It was quite interesting to note that, YPF, being apparently, a government company, always had their fuel prices nearly 10% below all the others, Shell, Esso, Petrolbras, you name it.  I wonder how all the others survived?! May be the quality of the fuel is the issue, which is hard for an outsider to make comparison.  But their productivity is very low.  Often, only 2 out of 4 pumps were working, and with their popularity, there was always a long queue at most of them. And half of the time, credit cards didn’t work with them.

Just out of Cafayate, we left RN 40 for the last time, which we basically followed from southern Patagonia, through not altogether faithfully, nearly 4000 Km worth.

Along Rio las Conchas

The highlight of the day, was to drive from Cafayate to Salta on Route 68, through the Quebrada de las Conchas, a popular stretch of geological marvels of the region.  The tourism office in Cafayate provided us with information about the drive, and it is a easy one, about 50 Km in length, starts about 10 -20Km out of Cafayate.

It is a geological wonders cut through by the River Conchas ( Rio Conchas ), of which was, as I see it, a sedimentary of an ancient lake bed or river.  The formations are majestic, the only worry is, it is very landslide prone. Big boulders or humongous lumps of soils sits high up on the hill side, half embedded in loose sedimentary soils, persistent rain or earthquakes will bring them undone easily. The road is all paved and is best done slowly, taking in the wonderful landscapes.

The ugliest incident of the day, was, after we stopped at a location to walk around and marveled at the scenery, Julia noticed a man was trying to open our car door, which was not locked.  Fortunately, she yelled at him and he walked away quickly, and drove off.  This was an middle aged couple driving a fairly new 4WD, looking very much like Joe Average tourist.  Well….what more can I say!!  Sad and nasty business!

We were much delayed by the beautiful scenery along Route 68, by the time we reached Salta, the capital city of Salta Province, it was dark.  And the peak hour traffic hit us in more ways than one, one way streets were everywhere, big bus drivers were very aggressive when pulling out of their stops! With no information about where the hotels were, we were wandering in blind, and there were no signs.  It was only with luck that we found one, even they do not have any prominent sign. It was well after 8.

Here are some photos taken of Salta, in 2014 on another trip through Latin America.

So we settled in for the night, backed up our photos to various external drives, a daily chore.  Then examine the map for our directions back to the east coast, across the continent.

Next Post : The Long Crossing to the East
Other Posts: Index - 2013 Argentina-Chile self drive.