After our adventures in the desert, we returned to Argentina. We had a couple more days before we had to be in Bolivia, so we decided to take our time going north. Our bus ticket from San Pedro de Atacama would take us all the way back to Salta, but the bus stops in Purmamarca and Jujuy on the way to Salta. We decided to ask the bus driver to let us out at Purmamarca so we could explore some of the smaller towns in the north.
When we got out of the bus, we were basically on the side of the highway, but town was close. We walked to town and started looking for a hostel. In San Pedro we’d been feverishly looking at hostels online and couldn’t find anything in our budget, so we just decided to show up and wing it. A Danish couple we’d spoken to in San Pedro said that everything normally works out, and they were right. We found one expensive hostel, then some that were full or closed, and just when we were about to give up and stay at the expensive place, we found our bed. When we walked in to Misky Pacha there was no owner in sight, but we decided to ask two guests if they could find the owner and sure enough there was a private room with en suite bathroom for only 1000 Argentinian pesos ($26).
We took our savings and had a truly decadent dinner at a nearby bar. Of course we were early, so the place was empty. We tried llama soup and got a trifecta: empanada, humisa, tamale. Amazing. Llama we found tastes mostly like beef, at least in that particular soup.
The next day we set out for a hike. Purmamarca is known for its “Rainbow Hill” and there are a couple small hikes just a short walk from the village itself. We looked at Maps.Me to find a hike and we set off. Maps.Me is a good alternative to Google maps while traveling. It always downloads maps for offline use, and is more geared towards the independent adventurer who might not always have internet. We haven’t used it enough though, and so Eric didn’t quite understand how to navigate…
We were walking up a hill, casually looking for a path, which Eric insisted was more to the left. As we went up we traversed left, not too worried about the lack of trail, because the terrain was mostly rocky and barren, so it was easy to move around. However, the higher up we got, the rockier it became, and eventually we found ourselves in a small ravine. Eric insisted that it mostly looked like a trail, and that it would connect higher up the mountain. Around this time, we were joined by three dogs, and a very challenging hike/scramble began.
This was definitely not a trail. It was a fun adventure, but there is a reason that trails don’t commonly follow the bottom of ravines on the sides of mountains. Water runs in the ravine during rain clearing it of plants, but creating small two-meter cliffs, and leaving very loose rocks behind. The dogs were incredible; four legs are definitely an advantage on loose, gravel-like slopes; we had to emulate them in a few places. When there were small cliffs, we thought for sure the dogs would have to give up, but they somehow found a way up, over and over, making it all the way to the end of the ravine with us. By this point, they each had names that stuck: Scruffy, Fatso and Lucky… we’ll let you figure out which is which.
Unfortunately, we were never able to join the trail; the ravine ended/began around 2/3 up the mountain with a sizable cliff. We tested a few paths but for each one we decided this was actual rock climbing, and we adamantly do not climb without ropes. On top of that the rock itself is not very secure, chunks that seemed solid on our scramble up would occasionally shift or pull free, so, no climbing. Going down was relatively easy, but the dogs didn’t quite understand taking turns. Just as one of us started to descend a short stretch they would come straight after, causing little land slides and occasionally dislodging a large rock.
After we finally made it down, we decided the adventure was fun, although we wouldn’t recommend going off the paths. We think we saw the real path, and it looks like a nice hike along the ridge-line, probably with better views. The path was far to the right of us; Eric had been making the digital equivalent mistake of holding the map upside down.
After our long hike in Purmamarca, we went to the small local bus station to catch a ride to Tilcara. It was pretty easy, and cost only 30 pesos although the bus did arrive late. In Tilcara we had one night reserved at Hostel La Rosa, but they didn’t have space for us for a second night. It turns out, totally by coincidence, we were in town for Carnival weekend!! We must say, Carnival months in South America are a great time to travel, because there are Carnivals around every corner. We went for a short walk to find food and found a place to stay for a second night at Hospedaje Pucara. Very nice place for only 1000 ARG without a breakfast.
The second day in Tilcara we moved our bags to the new hostel and then again sought out the local hike. This is called El Garganta del Diablo, and is a neat hike with a couple cool features. First there’s a deep ravine with stairs and metal walkways right up to the edge, fun to look down. Then there are some stairs that go down to the river in a different location, and there’s a waterfall at the end of a short hike. We saw all the things, got some neat pictures, but there was one casualty. We lost our camera lens cap!!! It doesn’t always sit well and seems to have popped right off while walking back from the waterfall. We tried to find it, but it’s gone. Total hike would be about 8km, if you don’t do the waterfall hike twice to look for a lens cap.
Back in Tilcara we went to a really delicious dinner, on a recommendation from some French Canadians we met at the first hostel, El Fondito right down town. We’ve had two long hikes in two days, so we feasted. Two burger entrees as well as a bowl of their lentil soup, and we devoured everything. After dinner we got to go and see the Carnival festivities. What we saw was that the main square was teeming with merchants and people. The primary celebration seems to be a dance party in the center of town, with lots of body paint being painted / sprayed throughout the crowd. We didn’t stick around long, being full of food and getting tired, but it looked like a great time.
Next step, we get ourselves to the vineyard where we will be WWOOFing for two weeks.