Northern Argentina
Most Americans who visit Argentina never make it north. There are quite a few tourists, but most come from Chile, Peru and Bolivia. Salta and Jujuy are considered the "heartland" of Argentina. As soon as you arrive you are aware that these people are native Argentines with bloodlines tracing back to the same land you are standing on. Jujuy has more indigenous Argentines than any other region and you can feel the tradition all around you. The terrain changes frequently, you go from mountains to forests to volcanic gravel to straight desert.
STAY: Our first night in Salta we stayed at the lovely Finca Valentina. It's a simple yet beautiful farmhouse style inn owned by a an Italian couple with great taste. They also happen to own the tour company Socompa that led us on this journey. There's two hotel in the area that everyone talks about, Finca is one and House of Jasmines is the other. They are both beautiful, tranquil, luxurious.
At the end of our Northern Argentina journey (described below), we stayed in a place that will make me nostalgic for years to come. It's called Los Colorados in the town of Purmamarca and sits tucked into these magical red rocks that cast a spiritual spell that you have to go and feel for yourself.
DO: I can count the number of guides and tours that I have liked in my life on one hand. For the Salta/Jujuy trek you need a guide and you need a GOOD guide who is from the area and has a 4WD vehicle. There's not enough positive things I can say about our dear Alejandro from the Socompa Tour Company. He was chill always (even when we got a flat tire), knowledgable and informative (in a non annoying way), he shared his Mate tea and crackers, he stopped a million times when we wanted to jump out and take photos, his English was perfect from a year spent in Sarasota Florida, he somehow found us in the pouring rain when we could not find a single restaurant to have dinner in and led us to the most delicious meal, and even after the 10th time of us blasting Gaga's Alejandro in his honor and singing his anthem at the top of our lungs he never stopped smiling.
THE ROUTE: From Salta we headed North along the Train to the Clouds route (the iconic train that connects Northern Argentina to Chile through the Andes). The first stop was a tiny town of only 12 families, I think it's called Campo Quijno but not 100% on that. They have a cute historic museum, some handmade items for sale and a house to worship in, which is actually all quite impressive for a town of 12 families. It's also a nice spot to stop and take a minute to sip Mate and hear about the history of the town as displayed here by Ale and Lynne:
We continued north and stopped a dozen times to jump out and see the llamas. LLAMAS people, LLAMAS. Llamas are everywhere in Northern Argentina. I fell in love with these creatures.
We stopped for lunch (in a town I can't recall and sans internet it was hard to track) about an hour short of the salt flats. This was my first taste of Northern Argentina empanadas (people from there will tell you they invented the empanada though it's up for debate) and…llama. Which is served everywhere around these parts.
Fat and happy we carried on to Salinas Grandes. I've never seen salt flats and have wanted to. The vastness is breathtaking and it's wild how few people are there. The flats are a working resource for Argentina and there are mining areas for sodium and potassium. It feels quiet yet windy and the salt makes everything dry and the sun is reflecting so hard off of the salt that you are baking in the sun. We played out there for at least an hour. There's also a few stalls selling salt trinkets so I of course bought llamas made out of salt.
From there we made it to our lovely home in Purmamarca. If you go ONE place in Argentina, find a way to get here. It's in the Jujuy Provence (way north, close to Bolivia) and it is heaven. The hotel mentioned above, Los Colorados, is magic but really the whole town is. We arrived about 4pm which gave us just enough time for a hike through the red rocks.
SHOP: We barely had time but Purmamarca is a shoppers paradise and I managed to do some healthy damage in even a few short hours. There are at least two dozen stores jam packed with textiles, crafts, sweaters, shoes, all handmade, all things I love. There's a main town square that is also packed with vendors selling just about everything. The town is small so it's all there in one spot.
EAT: There's only a few restaurants for dinner and they are in the same area. Loved where we ate, it was called Tierra de Colores, food was delish and they had live music. They had a little wine market in there as well and the server helped us select a great local wine. Wines from the north are some of Argentina's best but don't have the recognition in the states that those from Mendoza do. Leaving you with this view, Purmamarca from a distance, the whole town tucked into the pocket of the rocks.
