Roadtrip to Salta
In April, my boyfriend and I made a very sudden but great decision. We were talking about how stressed he was in his job, and realized he hadn’t taken any vacations since he started working (it had been like a year and two months). On a whim, we decided to go on a roadtrip to Salta (Northern city in Argentina) and then on a two week trip to Peru. He asked his boss for 3 weeks off and we started planning.
Pablo convinced his mom, Antonieta, to fly to Salta, and we would meet her there. Anto, along with the rest of Pablo’s family, lives in Buenos Aires. He’s from there but has lived in Santiago for over 8 years now. He hadn’t seen her in a while so this was perfect; they’d both get some time off from their jobs, and I’d tag along :)
We woke up extra early on a Saturday and headed towards the border. We had about 1,600 kms of adventure ahead of us. We crossed the border at about 6am, and got to see a beautiful starry night sky from the mountains. We got to Argentina just in time to see the sunrise over the mountains.
Pablo drove most of the way (I drove for about an hour but he got impatient and bored so that was that) and I took care of the food and music. We listened to music from the 90’s and early 2000’s – rapped to Eminem and sang my heart out to Britney Spears.
One of the things I love most about roadtrips: You can stop and go whenever you please. At one point we got a bit lost and took an alternative dirt road. We freaked out for a while but then realized it was a good thing. The views we got to see on this detour were spectacular.
We decided to stop in Catamarca for the night and continue on to Salta the next day. It took us about 15 hours to get to Catamarca on the first day and 5 hours to get to Salta on Sunday.
Within 5 minutes of arriving in Salta, we found out just how crazy a city with barely any traffic signs can get. Yep, we crashed. After 20 hours of driving on the open road, we crash the car. Well, he did. It was nothing terrible, but the other guy wasn’t too happy about a guy with a Chilean ID crashing his Argentinean car. But oh well.
We stayed in Salta for 5 nights. Had some great times, ate some great food and saw some BREATHTAKING sights. I’ve travelled around Argentina many times but I had never been to the North. The people in the North have very different accents; a mix between a Peruvian and an Argentinean kind of accent. Weird! But I like it. Feels very different from the Porteños (Argentineans from Buenos Aires).
DAY 1: SALTA
On day 1 we picked Anto up from the airport and walked around Salta, looking for a place to eat. Pablo got his fix of empanadas (wouldn’t shut up about it haha) and I found the one healthy/vegetarian option on the menu.After lunch we went to all the must see churches that Pablo’s mom wanted to see, then went up the cableway in Cerro San Bernardo, where we got to see the city better.
DAY 2: CAFAYATE
The trip from Salta to Cafayate is SO WORTH IT. The scenery is beautiful. The drive is about 3 hours but we stopped in lots of places (there’s so much to see!).
First stop: Garganta del Diablo. Pablo decided it would be fun to see it from the inside so we climbed some rocks and got to the inside of it. Breathtaking. Well worth it.
how cute are these two?
The Anfiteatro is right next to Garganta del Diablo. It’s very similar, but just as breathtaking. When we went, there was a man playing a guitar, and the acoustics in this place were amazing.
When we got to the town of Cafayate, we ate at one of the restaurants at the plaza and then had some wine icecream (so good!).
the color of most hills on this drive: amazing.
DAY 3: PURMAMARCA & SALINAS GRANDES
This town is a must see in Jujuy. So cute! It’s a 2 hour and a half ride from Salta. When we got there, we were blown away by the Cerro de los Siete Colores (hill of the seven colors). We walked around the town and found lots of different spots to take some pictures with the stunning colorful hill. Then we went to the main plaza and looked through the local street vendor’s items (obviously had to buy some sweaters.. so cheap and warm!).
We then drove for about an hour to the Salinas Grandes, a salt flat. To get there, we went through lots of curves up a hill, got a little dizzy but the scenery is stunning and it’s very much worth it. When arriving at the salt flat, you’re greeted by a huge llama. Most people come in tour groups and the vans go into the salt flats to a place with artificial pools. We couldn’t do this because our car wasn’t prepared for this, so we just stayed next to the llama and had fun taking pictures. After leaving, we went to the restaurant next to the salt flat. The empanadas were delicious and the silence you experience there.. amazing.
wearing the wool sweater Pablo bought (it’s mine now, thanks)
DAY 4 & 5: MUSEUMS & FOOOOD
Since our first day was a Monday, all the museums we wanted to go to were closed. So on Day 4 we went to the Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña, which was preeetty cool. This museum is centered on one archeological finding: the mummies of 3 children that were sacrificed by the Incas. If you’re ever in Salta, don’t miss out on this.
Then on the last day we ended up eating, fixing the car and saying goodbye to Pablo’s mom, who i’m lucky enough to say is the best “suegra” ever!
We headed back to Santiago early Friday and got to see another beautiful sunrise (above). Sunrises & Sunsets are my favorite thing in the world so I was EXCITED – forced Pablo to stop so we could take 10,000 pictures.
We decided to take a different route back to Santiago (through Paso el Sico) to make the trip “shorter”. Little did we know the road from Salta to the border (close to San Pedro de Atacama) would be 100% dirt road :/ And with even less road signs than the rest of Argentina… of course we got lost. Thankfully, we got compasses on our iphones so we figured it out and finally got to the border, where they took a while with all the paperwork even though it looked like we were the first people to cross this border in months.
After crossing the border, we were greeted with.. MORE DIRT ROAD! Ahhh the beauty of hearing rocks crashing under the car. Ahhh the smell of dirt invading the car. I ain’t complaining though. The car pulled through like a champ.
Once we got to Chile we were greeted with lots of vicuñas and ñandus running around and crossing the road in front of us (pictured below.. they camouflage pretty well). We saw many altiplanic lakes and there was not another human soul for kms.
It took us longer to get back to Santiago than what we calculated. We stopped for ice cream in San Pedro de Atacama (because duh) and we had to stop at a hotel on the side of the road because Pabs was too tired of driving (I offered to drive but you know how it goes with guys and their cars *rolls eyes* [i’m not the one who crashed remembahhh?]). We got home on Saturday night and had to pack and wash our clothes for our trip to Peru on Monday.
Some thoughts I had before, during and after this roadtrip:
I LOVE ROADTRIPS!
The highways in Argentina aren’t too great. There’s not much in the way of traffic signs, and the roads are usually one lane per side, but on the bright side there’s barely any tolls, and they’re SO CHEAP. Travelling from Santiago to Salta was only about CLP$500 (about a dollar). The gas was surprisingly more expensive than in Chile.
The tolls in Chile are expensive af. We spent about CLP$20,000 on our way back to Santiago. Like whaaaat? Damn.
Music is ESSENTIAL. I made lots of playlists but it wasn’t enough. We had to repeat some playlists and i’m pretty sure Pabs doesn’t wanna hear another Britney Spears song ever again 😂
There’s so much beauty in this world.
Peanut butter is life. Eating healthy, vegetarian options on a roadtrip ain’t easy, so we ate a lot of pb banana sandwiches, avocado on bread, fruits and uh did I mention looots of peanut butter? yeah.
The highways in the North of Chile are boring and uneventful.
ARE WE THERE YET?
one of the salt lakes we found after crossing the border (Chile)
If you ever get the chance to do a roadtrip around Argentina, I highly recommend it. It’s a lot cheaper than Chile, and what they lack in road signs and security, they make up in beautiful landscapes and cheap tolls.
When I went on this trip, I had no expectations. We didn’t really plan much, we kinda just winged it. But it all worked out perfectly! I’m so glad we randomly decided to go to Salta. The North of Argentina is pretty spectacular and it’s still not very touristy, so the prices are relatively cheap! Hope this has convinced someone to travel to Salta and its surroundings And if you’re still not convinced after this blog post, maybe our Salta Roadtrip Video might help!