Quebrada de Humahuaca

Hill of 7 colors – Purmamarca

Serranía del Hornocal (taken from 14,300 ft)

Kristen with the ‘sand art’ mountain at the Abra de Condores pass on the road to Iruya (taken from 13,100 ft)

Late afternoon at the Espinazo del Diablo, on the border of the Puna

After the bike race in San Lorenzo, we drove up to the Quebrada de Humahuaca, the most famous attraction in Jujuy province.  The Quebrada is a long valley, named as UNESCO world heritage site as it has been populated for over 10,000 years and has substantial Inca heritage.  It is also very close to the Bolivian border and the well-known altiplano (called the Puna in Argentina), and as such, everything there is to do in the Quebrada is at a pretty high altitude.

Our base of operations was in Tilcara, right in the center of the valley.  We stayed at Cerro Chico hotel, which is a very nice collection of individual cabañas just outside of town.  Our guidebook was pretty low on Quebrada detail (besides simple descriptions of the towns in the valley), so we were very grateful when the eccentric Frenchman named Nour who runs the hotel gave us the run-down on the best stuff to see.

We had a total of 2.5 days in the Quebrada:

Day 1 – we woke up the first day and got to breakfast right when it opened, at 8am (it was fantastic, by the way, with croissants imported from Buenos Aires – I guess that’s what you get when an eccentric Frenchman owns the place).  First stop was Purmamarca, home to the ‘Cerro de Siete Colores’, which seems to be on every postcard of the area.  The town itself was sort of underwhelming, though the artisan market in the square was the largest and cheapest we’ve ever come across.  We did a quick 3-4k hike around the hill, which was really stunning, and had lunch in town.  Afterwards, we began to drive up to the Salinas Grandes (salt flats).  But during the ascent up to the 13,700ft pass that leads to the Salinas, we both started to feel some altitude sickness, probably around 12,000ft.  While it was probably 80% psychological and 20% physical, we decided to turn around and head back to the valley.  (The guidebook said the Salinas weren’t that great, anyway).  We stopped in the town of Maimará to see the famed cemetery, and returned to the hotel.  Nour told us to rest for the remainder of the day, as we were likely still acclimating.

Day 2 – we woke up with a renewed drive to go see some awesome stuff.  After some more amazing croissants, we made our way up to the town of Humahuaca.  Nour had recommended we stop at every settlement along the way, but we don’t really care much for towns, so we only stopped in one, Uquia.  Uquia is known for really only one thing – it’s church, with paintings of various biblical figures holding muzzle-loaded rifles.  No pictures were allowed, which is a shame, since the pictures were hilarious.

From there we drove straight to the town of Humahuaca.  On the agenda was the Serranía del Hornocal, which Nour described as the best thing to see in the whole Quebrada.  It was not in any guidebook, nor in any review of the region we had ever seen, likely because the viewpoint was at 14,300 ft at the end of a long, bumpy road.  As such, it was just what we were after – incredible sights in remote places.  We saw only one other car on the road.

Today we were prepared for the altitude.  No way were were turning back today.  Kristen had taken some Diamox, we had a thermos full of coca tea, and we had begun chewing coca leaves on the way in (an ancient remedy for altitude sickness).  I started getting woozy at around 13,500 ft, but we soldiered on to the view point.  It was all it was promised to be – expansive views of an entire mountain range with crazy colored bands of rock running through it (red and purple for iron and arsenic, green for copper, etc.).  After we gaped at the incredible landscape for as long as we could stand, Kristen decided to see how many push-ups she could do at that altitude (50 it turns out).

When we got down, it was lunch time, but we weren’t hungry.  I guess altitude saps your appetite.  At that point we were debating what to do with the remainder of the day.  We had been discussing staying an extra day to make the trip to Iruya, a very remote village at the end of a gorgeous dirt road.  But as we were way ahead of schedule for the day, we decided to just go ahead and head toward Iruya that afternoon.  We decided on the way that if this was our last day, we also wanted to see the Puna.  So instead of driving all the way to Iruya (which we were told was ‘a one-picture town at most’), we drove up to the 13,100ft pass on road leading up to it (which we were told was not to be missed).  It was incredible – there was a bald-topped mountain that looked like sand art, with pinks and reds strewn about, and a gorgeous view into the valley where Iruya was located.  Afterwards, we high-tailed it up to the town of Tres Cruces, on the edge of the Puna, and within 20 or 30 miles of the Bolivian border.  We took in the desolate sights of the Puna, as well as a crazy rock formation called the Espinazo del Diablo (huge spine of the devil), and headed back to Tilcara, thoroughly exhausted.

Day 3 – on the way out of the Quebrada, we stopped again at Purmamarca, at Kristen’s request.  She spent 2 hours at the artisan market, while I read a book (the areas in the Quebrada are known for car break-ins, so I stayed with the car.  Which was fine with me.)

This was our last real adventure in South America, and we’re very glad we went.  The Serranía del Hornocal was definitely on our list of top 5 most spectacular things we’ve seen in the past year.

How to prepare mate

There is a lot of very poor information on the internet on how to properly prepare mate.  Maybe it’s because mate preparation is so ingrained in Argentine culture, it simply needs no explanation.  Who here over the age of 4 doesn’t know how to prepare mate?

We screwed it up a bunch of times, until we finally were taught the right way by our Spanish teacher Edgardo.  When done poorly, mate tastes like bitter dead grass, but is pleasant when done correctly.  So in the spirit of sharing the wealth, below I’d like to lay out a beginner’s (or gringo’s) guide to preparing mate:

Step 1: get your supplies.  The word mate refers to two things – the herb itself, used to make the tea, and the receptacle (gourd/cup) in which the tea is made.  Mate preparation involves three pieces of equipment – the mate (drinking gourd/bowl, traditionally made of a hollowed-out calabash gourd, but can also be made of wood or plastic, as ornate or simple as you like), the bombilla (a stainless steel straw with a filter at the bottom), and a hot water source, like a thermos or water boiler (I’m using an electric hot water boiler here, though Argentines will use a thermos both indoors and out).  Brand new mate gourds need to be cured, a process which involves filling the thing up with hot water and some mate herbs, letting it steep for a while, then letting it dry out in the sun for a day or so.  You may need to repeat a few times.  It should be green on the inside and well coated with mate residue when dry.

Step 2: fill the mate up with the tea herbs, about 2/3 of the way or so.  Here I’m using a commercial mate that’s infused with peppermint-like herbs (more typical of say the Córdoba region).  Our favorite types are CBSé for infused mate, and Rosa Monte Seleccion Especial for straight mate.

Step 3: clear the herbs of powder.  The herbs always have some powder in them, which will go through the filter and taste gritty in your mouth.  In order to clear as much out as possible, wet your hand with water (you can lick it if you’re not near a sink), put it over the top of the mate gourd, and shake vigorously up and down.  Wash off the powder that sticks to your hand and repeat a few times until there does not appear to be too much powder left.

Step 4: turn the gourd on its side and shake the herbs to the bottom side of the gourd.  Insert the bombilla on the top side of the herbs, with the filter touching the lowest point of the gourd, then turn the whole assembly back to right-side-up.  The key here is to have the herb pile at a nice angle, with the high side of the pile near the drinker, and the low side away from the drinker.  If you do not insert the bombilla, the herbs will all slide back down to the bottom and the pile of herbs will be flat – the bombilla keeps the herb pile at an angle.  You will pour the water into the low side of the pile, where the bombilla filter is located.  This is so only the bottom part of the heap of herbs gets wet, while the high side stays dry.  Then, as you drink, you can constantly wet new, fresh herbs near the top of the heap.

It should also be noted that after this step, the bombilla never moves.  You don’t swish it around in the gourd, you don’t raise or lower it, you don’t twist it.  The bombilla and mate gourd are now one unit until the drinking is done.

Step 5: add water and drink.  Water temperature is very important – 140-160 degrees fahrenheit or so is optimal.  If the water is too hot, the herbs will taste extremely bitter and unpleasant.  Pour the water slowly into the back, low part of the herb heap, where the bottom of the bombilla is sitting.  You don’t want to fill it up all that much – the top 1/3 of the herb heap should be dry.  You should get maybe 2-3 sips of tea before more water needs to be added.  Once the flavor starts to wane, you can shake down some of the dry herbs at the top, or just wet the upper part of the heap.

A last note on the mate ritual – if there are multiple people sharing mate (which is common, though the last two times we did this at least one person got sick due to sharing of germs), the ritual goes as follows:

- One person is the primary mate preparer, usually the owner of the gourd.  He is responsible for preparing the tea, and refilling it with water when it goes dry.

- The primary person prepares a gourd, then passes it to around to each person in a circle, one at a time.  Each person individually drinks until the mate is out of water, at which time they pass the gourd back to the primary server.

- After he has refilled the gourd with more hot water, the primary server will hand it to the next person with the bombilla facing them.  This can continue for hours.

- Don’t say ‘thank you’ (‘gracias’) unless you’re done.  When the server passes you the gourd, you don’t say anything, just drink.

Kittens

Calico kitten peeks out from the logs

Black kitten eating some delicious food

A few weeks ago, we were driving home in the evening, and a black cat raced across the road.  Kristen spent 15 minutes trying to trap it so she could feed it and take care of it.  The next day, she bought a couple pounds of cat food to try and lure it to our house.  That’s how much she misses our cats at home.

So a few days ago, she was excited when we noticed an adult calico cat walking around on our back patio, peeking in on our asado.  We threw it some extra bits of meat and bone, and it seemed pretty happy.

Then, a couple days later, Kristen was absolutely floored when two baby kittens (maybe 3 months old) showed up on our back porch and appeared to be living in the logs under our asador (BBQ).  There were incredibly cute!  One was calico, the other black.

They were extremely afraid of people, yet over a number of evening and morning feeding sessions (Kristen made a mix of milk and cat food), they seemed to be getting pretty comfortable with Kristen, and would let her come close.  She couldn’t have been happier.  She fed them and kept them safe by chasing away dangerous foxes.  We started making plans to catch them, take them to the vet, and raise them until it was time to leave in May.

But after the 3rd night in the wood pile, the mom came back.  It was the same cat we had seen at the asado.  We haven’t seen the kittens since.  We think the mother cat located the kittens in our wood pile after she received some asado meat, thinking it was a good, safe feeding spot for them.  But maybe she noticed them getting a little too comfortable around us?  Or maybe we scared her and she protectively took the kittens away?  Regardless, it was a bit of a tragedy after how much fun we had with them over those 3 days.

Kristen still leaves food out on the sill and checks the wood pile periodically, hoping they’ll come back.

Bike race–San Lorenzo

At the start line

On the ‘Elite’ podium – Jeff took 4th!

We met Jorge Delgado at our first bike race in Cafayate.  After the race, he told us he was organizing another in San Lorenzo (the wealthy suburb outside of Salta).  So of course we had to go.

It turned out to be another ‘rural bike’ format – almost all on dirt roads, and a little pavement.  And it had a lot of climbing (1500 feet worth over 28k), which is great for me (at least when I’m in shape).

I again had to race in the ‘elite’ category, so I was up against the fast guys.  The race had a mass start, so all categories started together.  I was near the front at the start, but the yellow line rule did not appear in effect, and I was a little sketched out when tons of people swarmed around me and were passing in the oncoming traffic lane.  After a few kilometers, I found myself near the back of the pack when the elite guys at the front attacked.  I had to time trial around the slower groups to catch the break, burning matches along the way.  But there I was!  I was excited that finally my fitness was to the point where I could stay in the mix.

The race was more or less and out-and-back, 28k in total.  The first 14k were all uphill, and I was able to assert myself to stay with the chase group (two or three guys broke off the front and I couldn’t match the surge).  And even better, two of my Cafayate companions were up there with me.  After the turnaround at the halfway point, the race was mostly down and flat.  I tried to organize our chase group into a rotation to catch the break.  But about half the group had no idea what was going on.  I realized it’s hard enough to organize an assortment of road racers into a paceline, so what hope was there for a crew of MTB’ers?  A couple of the guys were sketchy, some surged, etc.  But yet it actually went OK, and we were able to put some time into the few guys up the road leading into the final climb.

I didn’t have a very good concept of where I stood by the time the final climb came around.  I guess I’m not used to being near the front at the end of a race.  The finish was also deceptive, with a large climb followed by a flat section, and a short push to the line.  I burned myself on the large climb, thinking the finish was at the top, and was out of gas.  So I churned my way in, feeling pretty good about staying with the group.  A few minutes later, I heard my name over the loudspeaker.  Huh?  It sounded like they were announcing the Elite podium.  Turns out I got 4th in the category, and about 8th overall!  Ezekiel (a Cafayate friend got 3rd), and another Cafayate racer had placed 3rd in Masters 40+.

I even got a trophy!

Afterwards, the Cafayate crew organized a small asado in the park nearby the finish, so we got to toast our results with some delicious BBQ.  What a great day.

Santa Maria bike race- Campeonato Local (Circuito de San Jose)

Start/Finish arch at the Circuito de San José

Jeff doing warm-up laps behind #1, the eventual destroyer of the field

The Cafayate crew (plus some guy and his dogs) back in town after the race

After the bike race in Cafayate, I got invited to participate in another in Santa Maria.  I didn’t know what I was in for.

I had offered to drive some racers from Cafayate up to the race.  We rigged up a trailer to carry our bikes and were off.  I generally hate driving with a trailer, but it was by far the best way to go with 6 people in our 5 person car.

When we arrived, it was clear this race was of a different class.  There were true cyclists here.  By that I mean people whose bikes were multiples more expensive than their cars.  We saw beat up 1980s trucks with $10k imported Cannondales on them.  Probably 25% of the riders were warming up on trainers.  Several teams were represented.  Lots of guys were wearing skinsuits.  I was soon told that Santa Maria is known to have the best cyclists in the country, and that several riders that had represented Argentina in the recent Panamerican Championship would be competing.  Yikes.  This race was legit.

The course was cross-country style, which around here means narrow trails and a lot of sand.  I’m not a bad technical mountain biker, but I’m a bit timid.  My first pre-ride of the 3km course revealed a super sketchy descent on the back side.  It was about a foot wide, carved into the side of a steep hill, which meant that if you hit your inside pedal, you were going down the hillside.

I was again racing in the ‘Elite’ category, and we were scheduled to ride 6 laps of the course.  From the gun, the Panamerican representatives attacked.  The group shattered almost immediately, and I was over threshold within 2 minutes of the start.  Our first time down the sketchy descent, two guys in front of me and one in back crashed down the hillside.  That was it for my race.  I was totally freaked out for the next couple of laps.  I stopped often to let faster, fearless racers pass, and was able to calm myself down and ride mostly alone, trying to simply enjoy my ride (since I was no longer really racing).  The fastest racers lapped me at the end of lap 2 of 6.  They were FLYING.  It was incredible to see.  By my fourth lap, I was settled in and riding the descent with confidence.  It was just in time to see the winner finish.  I had lost right around 2 laps in an hour of racing.  The winner (a Panamerican representative), appropriately assigned the #1 bib, absolutely destroyed the field, winning by several minutes.

Yeah, I got dusted, but I had a great time in the process.  Lots of guys pulled themselves from the race after they got lapped, which for most of us was within the first 20 minutes of racing.  I thought, “no way I drove an hour and a half to ride 20 minutes”.  Afterward, we packed the bikes back on the trailer, and I got to give an interview to a local TV network!  Being the only foreigner that ever shows up to these races has apparently given me mild fame in the local cycling community.

It was again great fun, and I’m glad I got to experience a top-level cross country mountain bike race!

Kelsey and Matt Visit

Kelsey and Matt inside the cave at the start of the waterfall hike

Climbing up to an off-trail viewpoint at the start of the Quebrada de las Conchas

Quilmes as seen from near the top of the mountain

Matt, Kelsey, Jeff, and Edgardo preparing for the asado

When we were in Patagonia, we met a lot of other travelers.  Many were young backpackers and wanderers who had never really had jobs yet.  Most of the Americans were post-college grads, sleeping all day and drinking all night.  Others were relatively old people (in their 40’s to 60’s).  So we were surprised when we met another couple in their late 20s/early 30s who had put their careers on hold to travel.  We got to talking with them in Bariloche, at the top of the Cerro Catedral hike.  Matt is a civil engineer and Kelsey is an occupational therapist.  They’re from Seattle, they were in their first month of a year-long world trip mostly hiking and climbing, they were engaged, and planning to get married during their year off.  Just like us, but 8 months earlier!  We gave them our contact info and told them to give us a call if they happened to come through Salta on the way to Bolivia.  And they did.

In all, they stayed with us for 4 days:

Day 1 – after Kelsey and Matt arrived in the early afternoon, we took them on the hike to the cross above town.  We also took Puebla, a german shepard owned by our friends John and Lindsay, with us on the hike.  The ride to the trailhead is a little bumpy, and Puebla threw up her lunch in the back of the car.  Yuck.  We spent the next few days dealing with that one.  Despite that, we had a very nice hike.  Even Puebla seemed to be enjoying herself.  She’s a great trail dog.

Day 2 – The next day, the 4 of us did the waterfall hike.  Lindsay had shown us the way a week before (the trail is not obvious, and first-timers typically need to hire a guide).  It’s a really great hike – fantastic canyon scenery, and totally different than anything else locally.  That night, Kelsey and Matt cooked for us.  They made great pizzas from scratch using their own beer dough recipe, which was a treat after avoiding the awful local ‘pizza Salteño’ for the past few months. 

Day 3 – The third day, our friend Gabi came along.  We drove out into the Quebrada to see all the local sites.  We did some extended versions of the usual hikes, including one improvised walk that ended up on a high overlook over the quebrada.  On the way back, we stopped at a roadside stand selling ‘pan casero’ (homemade flatbread similar to naan), and ‘vino patero’ (homemade wine).  We had always wanted to stop at that place, but usually when we’re in the Quebrada, we’re in a rush, or just want to get home.  As it turns out, the bread was delicious, and Kelsey and Matt bought a couple of bottles of the homemade wine, which was also very good.  We’ll be going back to that stand for sure.

Day 4 – When Kelsey and Matt arrived, they told us they had never had authentic Argentine asado.  So obviously we had to have one.  On their last day in town, we decided to go to Quilmes in the morning, and set up the asado in the afternoon.  I had never been to the Quilmes ruins, which are quite famous across Argentina (and is the namesake of the most popular beer in the country).  We hiked to the top (actually I turned around most of the way up after I started thinking about the exposure of the rock scramble we were doing) and got great views of the valley.

That afternoon, we set up the asado.  Our Spanish teacher Edgardo and his fianceé Daniela came as well, and Edgardo showed me the authentic Argentine method for making the asado, which involved using a hair dryer to fan the flames of the fire (I was laughing really hard at this).  Nevertheless, the meat came out perfectly, and Kelsey and Matt couldn’t believe how delicious the meat was using just salt and a hardwood fire.

Kelsey and Matt left the next morning for Bolivia, and we were sad to see them go.  We have a lot in common, and hope the rest of their trip is as great as ours has been.