4Runner Roadtrip – More Argentina and the Atacama Desert of Chile
Continuing our push North in Argentina our next destination was a little tourist town called Tilcara. Leaving Salta we had a little bit of a navigation error and ended up driving through town rather than around town. Driving through most towns in South America can be pretty stressful with traffic and motorbikes and pedestrians. On the plus side we did get to see this guy on his motorbike with ten crates of eggs.
The drive from Salta to Tilcara is beautiful and the landscape changes from fairly lush to desert as you climb in elevation. Tilcara is in the Quebrada de Humahuaca mountain valley and the surrounding mountains are very colorful. In Tilcara we had a cozy little cabina more on the outskirts of town which proved to be a pretty good decision. It was a pretty easy walk down to the main street and town square. We were also just a couple blocks from a restaurant called El Puente Cafe Resto Bar which serves up a delicious llama burger. Certainly go if you get the chance.
One of the day trips we took from Tilcara was up to the village of Humahuaca and then on to the 14 Colored Mountain view point in Hornocal. The drive was very pretty although the road did get quite narrow in some spots with a few tricky switchbacks. We did enjoy seeing a group of vicuña and their little baby vicuña. The vicuña is one of the two wild South American camelids, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes, the other being the guanaco, which lives at lower elevations. Vicuñas are relatives of the llama, and are now believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas, which are raised for their coats. Vicuñas produce small amounts of extremely fine wool, which is very expensive because the animal can only be shorn every three years and has to be caught from the wild. (thanks Wikipedia).
There certainly did seem to be more than 14 colors in the mountain and I doubt our photos really do it justice. The elevation was quite high, over 14,000 feet and Shani was definitely feeling it when she went for a short hike to another viewpoint.
On the way there and back we crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn but you wouldn’t know except for a kind of hard to find marker and sculpture. The locals have taken it on themselves to set up a bunch of stalls selling pottery and the like right along the road effectively blocking a casual view as you drive by.
Leaving Tilcara was a bit of a mess. There had been some significant rains and the road south had suffered a mud slide. We all had to wait for the heavy equipment to clear the debris. This was unfortunate as we were starting our trip to Chile but first had to backtrack to Jujuy for Sebastian’s papers. We had been in Jujuy to get the papers two days earlier but the man that signs them (and the only man that signs them) was on holiday. 
Our stop for the night was a little spot in the absolute middle of nowhere at a hotel and restaurant called Pastos Chicos. Driving from Jujuy you head back towards Tilcara but turn off and go through the town of Purmamarca and then climb several thousand feet on a bit of a tricky road with a whole ton of switchbacks. This was only really an issue when the 18 wheelers decided they needed both lanes to make their turn. Shani’s “oh shit” handle got quite a workout that day.
The drive across the desert had vicuna as well as free range llamas. The llamas all have various colors of string tied to their coats in different patterns reflecting who owns them; sort of like a brand. They were really neat to see. Along the route we drove over the Salinas Grandes, a giant salt flat and tourist spot in the desert. It was pretty amazing. There are little shops set up and a few take-away vendors. I got a ‘tortilla’ which I had seen in other spots, especially in Tilcara but had not tried yet. The one I had was pretty good, it’s essentially a ham and cheese quesadilla that’s been grilled and it costs about a buck and a half. Not bad for street food.
The next day we arrived at the border with Chile and we were the only people there. It turns out the heavy rains from the night before had caused more landslides and road closures. Needless to say it was a very fast border crossing!
At some point we entered the Atacama Desert, a desert plateau stretching over 990 miles west of the Andes Mountains, and it covers an area of 41,000 square miles. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in the world and has been used as an experimentation site for Mars expedition simulations due to its similarities to the Martian environment.(again Wikipedia)
We were somewhat underwhelmed by the town of San Pedro de Atacama but the desert and salt lakes and crazy landscapes were pretty amazing. We did some road trip site seeing and would have liked to do some hikes but, like a lot of Argentina and Chile, Sebastian isn’t allowed.
We had decided not to go into Bolivia and then on to Peru for a litany of reasons. The hassle factor of Bolivia just seemed incredibly high. Things like me getting an expensive visa, a Yellow Fever shot for both of us, waiting in line for gas IF you can find someone to sell it to you and then paying jacked up tourist prices. In several of the areas we wanted to go the hotels are insanely expensive, dog paperwork is a hassle…the list goes on and on. However, when we passed the lonely border into Bolivia we both did have a tinge of regret. Oh well, it will still be there for next time.
We always keep an eye out for other overlanders in the hopes that we might find some friends on the road. Leaving San Pedro we actually saw an overlander with a truck camper that Shani had been Facebook friends with and had corresponded with starting back when we had our troubles with the attempted tire crime in Chile. This time around they had connected trying to figure out what fun things you can do in Atacama with a dog. We also saw a French unimog style truck that we had parked next to at the hypermarket in Salta.
We backtracked to Tilcara for a few days and Shani reached out to the truck camper couple and they ended up joining us in Tilcara for a couple of days. We had some wine together one night and then met up to do some veggie shopping at the town square market and then had lunch at the llama burger joint. It was nice to have some new friends!
After Tilcara we went back to Salta as the Liberdad Hypermarket was the best store Shani had shopped at in nearly two months and she did a proper stock up of all the unicorns! Fully provisioned we pointed the 4Runner south to Tafi del Valle via a lovely route and gorgeous landscapes that ended in an oasis of green. Tafi was so lush, made even more dramatic from our recent time in the desert. Just outside of Tafi we did a nice hike to a waterfall and generally just enjoyed the scenery.
From Tafi we did an overnight at Termas de Rio Hondo and a visit to the automotive museum there. It was quite interesting and worth the quick visit. We had thought about staying in Rio Hondo longer and enjoying the thermal waters but it was exceptionally hot and the mosquitos were in full force. South America was experiencing a high level of Dengue Fever infections and we were not keen on getting it!
We decided to move on to Capilla del Monte where we had a lovely cabina outside of town. We ended up doing an adventure to a lake, searched in vain for some bouldering and did a surprisingly neat valley hike. We certainly could have stayed there longer but we had made reservations in Merlo as it was coming up on Semana Santa (the holy week leading up to Easter) and places fill up very quickly. This time we stayed quite a bit out of town up in the hills and again had a very lovely and quiet stay.
After Merlo we had an overnight in an excellent hotel in Venado Tuerto and then on to the border town of Gualeguaychú for a few days to get Sebastian’s paperwork sorted out before crossing into Uruguay. We hadn’t explored the waterfront of Gualeguaychú but this time we drove through and finally understood why it is such a tourist destination; that bit of town is actually quite cute.
Stay tuned as we enter Uruguay and visit Zagarzazú, drop the 4Runner off in Montevideo for her shipment back to the States and get an apartment in Punta del Este for 6 weeks before we fly to Texas to pick her up.
