Jujuy Province
Jujuy is one of Argentina`s smallest and poorest provinces. To the north, it is bound by Bolivia, to the west by Chile, and to the south and east by Salta province. Geographically, it resembles the high arid steppe (altiplano) of Bolivia, with saline lakes (salares) above 4000 metres in the west, punctuated by soaring volcanic peaks. To the east, a lower range of foothills gives way to deeply dissected river valleys, opening into subtropical lowlands toward the Gran Chaco. The river valleys, such as the Quebrada de Humahuaca of the Río Grande, have exposed spectacular desert landforms.

Most budget travelers are likely to approach Jujuy from Bolivia via the border complex of Villazón/ La Quiaca en route to Salta, although some take the trans-Chaco highways from Resistencia or Formosa. F or approaches from the south, see the section on Salta below.

If you do enter Argentina from Bolivia, Argentine prices are likely to be un unpleasant shock. Before you panic and dash back cross the border, look at the alternatives for cheaper lodging, food and transportation which are suggested in this chapter and elsewhere in the book. Jujuy has numerous wildlife and fauna reserves, though access to most of them is difficult.

Jujuy
At the southern end of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, where the valley broadened and the climate was perpetually spring-like at 1200 metres, the Spaniards founded Jujuy, the most northerly of their colonial cities. During the colonial era, Jujuy was an important way station for mule traders en route to Potosí, but it also gained a certain prosperity through the cultivation of sugar cane under the aegis of Jesuit missions and, well after independence, of British investors.

The province is rich in archaeological resources. Jujuy`s named may be evidence of Inca influence, since according to the Inca noble Guamán Poma de Ayala, designated Inca governors in the region went by the Quechua title of Xuxuyoc, a word Hispanicised as “Jujuy” by early European residents. There are several others explanations, including the Spanish corruption of the name of the Río Xibi Xibi. The town’s proper name San Salvador de Jujuy distinguished it as a Spanish settlement and also avoided confusion with nearby San Pedro de Jujuy.

During the wars of independence, both the city and the province were the scene of many historic events. In one instance, under the direction of General Manuel Belgrano, the residents of Jujuy evacuated the city to avoid falling into royalist hands; every August, there is a week’s celebration of the éxodo Jujeño (Jujuy exodus).
Except for the colonial remains around the Plaza Belgrano, Jujuy has relatively few distinguished buildings. It will repay some exploration outside the centre, but most sites of interest are in the provincial countryside, especially the villages of the Quebrada de Humahuaca.

Around Jujuy

Termas Reyes
Don´t leaves Jujuy without a visit to these thermal baths, on the slopes of the scenic canyon of the Río Reyes, reached easilyand cheaply from the bus terminal. Rustic facilities are free. ( Aca tambien podes decir que sino esta la Hostería Termas de Reyes que se paga) Although the Hosteria´s Public baths were not constructed for the view, it´s still a worthwhile experience. The hostería serves only a costly fixed-price lunch, so take along some food.

Quebrada de Humahuaca
The long, narrow Quebrada de Humahaca, north of Jujuy, is an artist’s palette of colour, splashed on barren hillsides which dwarf the hamlets where Quechua peasants scratch a living from irrigated agriculture and scrawny livestock. Whether you come south from La Quiaca or head north from Jujuy, there´s something interesting every few kilometers on this colonial post route between Potosí and Buenos Aires.

The main settlement in the valley is Humahuaca, 130 km from Jujuy, and there are so many worthwhile sights that the convenience of an automobile would be a big plus if you have a group to share expenses. Otherwise, buses are frequent enough that you should be able to do the canyon oa a “whistle- stop” basis; flagging is excellent accommodation available in Tilcara, only 88 km from Jujuy, if things go more slowly than expected.

Because this area was colonized from Peru in the early decades of Spanish rule, the area has many cultural features which recall the Andean countries, particularly the numerous, historic adobe churches. Earthquakes have leveled many, but the were often rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries. They have thick walls, simple bell towers, and from the wood of the unusual cardón cactus.

Purmamarca
A few km off the main highway, the polychrome Cerro Colorado is the backdrop for a noteworthy 17th century colonial church in this tiny village.

La Posta de Hornillos
This beatifully restored way station, part of a chain which ran from Lima to Buenos Aires during Viceregal times, is 11 km north of the Purmamarca turnoff. During the wars of independence it was the scene of several important battles. The informal but informative guided tours make this an obligatory stop on the way up the Quebrada.

Maimará
From the highway, only a few km south of Tilcara, you pass the astounding hillside cementery of this picturesque valley settlement, can’t miss photo opportunity. The town also has a worthwhile museum.

Uquía
The 17th century Iglesia de San Francisco de Padua in this roadside village displays a restored collection of paintings from the Cuzco school, featuring the famous Angeles Harquebuseros, angels armed with Spanish colonial weapons.

Tilcara
Tilcara, at an elevation of 2461 metres, features a classic Andean Pucará, a fortification commanding unobstructed views of the Quebrada de Humahaca in several directions. Its many museums and others interesting features, including its reputation as an artist’s colony, make for a highly desirable stopover.  

El Pucará
Stretching up through the sediments of the Río Grande valley, an isolated hill provided a place for this pre-Columbian fortification, one km from the centre of the village. There are even better views from the hill on the road which leads to the fort. From the south end of the bridge across the Río Huasamayo, it’s an easy 15 minutes climb to the top.

La Quiaca
North of Humahauca, Ruta 9 becomes an unpaved road which climbs steeply to the high steppe (altiplano) typical of western Bolivia. Except during the summer rainy season, frosts occur almost nightly, making agriculture a precarious activity and concentrating subsistence efforts on livestock which can survive on the sparse ichu grass llamas, sheep, goats and a few cattle. Off the main highway, you may see flocks of the endangered vicuña, a wild relative of the llama and alpaca.  

Salta Province
In the Andean North- West, Salta is the province with everything. The best preserved colonial city in Argentina is the centre for excursions to the montane subtropical forests of Parque Nacional El Rey, the polychrome desert canyons of El Toro and Cafayate, long with their vineyards, and the sterile but scenic salt lakes and volcano of the high puna. Hundreds of archeological sites and colonial buildings testify to Salta´s importance in pre-Hispanic and colonial periods, even though it declined with Argentine independence.

During colonial times, Salta´s marshy but fertile Lerma Valley pastured thousands of mules that were bred on the Pampas of Buenos Aires and sold at an annual fair. In the 17th and 18th centuries as many as 70,000 animals per year found their way to Bolivia and Peru, where they performed a wide variety of tasks in the mining industry. Independence and political fragmentation reduced this trade, a blow from which Salta has never completely recovered. Today, it is primarily an agricultural province, dependent on sugar cane, tobacco, and increasingly on tourism, with minor contributions from mining and petroleum.

Salta
Founded in 1582 by Hernando de Lerma, Salta lies at 1200 metres in a basin surround by verdant peaks. This valley’s perpetual spring attracted the Spaniards, who could pasture animals in the surrounding countryside and produce crops which could not grow in the frigid Bolivian highlands, where the mining industry created enormous demand for the Belgrano railroad made it feasible to market sugar to the immigrant cities of the Pampas, the city recovered to some degree from its 19th century economic decline. 

Cafayate
Cafayate, the most important town in the extreme south-western part of Salta providence, has a warm, dry and sunny climate which makes it ideal for the cultivation of wine grapes. Several major Argentine winemakers have vineyards here, including Etchart and Michel Torino. It is a popular tourist destination, but not overrun with visitors.

Cahi
With its scenic surroundings, 18th century church and archeological museum, Cachi is probably the most worthwhile stopover among the accessible settlements in the valley. You can reach Cachi either from Cafayate or, more easily and frequently, by the Marcos Rueda bus from Salta. This route passes across the scenic Cuesta de Obispo past the new Parque Nacional Los Cardones (see below).

San Antonio de los Cobres
In the colonial period, transportation from north-western Argentina depended on pack trains, most of which passed through the Quebrada de Humahuaca on the way to Potosí, but an alternative route crossed the rugged elevations of the Puna de Atacama to The Pacific and thence to Lima. A member of Diego de Almagro´s party, the first Spaniards to cross the puna, left an indelible account of the miserable 800 km crossing, which took twenty days in the best of times:

Many men and many horses frozen to death, for neither their clothes nor their armour could protect them from the freezing wind…Many of those who had died remained, frozen solid, still on foot and propped against the rocks, and the horses they had been leading also frozen, not decomposed, but as fresh as if they had just died; and later expeditions…short of food, came upon these horses and were glad to eat them.

For travelers across the Andes, the area around the bleak mining town of San Antonio de los Cobres (altitude 3700 metres) must have seemed an oasis, though even in 1914 it had a population below 1000. Until well into this century, it continued to be an important way station for drovers moving their stock across the mountains to arid Chile, whose narrow alluvial valleys could not produce the food needed for the nitrate miners of the Atacama Desert. Later, railroads and motor roads supplanted mules for shippings settlements and across the Andes.
San Antonio de los Cobres is a largely Indian town, but the posters and political graffiti scribbled on its adobe walls tell you that it’s still part of Argentina. Formerly, it offered one of the most interesting border crossings in all of Argentina, paralleling the routes of the mule drivers across the Puna de Atacama to the Pacific coast of Chile via the famous Train to the Clouds.

El Tren a las Nubes & The Chilean Crossing
At present, the Train to the Clouds service is closed, and is undergoing privatization. In the hope that the service will resume in the near future, a description of wath you can expect is offered here.
From Salta, the Train to the Clouds leaves the Lerma valley to ascend the multicoloured Quebrada del Toro past the important ruins of Tastil, paralleling national Ruta 51, which goes to the Huaytiquina pass and across the Andes to the Chilean oasis of San Padro de Atacama. The track makes countless switchbacks and even spirals to reach the heighlight of the trip is the stunning viaduct at La Polvorilla, spanning an enormous desert canyon, a magnificent engineering achievement unjustified on any reasonable economic grounds.

The freight trains, which you may be able to catch in San Antonio de los Cobres, are a cheaper alternative to the train to the clouds and will take you past the gigantic salt lakes of the puna to the Chilean border station at Socompa. At Socompa, 3900 metres above sea level, you must clear Argentine and Chilean immigration and customs before seeking permission to ride the infrequent freights it is not unusual to wait several days for train. The Chilean station agent will radio for permission to carry passengers in the train´s caboose; while permission is fairly routine, it is not guaranteed. Purchase a quality of Chilean pesos before leaving Salta, since the agent may offer very unfavorable rates for US dollars.

From Socompa, the train descends with impressive views of 6051 metres. Volcán Socompa to the east and 6739 metres Llullaillco to the south, through vast monochrome deserts which few visitors to the continent ever see. At the abandoned mining station of Augusta Victoria, the crew may ask you to disembark while the train backtracks to another isolated mining outpost, but it will return. You may, however, wish to try your luck at hitching to Antofagasta, in this isolated area, mining trucks are informal public transportation and are almost certain to stop. Otherwise, you can sleep in the abandoned station, which is far more comfortable than the caboose, until the train returns.

When the Tren a las Nubes service is suspended, freight trains are your only alternative. It is possible to take a freight train to the Chilean border, but it’s difficult to organize.