"Jujuy - just Beautiful!" Top 5 Page for this destination Provincia de Jujuy by stripeykelly

OK, how does one of the most beautiful provinces in the whole of Argentina have one of the most ugly towns? I was not taken at all with San Salvador, crowded, smelly and unfriendly, definitely the poor cousin of Salta. It does have one slight redeeming feature, a small, underfunded but interesting archaeology museum, with some nice ceramics and other items of interest. It only takes about 20-30mins to go around the 5 rooms, but it is worth the AR$1, and the curators are friendly and enthusiastic, even if we didn?t understand a word either of us said.

The day after we arrived in San Salvador we went to the Parque Nacional Calilegua, so visit the cloudforests and go for a good stomp - work off those empanadas! Unfortunately, I came down with a migraine halfway up a hill - great! The only one of the year and it decides to hit when I could be attacked by pumas, or worse small birds could poo on me when trying to snooze. I managed to stagger down the mountain and sleep a bit infront of the guard house, I think he, and the bus load of school kids that turned up, thought I was a bit odd, especially as I was wearing an eye mask! Well al least I wouldn?t see the puma coming to do its worst!

The sun setting over Tilcara

From the urban squalor that was San Salvador, we made our way to the small and beautiful village of Tilcara, set in a small valley in the mountains. We arrived as the sun was setting, casting a red and orange glow across the mountains, quite quite lovely. At our arrival at the bus station we met Jos?, who became our trusted guide over the next day or so, and Itzy, who introduced us, the lovely but unfortunatly skint Spanish girl. We made our way to MALKA, the hostel, which was up a very steep hill that, with the remainder of migraine, was a bit of a challenge - but I?m still here! The hostel was super, with dorms in individual cabanas, with their own patios and BBQs, lovely. It was not the cheapest place in the world, but worth it, especially as it got very cold during the night.

The following day, at the persuasion of Jos?, we decided to go up to the Devil?s Throat - how hard can it be? I foolishly thought. We had to hike up some quite steep mountain paths, only up 400m I know, but hey with the altitude (nearly 3000m) and a heart problem, it is not a piece of cake. But I survived, just! We then had to walk through an underground tunnel with water up to mid-calf, then along a narrow lege over a precipice, before hiking a further 0.5km over streams to a beautiful waterfall. I did find it knackering, but it was worth it, and I am glad I did it, which it the important thing. But can I say, I am glad we are NOT doing the Inca Trail, I would have to be added to one of the mummies at the top of the mountains, and I don?t know who would volunteer to carry my fat ass all the way up there?!!

As I was suffering from a stinky headache, probably from the altitude, that afternoon, we decided to go to the partly reconstructed fortress of Pukara the following morning. Pukara, much easier to get to than the Devil?s Throat, is a super site, even with the rather strange fake pyramid in the middle of it. The reconstructions are very sympathetic, and do not impose on the remaining ruins. To be honest it reminded my of Skara Brae (a Neolithic village on the Mainland of Orkney, Scotland, fron non-Scots and archaeologists), the way it is so interlinked with a fabulous sense of community, something lost from modern settlements. I really enjoyed looking around, even though it was starting to get a bit hot, and I?d forgotten some water - I have never pretended to be sensible - sorry Mum! What was really cool, I thought, was the use of cacti as we would wood, I know it seems obvious when you live there, but I was pretty impressed.

Before heading off to our bus we popped into the archaeology museum in the village. This was very interesting, again with some lovely ceramics and a superb display on the excavations at Pukara, well worth a visit. All in all, Jujuy is a super place to visit!

Jose and the scenery around Tilcara

This is a photo of the road and scenery on the hike to the Devil's Throat, oh yeah, and Jose the man who nearly killed me.