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Mountains, Mountains, Mountains

Veröffentlicht: 02.10.2019

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I'm currently in Salta to see even more of the Andes. What I've seen so far was absolutely stunning, even tho it's only been a few days I gathered a lot of pictures so this is going to be quite long. It's worth the read tho, never been so impressed by mountains!

Before I actually started to go out of Humahuaca I explored the small town itself. It is kind of touristic but the majority of the tourists are from South America which gives a really laid back flair.

This tower was next to the cities monument.

Which you can see from all over the city.

There is also some graffiti

And this painting displays the Hornocal, a mountain which I shall visit aswell.

This is nothing special, just a shot out of the window of the bus while I was traveling to Tilcara.

Tilcara is famous for it's houses from the original people from this region the houses are preserved and partly rebuilt.

This is the towns church which is modern.

Before I actually visited the historical houses there was this botanical garden. 90% cacti but still nice.

There was also some blue agave (the stuff good tequila is made from).

And well what this actually is, I have no clue. There were sadly no descriptions but I'd guess it was used for cooking.

They look like chimneys something definitely was burnt here.

Also some mountain formation which remembers about the "mountain of seven colors" from the previous blog entry.

So, ancient houses. This is how the people from Tilcara lived before the Spanish came. The walls were built out of stones and clay, the roofs out of canes (plants) and clay.

They really do fit well in the landscape.

People here often have things made out of this interesting structure. Call me stupid but it took me quite a while what this tree originally was.

You probably got it way faster then me, it's a cactus skeleton.

This pyramid, which reminds of the structures from the Aztecs was is not built by the original inhabitants, it's built in 1930 as a reminder of the culture that has once been here.

Again there was also not so much information to be found about it.

Nonetheless it's impressive and the view was great!

From the top (I had to hike up the mountain to get to the pyramid) the "Paleta del Pintor" in Maimará could be seen (I mentioned it also in the previous blog entry).

The view was great in general.

Don't worry, these lamas are perfectly fine like this in the sun, they are just resting.

This one is hungry and just as fine.

I saw already several people selling this Cannabis cream, it's supposed to have plenty of purposes and does not make you high. I did not try it tho.

What I did buy were these sweets made out of cocaine honey.

Yes it does contain cocaine but in a very small dose. It is recommended by travel guides to eat these when going high in the mountains (3500m and more) since they help on mountain sickness. Mountain sickness is no joke, you become dizzy, get headache, feel super powerless, have huge trouble to get air and can even black out. And yes, they actually help.

There were also plenty of these stones on the way (check the image section, what I show here is just a small excerpt).

Also in Tilcara is the "Waterfall Garganta del Diablo". I hiked 6km up there during the afternoon. Tilcara is "only" at 2400m but it was still rough in the hot sun.

The views were great tho and definitely worth it.

This is a very interesting way to make a window.

Almost at the top.

And I made it. I could go down a bit and walk through the canion, which was pretty cool. The waterfall itself was practically non existent, all that was there was this "river":

I should figure out later that it is just not "waterfall season". It has been super dry for months so there is no water to create a waterfall. What you see down there is actually a dry river bed. In (I think) March and April there are extremely intense rainfalls and huge rivers.

Since this was a touristic spot and you could also drive by car there were plenty of tourists and these nice people from Córdoba (big city here in Argentina) took me down to Tilcara.

Afterwards I went to Uquia which has a hiking route which is less known but more impressive!

I already saw from the bus these orange/red stones.

But seeing them close was a whole different thing!

The way led down this canyon.

Into a vast wasteland.

With more beautiful rocks.

People tend to build these stone pyramids in many places, as a sign that someone was already here.

There are many of these..

Close to the end of the track another mountain formation revealed itself.

The best thing about the hiking trail: I only saw very few other people and was basically on my own the whole time.

Had to take the photos against the sun but they are still lovely 🤩

(Picture section guys, check it later 😉)

This is my way back, it looks a bit like Mars to me if there were no plants.

I liked this rock especially, with it's circular marks.

Afterwards I finally went back to Humahuaca. If you search the place on Google maps you will find a huge to river. This river looks right now like this:

But ALL of the sand is actually the dry river bed in the raining season this changes dramatically. The river is going to be huge!

The couchsurfer where I stayed at, Fermin, has a friend who brings tourists up the the mountain Hornocal. Since I was friends with Fermin, bis friend would bring me up there for free, if he goes. That is when he finds enough people to get his car full. The next day I waited all the time for this to happen but Miguel, the driver, did not make it in the end so I waited until 17:00 for nothing. Afterwards I decided to take a small tour to the Peñablanca which is close to Humahuaca.

Yup, who would have guessed? More impressive mountains.

On the way to the top I found these interesting wholes in the stones.

This is taken from the top of the mountain. Later I would go to the hill in the picture on the very left end and watch the sundown.

You find these things often on the top of the mountains to help others. Here was a full pack of Yerba Mate.

Me enjoying the sunset. I should find out that I wasn't dressed properly and going to freeze quite a lot.

But again, the view was worth it.

The next day I took the earliest bus at 8:20 to Iruya. Yes, Argentinians don't get up so extremely early.

Iruya was just 54km away so I expected to get there in an hour, maybe a bit more. After we left the main road right before the town "Pampa azul", which means "blue pampa" (no joke here) I realized we would need longer.

The road was all the time sandy like this.

From time to time there were these houses right in the middle of nowhere. I'm pretty positive that people still live here, the houses are intact and the cars look like they work.

After two hours drive we made a short stop to take pictures since the view was great. We were at 4000m above the sea.

There are some clouds caught between the mountains.

All the road you see here was the only road on the area, the one we drove in a terrible slow speed. Some curves were really tight and the front of the bus hovered above the edge but it's wheels were still on the ground. Nothing for weak stomachs here!

The sand you see here is again a dry river bed. The town Iruya has a festival in February where they buy lots of stuff. Afterwards you can not access the town anymore because the river cuts it completely off.

The mountains on the way are breathtaking.

After three hours (for 54 km, that's about 18km/h) we finally arrived. The bridge you see, connects the two sides of the town during the raining season.

It's really close to the clouds.

Also here in Iruya I was to hike.

This spikey top is where I planned to go. It's called "Mirador del Cóndor" and translates to "Condors lookout". Actually I got to see a condor!

The view up there was incredible.

I have a video which shows the view best, I'll post a link at the end of the entry.

More of the view..

I hiked down, shot more fotos (picture section) and went back 3 hours to Humahuaca. I would have loved to discover more of Iruya but also wanted to visit the Hornocal. Miguel promised me that we would go today.

And Miguel kept his promise. We were 8 people in his car (big SUV, there was plenty of space) and he told us some history of the mountain, gave everyone free coca leaves (yes again, cocaine but it's just like a strong coffee which helps against height sickness), these coca sweets and some herbal oils which are also helping against the height.

Let me tell you guys, 4350m are no joke anymore. You are really fast short on breath and I got a headache, even tho I accepted all the help Miguel offered.

But WOW. This was just amazing.

To attract more tourists this was called "Mountain of 21 colors" but they thought that's too much and renamed it to "mountain of 14" colors (remember Tilcara has a Mountain with 7 colors) but the official name is Hornocal.

Even tho the sun is shining, it's pretty cold up here! This hat I got is made out of Lama fur and perfect for this.

What you see here are different tectonic plates which form the mountain. I know this from theory of how mountains grow but actually seeing it, is breathtaking.

I also took a video of this, check it out!!

The sun was already pretty low, you could see how the scales or flakes of the mountain casting a shadow. I would LOVE to hike through there but the terrain is really difficult, there is no infrastructure and the height is nothing for me.

Here is even an official warning sign to be careful to walk the 300m straight ahead and maybe 30m down. When walking up I tryed to make the 30 meters back up without a break. It would be literally just 2 minutes walk but I had to take two breaks because I felt dizzy and unstable on foot. Many people needed 20 minutes to get these 30m up. 4300m is super intense.

But the view was something otherworldly.

The sun went down on our way back, creating this beautiful scenery. I thought the fact that the sight is not clear is due to moisture in the air but I was wrong. It's actually all dust.

The next morning, this morning, I went to Salta and made this shot out of the bus. This is really nothing special and just part of the landscape.