Quite a lot of quebradas

We left Purmamarca this morning and are now in a place called Tilcara up in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, an amazing canyon that runs from above San Salvador de Jujuy up to the altiplano that borders with Bolivia.  As it stands we are now just 207kms from La Quiaca, the Argentine border town where we´ll be crossing into Bolivia. Our stop in Tilcara is a brief one, to use the internet and stock up on some food before heading on.  We´re hoping to reach the town of Humahuaca, 50kms north of here, tonight.  That´s assuming the next lot of climbing isn´t too horrendous and the wind decides to be kind to us.

Tilcara is a nice town, adobe houses and plenty of artesans selling all manner of alpaca ponchos, leg warmers etc.  (Ben bought some llama-adorned alpaca gloves yesterday, what a gap-year tragedy!).  The last couple of days have been pretty long and tiring as we´ve wound our way up from 1100m above sea level to 2500m.  Yesterday we climbed1500m over 80kms to reach the beautiful village of Purmamarca, famous for it´s Cerro de los Siete Colores - a multicoloured sandstone hill that´s amazingly beautiful.  Safe to say we are feeling a little weary and the air is beginning to feel a bit thin but the scenery is more than enough to distract us from the never ending hills and shortness of breath.

Before setting out on this last leg of the journey we had a lovely stop over in Salta, a beautiful colonial city with more than enough restaurants, bars and museums to keep us entertained for a few days.  It was also the last Argentine city we´d pass through as we decided to give Jujuy a miss and opted instead to spend the night camping on an airstrip a few kms outside of town.  It was a great spot with wonderful views of the mountains that we´re now trundling up, marred only slightly by the fact that the guard dog (a strange mongrel with 3-inch legs) barked at our tent all night. A sleepless night wasn´t the best preparation for one of the hardest days´cycling to date. 

The Quebrada de Humahuaca has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site and the Provincial government of Jujuy claim it as the most beautiful zone in all Argentina.  It is a remarkable landscape, no doubt about it, but it´s the second Quebrada we´ve cycled through in as many weeks so we´re still trying to decide which out of the Quebrada de las Conchas, north of Cafayate, and the Quebrada de Humahuaca is the most spectacular. 

Well, this is just a quick post to update on our progress and we´ll write more and upload photos when we next find a computer.