Last weekend was another “feriado” (holiday) and on the Wednesday it suddenly struck me that I should make the most of it so when a colleague told me she was going to go to Jujuy with her husband for the weekend and I was welcome to join I jumped at the opportunity! Never did I imagine that such short planning could lead to such an amazing experience. We took advantage of everything Jujuy had to throw at us!
We left at 6:30am on the Saturday and after 9 hours of landscape variations that never failed to leave me gob smacked we arrived in Jujuy- a province in the Andean north west of Argentina, bordering Bolivia and Chile. The land was a total transformation- there were mountains, green, successful sugar cane crops, rivers and big wide roads compared to the dry, dusty Chaco full of failed soya crops and potholes!
There wasn’t much to see in Jujuy capital where we were staying but it was a good access point to everywhere. Stayed in an excellent hostel and after an evening stroll and nibble with Vilma and Jose I returned to the hostel to chat, chill and chew coca leaves with the owner and friends. In the north people chew coca leaves with bicarbonate of soda to fight hunger and the nausea of altitude.
After 3 hours sleep I was “up up and at them”. We jumped in the car and off we went- first stop Purmamarca home to the Cerro de los Siete Colores (Hill of Seven Colours), 510 habitants and at a whopping elevation of 2,192m! It was beautiful- the landscape, the colours, the peo
ple and their “artesania” (crafts) and the simplicity of life in general. We strolled around the village totally overwhelmed and lost for words apart from “woahhh” “ahhhhh” “ohhhhh my god” and so forth but I was soon awaken from my blissful daze! As I stood on a hill top posing for a photo I heard some barking, turned around and to my absolute HORROR there were 2 massive vicious looking Alsatians running heading straight for me! I screamed, waved my arms in the air and pegged it which was an idiot idea! My scarf streamed behind me in the air and the dogs snapped and had a nice taste of it as I slid down the try dusty mound to safety!
Yikes!
We left at 6:30am on the Saturday and after 9 hours of landscape variations that never failed to leave me gob smacked we arrived in Jujuy- a province in the Andean north west of Argentina, bordering Bolivia and Chile. The land was a total transformation- there were mountains, green, successful sugar cane crops, rivers and big wide roads compared to the dry, dusty Chaco full of failed soya crops and potholes!
There wasn’t much to see in Jujuy capital where we were staying but it was a good access point to everywhere. Stayed in an excellent hostel and after an evening stroll and nibble with Vilma and Jose I returned to the hostel to chat, chill and chew coca leaves with the owner and friends. In the north people chew coca leaves with bicarbonate of soda to fight hunger and the nausea of altitude.
After 3 hours sleep I was “up up and at them”. We jumped in the car and off we went- first stop Purmamarca home to the Cerro de los Siete Colores (Hill of Seven Colours), 510 habitants and at a whopping elevation of 2,192m! It was beautiful- the landscape, the colours, the peo
ple and their “artesania” (crafts) and the simplicity of life in general. We strolled around the village totally overwhelmed and lost for words apart from “woahhh” “ahhhhh” “ohhhhh my god” and so forth but I was soon awaken from my blissful daze! As I stood on a hill top posing for a photo I heard some barking, turned around and to my absolute HORROR there were 2 massive vicious looking Alsatians running heading straight for me! I screamed, waved my arms in the air and pegged it which was an idiot idea! My scarf streamed behind me in the air and the dogs snapped and had a nice taste of it as I slid down the try dusty mound to safety!Yikes!
Eeek Donks come back alive!!
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