Salta to La Quiaca

The road from Salta to La Quiaca is well paved. Salta´s surroundings are a bit stressy to cycle due to a lot of traffic and least careful drivers. Anyways, parts of the Ruta 9 up to Jujuy are just great: good + calm serpentine road, dense bush and beautiful views along the valley. After the small village of Yala, the landscape becomes more open and a bit drier on every kilometer. Cacti, rocks in different shades of colours, vultures, dusk, dramatic canyons, llamas. Parts of the route are declared World Natural Heritage. Beautiful adobe villages along the track, packed with argentinian holidayers plus restaurants and (tacky) artisanian tourist markets.

In La Quiaca a local, Patiño, offers us to camp in his courtyard. He lives alone in a 6qm adobe hut, dirt floor, no windows. The bumpy courtyard is surrounded by walls to keep the few belongings safe; there is a tiny toilet, a dirty well - and indirect light from the street lamp in front of the hut. Patiño can´t use his legs and wheels around in a wheelchair probably as heavy as himself. We spend a save night inside his walls.