Riding Dirty: A Road Trip Without the Roads

I got into Salta around 2, after a 23 hour bus ride. I got off the bus, a little worried about how I was going to find my friends but before I could even start to look, I was caught up in a running hug from Maya. When we walked into the terminal, Jonas was there too waiting.

I asked when Garrett and Davis were going to get there and that’s when they informed me that they bought the ticket for the wrong day but we could still rent a car and go on a half day road trip. Wasting no time, with the list Maya and Jonas had already prepared, we started walking from car rental place to car rental place (I still had all of my stuff with me). The first places we found informed us that everyone was rented out for the week because it was the vacation time for Argentina. The 5 business we stopped at thankfully had a car but it wouldn’t be available till the next morning. We had to make a decision in the moment because there was another couple behind us who wanted the same thing. We decided to go for it, fearing we wouldn’t find anything better.

After we rented the car, we headed to the hostel for a relaxing night together. The hostel was a 30 minute bus ride from the city but we got to stay for free. We found out they were doing a barbeque, so we got in on that.

We were up early the next morning, after a cold’s night of sleep, to meet Garrett and Davis at the bus terminal and to pick up the car.

As soon as Garrett and Davis got off the bus, we told them we already had a car rented and were ready to go when they were. Even though they had just spent 20 hours traveling, they were ready to go.

After running a few errands (and Garret losing his jacket on the bus), we were loaded up and ready to go. Our first trip was a day trip down to a city 4 hours south of Salta, Cafayate.

We stopped various times along the way to enjoy the gorgeous scenery.

 

 

Due to the late start and many stops, it was soon much later than we thought it was. We ended up driving right through Cafayate instead of stopping and continuing on to the ruins.

They were really interesting and fun to walk around. It is crazy to think that this place used to be full of people, so far away from everything, with their own society.

On the way back, we stopped at a vineyard because the drive we took earlier that day was known as the “Wine Road”. The owner was a really nice and enthusiastic guy who gave us a sample of every variety of wine they make, along with a lesson about how to try wine and distinguish between good or bad wine.

Although it was super fun and interesting, we were suddenly way off on our time schedule. It was 7 and we still had another 4 hours of driving left through the mountains.

After getting turned around a bit, we finally made it back to the hostel around 12. We went straight to bed because we had another big day ahead of us.

The next morning, we started our two day journey to the north of Salta.

Passing through break taking scenery once again, we arrived at our destination mid afternoon. We could have keep going because there were more ruins in the North but we decided to have a relaxing afternoon.

 

For lunch, we climbed a hill that overlooked the hill of 7 colors. It was great to stretch the legs and eat with such an amazing view.

After lunch, we found ourselves a hostel and continued exploring.

We walked up the hill of 7 colors to watch the sunset, a memory I will not soon forget.

The rest of the night went by quickly. We went out for lunch, having our first proper meal in days and spent 3 hours in the restaurant chatting and enjoying the company.

We left early the next morning because we had 10 hours of driving ahead of us and we all had night busses to catch. The beneift was being able to see the gorgeous sun rise.

We made it to the Salt Flats fairly quickly and stopped to take our fair share of pictures. We got luckily, like every day on our road trip; it was gorgeous out and so nice just to enjoy the scenery and the company.

We then continued on but were starting to get weary about the map. We had 3 different maps of the area, and each map showed something different. In our 3 day trips we were on roads that the maps said didn’t even exist. One map would show the road we needed before the salt flats, and a different map would show it after. It made directions such a guessing game and we ended up on the wrong road more than once. Thankfully, everyone was in really good spirits and no one got upset or stressed.

After the salt flats was the time we went way out of our way on a road we didn’t want to take. Luckily, we could still get back on track; we should just have to take a road that is in horrible conditions. By road, I mean a dirt path sort of cleared and sort of smooth. We decided to continue because we didn’t have time to turn around and take the better road. Even though we literally were driving through creeks in the middle of road, it was worth it because the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.  

We ended up getting back into town with plenty of time to get the car ready return and for Jonas to catch his bus.

All too soon, I had to say goodbye to one of the best friends I had made during my time abroad. I’m so grateful to have met him and know we’ll meet again!

We spent the rest of the night hanging out in the bus terminal waiting for our 1 AM bus to San Pedro de Atacama.

Overall, it was an amazing road trip filled with so many beautiful landscapes, great conversations and lots and lots of laughing. It might be one of my favorite memories to date.