Our trip to the Northwest of Argentina (the NOA) in summary

In case you haven’t caught every post over the last couple of weeks, I wanted to put a quick summary of all of the posts related to our one-week trip to the Northwest of Argentina.  As a reminder, we went to Salta, Cafayate, (through the the valle de Calchaquies) and then up north to the province of Jujuy, including the city of Jujuy, Purmamarca, Tilcara, Los Salinas Grandes (the salt flats) and the Quebrada de Humahuaca.

All in all, we really enjoyed the trip and it provided a great change of pace from the buzz of daily life in Buenos Aires.  That said, we definitely encountered our share of issues on this trip, but that’s just how travelling works sometimes and you can’t let it ruin your trip.  Anyway, here are the relevant posts:

1)  Pre-trip planning:  Some thoughts on trip planning for our second vacation-from-vacation before we left

2)  The FlechaBus trip to Salta in Cama-suite:  A humorous review of our very entertaining and rather uncomfortable 20 hour bus-ride to Salta on FlechaBus in their Cama-suite class of service.

3)   A day in Cafayate:  Photos and descriptions of a great day we had in Cafayate.  If by any chance, you’re working long hours in a job you don’t love, please consider that days like this are a very viable, affordable and easy to setup alternative 🙂

4)  Bad Experience with Local Guide in Salta: A copy of the review we wrote on Trip Advisor of our very unpleasant and money-wasting experience with a highly recommended private guide in Salta named Angie.

5)  Trip Report on Salta and Northwest Argetina:  A thorough and step by step review with photos of everything we saw and did while we were there along with our thoughts.  If you only read one of these, read this one.

6)  Review:  Patios de Cafayate hotel:  Our review of our (almost) great Starwood hotel in Cafayate

7)  Photo gallery from the province of Salta:  Including Salta city, Cafayate, Valle de Cachaquis, some wineries in Cafayate and a Goat Farm!

8 )  Photo gallery from the province of Jujuy:  Including Purmarmarca, Los Salinas Grandes, Tilcara, Quebrada de Humahuaca and more

Our quick summary: Fantastic place to visit to see a different and very beautiful part of Argentina.  That said, it didn’t blow us away–while we’d definitely recommend it if you’re in the area, it wouldn’t be the first place we’d recommend.  We haven’t been to Bariloche or Mendoza yet, but we’d definitely say that Iguazu Falls is far more spectacular on an international scale (though a very, very different kind of experience).

Enjoy!

PatiosDeCafayate Vineyard Image

This vineyard surrounded our hotel, not bad...