Route No.9 to Salta

We left the hostal in San Salvador de Jujuy just after breakfast and on our way out of the city took the bicycle path along the river. There we were soon joined by Josefina, a theater student on her bike who chatted with us about our travels. She was on her way home which coincided with our choosen route (no.9 ) to Salta. With her help we found the desired direction much easier and we rode together for some kilometers until she reached her home.

Twenty kilometers further in our route we ate some lunch in a city park once we reached the small town of El Carmen. Following road no. 9 we find that traffic was getting much lighter and soon found ourselves on a winding road into the mountains. 

Lake below our route

Cows along the way, we also saw a lot of groups of free roaming horses 

Lush vegetation

After a couple of hours the road was almost devoid of traffic and we enjoyed the fantastic nature along the way. Once we reached the top of the mountain it was almost time to look for a place to camp. However, we passed on the option of camping on top of the mountain and speed down a nice descent ( a couple of hundred meters in elevation) towards the valley on the last evening sun. After about 60 more minutes of cycling we found our destination, a nice camp ground just a bit north of the town of La Caldera, but unfortunately the site was closed (for the winter month on June). 

Running out of options where to stay for the night we find a creative way inside ;) and put up camp just before dusk. Before crawling into our sleeping  bags we enjoyed some pasta and tomato sauce that we prepared on our camping cooker.