Paso de Jama: San Salvador de Jujuy to Paso de Jama

San Salvador de Jujuy to Paso de Jama, over 4200 m · one way, about 541 km back to the start

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Why this ride

541 km from San Salvador de Jujuy to the finish, about 7 h 27 of riding. It goes by way of Purmamarca and Susques. The highest point is about 4,200 m. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.

Roadbook

1. San Salvador de Jujuy start

   Jujuy, as everyone calls it, sits in a green bowl about 1,200 metres up in the far north-west of Argentina, where the wet forests of the eastern slope meet the dry high country behind. The city was founded in 1593, on the third attempt, after earlier settlements were wiped out or abandoned, and it still has the look of a provincial capital that has had to work for its place. About three hundred thousand people live here, with the river Xibi Xibi running through the middle of town and the hills of the Yungas closing in on three sides. It is the usual start for the long climb into the Andes.

   The history you notice is political. In 1812 General Belgrano ordered the whole population to leave the city and burn what they could not carry, so the royalist army would find nothing, a sacrifice remembered every August as the Éxodo Jujeño. Today the main square, with its cathedral and its gilded pulpit, is a relaxed place of shoeshine stalls and old men reading the paper, and the market is worth a wander for coca leaves, cheese, spices and woven goods.

   For a rider, Jujuy is the gateway to two of the great roads of the continent. Ruta 9 heads north up the Quebrada de Humahuaca, the painted valley that earned a UNESCO listing in 2003, with its striped hills, adobe villages and cactus forests. Ruta 52, branching west through Purmamarca, climbs over the Cuesta de Lipán, passing 4,000 metres before dropping to the white salt flats and on towards Paso de Jama and Chile. The first kilometres out of town are fast, then the valley narrows, the vegetation thins, and the colours begin to change from green to ochre to red.

   This is where to be sensible. Altitude arrives faster than you think, and so does cold: even in summer, the high stretches can be near freezing at dawn, with afternoon storms from December to March that bring rockfalls and washouts on the quebrada roads. Fill the tank here, or at the stations in Palpalá and the larger towns, because fuel out on the high road is sparse and sometimes rationed or simply unavailable in small villages. Drink water, chew coca if the locals swear by it, and take things slowly on day one. Eat humitas or an empanada salteña and a cold beer in the plaza before you set off, then go to bed early. The mountains reward those who start early and stop often.

2. Purmamarca scenic

   Purmamarca is the village most people photograph first in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, and the reason is the hill behind it. The Cerro de los Siete Colores rises straight from the edge of the settlement in bands of pink, rust, ochre, green and grey, and the colours change hourly: pale and chalky at noon, deep and almost wet-looking when the low sun rakes across them in the late afternoon. It is a small adobe village, about two thousand three hundred metres up in Jujuy province, in the far north-west of Argentina.

   The Quebrada itself is a long dry valley carved by the Rio Grande, and was a trade corridor long before the Spaniards or even the Inca arrived. Llama caravans carried salt, maize and textiles between the Andean highlands and the lowlands, and the route later became the road to Potosi and the silver. UNESCO listed the whole valley as a cultural landscape in 2003. In Purmamarca the little church, dedicated to Santa Rosa de Lima and dating to the eighteenth century, stands beside the square, where stalls sell woven goods, ponchos and carved cactus-wood bits and pieces. It gets busy with tour buses in the middle of the day and quiet again in the evening.

   For riders the village is a short detour off Ruta 9, the main road up the Quebrada. Ruta 52 starts here and climbs west in a famous series of switchbacks, the Cuesta de Lipan, towards the Salinas Grandes and the border passes into Chile, so this is where a ride into the high Andes begins. Expect thin air, strong sun and sudden cold, and carry water; altitude can make you headachy even if you are only riding.

   Fuel is the practical question. Purmamarca itself is tiny, and you should not count on finding petrol at the pump you need, so treat Tilcara, about twenty kilometres up the valley and the nearest place from the list with five thousand people, as your reliable stop, or fill in the provincial capital before you start. Food is simple and good: empanadas, humita, locro, quinoa dishes and the occasional llama stew, with a coca tea if the altitude is bothering you. Mornings are the best time, before the wind gets up and the tour groups arrive.

3. Susques scenic

   Susques is a small high-altitude town on the road to Chile, perched on the Argentine puna at about 3,600 metres, where the air is thin, the sky is deep blue and the horizon is made of bare rust-coloured hills. The Ruta 52 climbs here from Jujuy through the Quebrada de Purmamarca, over the Cuesta de Lipán, one of the highest and most dramatic mountain roads in Argentina, then crosses the great white Salinas Grandes, the salt flats, before arriving in Susques. The town marks the beginning of the real altiplano.

   The riding is wild and wonderful, with wide, open bends, empty straights and long views over the plateau. Traffic is light, mainly trucks heading for the Paso de Jama and the Chilean border, and the main dangers are altitude, wind, cold nights and long distances between services. Take it slow on the high passes, drink plenty of water and be ready for headaches or breathlessness. The sun is fierce at this height, but temperatures drop sharply at night.

   The little adobe church in Susques is one of its best sights. Built in colonial times, it has thick white walls and a roof made from the wood of the cardón cactus, a material that has stood up to the high Andes for centuries. The town is inhabited largely by Kolla and Atacama indigenous communities, who herd llamas and sheep, and weave wool in bright patterns. Vicuñas, wild relatives of the llama, graze the dry plains nearby, and you may see them in the early morning.

   There is basic accommodation and food in Susques, simple but welcome, and a petrol station, though you should treat fuel as something to plan ahead rather than hope for. Carry a reserve and top up whenever you can, because the next services are far away. The Paso de Jama, at over four thousand metres, leads on to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, and the border formalities are strict, so check opening hours and paperwork before you go.

4. Paso de Jama finish · 4200 m

   Nothing prepares you for the quiet at Paso de Jama. At about 4,200 metres, the border between Argentina and Chile lies on the Altiplano, a huge, high plateau of tawny grass, salt flats and shallow lakes, ringed by volcanoes. The sky is a hard, deep blue, the air is thin and dry, and the only sounds are the wind and the occasional passing truck. Flamingos feed in the pale lagoons, and vicuñas, the delicate wild cousins of the llama, graze beside the road.

   The road is the main route between Salta and Jujuy and the Atacama desert, and the ride here is a high-altitude marathon. On the Argentine side, Route 52 climbs from the Salinas Grandes salt flat and the Cuesta de Lipán, a mountain road with dozens of hairpins, to the plateau, and then runs straight and fast across it, before dropping steeply on the Chilean side to San Pedro de Atacama, more than a thousand metres lower. The tarmac is generally good, but wind, ice and snow can close the road at short notice.

   Altitude is the real challenge. Sickness can hit anyone, and a bike with a carburettor or an old fuel-injection system may run rough in the thin air, so be prepared. Drink water, move slowly and do not overdo it. The temperature can drop below freezing at night in any month, and the wind is strong and cold in the afternoon. Warm gloves and a windproof layer are essential.

   The nearest stations are at Susques on the Argentine side and at San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, roughly three hundred kilometres apart, so fill the tank and carry extra. The border posts have opening hours and paperwork, including vehicle permits, and the process can be long. Do not rush it. Take a hot drink, enjoy the silence and the huge landscape, and plan to arrive in San Pedro by evening, where the nights are cool and the stars are astonishing.

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