My horizon was spinning and my legs seemed to have a disconnect from my brain ! The vice like grip on my head just confirmed that the huge climb by car to the stunning 4400 metre Hornicol lookout 50 kms north of Maimara might not have been such a great idea !
We should have realised this was no ordinary lookout as parked nearby was an ambulance no doubt with staff ready to spring into action. We'd just driven up on a 23km dirt road climb from Humacha and were now walking with bugger all acclimitisation at 4,400 metres,!
It was our last full day in the Salta region as we drove first to Tilcara (noticeably quieter than our last visit) to catch up with a coffee and some Wi Fi before heading further north some 50 odd Kms to the wild west town of Humacha
This is Nothern Argentina bordering Bolivia where the population look nothing like Spanish - more a deep Andean tribal look living in what mostly looked like mud brick built housing in this dry and desolate landscape.
Driving through Humacha avoiding tractors, horses and roaming packs of dogs we headed on up our amazing climb to the Hornocol a tourist hot spot in the late afternoon as the suns rays light up the nearby coloured sandstone hills !
The climb was seriously hard on the Renault Logan as it bounced along the dirt and rock filled road up the steep and largely unfenced climb.
I knew the car was struggling as I had to put it in first gear on a number of occassions just to stop it from stalling.
Eventually we paid our 50 pesos (entrance fee) heard the local Andean mumble something in Spanish about altitude sickness and parked not far away from the residing ambulance who no doubt figured he was going to get some good passing trade !
We finally staggered out of our car and half walked half stumbled to the lookout proper both aware of the crushing pressure that high altitude can provide without proper acclimitisation.
Many pics taken we quickly retraced our car journey for spectacular valley views all the way back to Maimara where a late afternoon drone flight looking at the coloured painted hills finished up our great journey to the Salta region !
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