Abra del Acay Road

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. San Antonio de los Cobres

   San Antonio de los Cobres lies at about thirty-seven hundred metres in the Puna of Salta, a high, dry plateau in the north-west of Argentina where the sky is enormous and the air thin and clear. The town is small, with low adobe houses and a main street that looks across a bare valley to red and ochre hills, and it is the highest place of any size on the route that crosses the Andes toward Chile. The name means Saint Anthony of the Coppers, from the mines that once drew people to the area, and the Collas, the indigenous people of the Puna, still make up most of the population, with llamas, alpacas and vicuñas on the hills around.

   Read the complete San Antonio de los Cobres write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   San Antonio de los Cobres is where the day begins. Next is Abra del Acay.

2. 2. Abra del Acay

   Abra del Acay is the highest point on Argentina's Ruta 40, at 4,895 metres, and one of the highest road crossings in the Americas. The pass lies in the province of Salta, on the road between San Antonio de los Cobres on the puna to the north and the village of Payogasta and the Calchaquí valley to the south. The rock around it is bare and fractured, the sky is a darker blue than you are used to, and on the horizon stands the snowy mass of Nevado del Acay, over five and a half thousand metres.

   Read the complete Abra del Acay write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Abra del Acay comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is La Poma, mostly downhill.

3. 3. La Poma

   La Poma lies in the high valleys of Salta province, in north-west Argentina, at the northern end of the Calchaquí valleys and below the wall of the Andes, and it is one of the remotest places on Route 40. The little village was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1930, which destroyed the old settlement, and it is a quiet cluster of low adobe houses and a plaza in a broad dry valley, with snow-capped peaks standing behind. The altitude is well over three thousand metres, and the air is thin, cold and astonishingly clear.

   Read the complete La Poma write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach La Poma. Next is Cachi.

4. 4. Cachi

   Cachí sits at around 2,300 metres in the Calchaquí valleys of Salta province, and everything about it seems to have been made quiet by altitude and dryness. White adobe houses line narrow streets, the plaza is shaded by trees, and the church has a roof and doors made from the wood of the cardón, a tall columnar cactus that grows on the slopes around. The backdrop is the Nevado de Cachi, a snow-capped peak in the range that stands above 6,000 metres.

   Read the complete Cachi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cachi closes the day.