Camino de las Altas Cumbres

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Cordoba

   Córdoba is Argentina's second city by size and first by claims to learning, a university town where the baroque churches of the Jesuits stand beside student cafés and traffic that never seems to stop. The Jesuits arrived in the sixteenth century and built what is now called the Jesuit Block, a group of church, college and residences that UNESCO listed in 2000. Their university, founded in 1613, is one of the oldest in South America, and in 1918 students here launched a reform movement that spread through Latin American universities. The city is also where Argentines drink fernet with cola, an acquired taste that locals will defend with some force.

   Read the complete Cordoba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Cordoba is where the day begins. Next is Copina.

2. 2. Copina

   Copina is a small hill village on the eastern flank of the Sierras de Córdoba, on the road that climbs from the lowlands toward the high plateau, and it is a place where the temperature starts to drop and the road starts to bend. The village lies in granite country, with huge rounded boulders scattered across the hillside and the soil thin and stony. It is a quiet place of a few houses, a chapel and a handful of small guesthouses, and the main attraction is the air, which is clear and cool compared with the plains.

   Read the complete Copina write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Copina comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pampa de Achala.

3. 3. Pampa de Achala

   The Pampa de Achala is a high plateau at about 2,200 metres, a windswept expanse of grass and granite that sits at the top of the Sierras de Córdoba. After the climb from the lowlands, the landscape changes completely. The trees disappear, the sky grows enormous, and the land rolls away in smooth, bare hills dotted with great grey boulders. It feels more like Patagonia or the Scottish moors than central Argentina, and the air is thin, cold and very clear.

   Read the complete Pampa de Achala write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Pampa de Achala. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Mina Clavero, mostly downhill.

4. 4. Mina Clavero

   Mina Clavero is a small river town on the western side of the Sierras de Córdoba, in the long, dry Traslasierra valley, and it is where the Camino de las Altas Cumbres comes to rest after crossing the mountains. You arrive from the east after a climb through grassland and rock that tops out above two thousand metres, then a descent in a long run of bends that opens suddenly onto a view of the whole valley, flat and golden, with the Sierra de Comechingones low and blue beyond it.

   Read the complete Mina Clavero write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Mina Clavero closes the day.