CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 711 km, La Quiaca to Cafayate - roughly 11 h 49 in the saddle. The stops in between: Humahuaca and Cachi. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
La Quiaca is the last town in Argentina, and at about 3,400 metres above sea level it feels like it. The Puna plateau here is high, cold and windswept, with a sky of hard blue and a landscape of tawny grass and bare hills, and the border with Bolivia runs along a dry riverbed on the edge of town. A bridge crosses to Villazón, a bustling Bolivian town just two kilometres away. Argentine National Route 40, the long road that runs the length of the country along the Andes for more than five thousand kilometres, ends here, and a sign at the border marks the northern terminus.
Read the complete La Quiaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Quiaca is where the day begins. Next is Humahuaca.
Humahuaca sits at almost three thousand metres in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a long, dry, colourful valley in the far north of Argentina that UNESCO has listed as a World Heritage landscape. The valley runs for about a hundred and fifty kilometres, with the river Grande flowing between walls of red, ochre, green and violet rock, and cardón cacti standing like candelabra on the hillsides. The road through it, the Ruta 9, follows an ancient trade route used by the Incas, and before them by many peoples who carried llama caravans between the Andes and the lowlands.
Read the complete Humahuaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Humahuaca comes up about 157 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 556 km into the recorded legs you reach Cachi. Next is Cafayate.
Cafayate is a wine town at about sixteen hundred metres in the Calchaquí valleys of Salta province, in the dry north-west of Argentina, and it is the reward at the end of a long ride south. After days of high desert, salt flats and unpaved passes, you come down into a flat valley full of vines and suddenly there is shade, cold white wine and a plaza where people sit for hours. The mountains stand on both sides, brown and bare, and the light is so clear that distances seem shorter than they are.
Read the complete Cafayate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cafayate closes the day.
La Quiaca → Humahuaca is 157 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Humahuaca → Cachi is 399 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cachi → Cafayate is 155 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.