Valles Calchaquies

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Salta

   Salta calls itself La Linda, the beautiful, and the old centre makes a decent case for it. The city lies in a green valley in the far north-west of Argentina, about twelve hundred metres above the sea, with the Andes to the west and the humid forest edge to the east. The Spanish founded it in 1582, and the colonial core still shows it, with the cathedral's pink facade, the arcaded cabildo on the main plaza and the cafés underneath the verandahs. In the evening the plaza fills with families, buskers and street food, and the empanadas salteñas, small and juicy with beef, are an essential meal.

   Read the complete Salta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Salta is where the day begins. Next is Cuesta del Obispo.

2. 2. Cuesta del Obispo

   The Cuesta del Obispo is one of the great roads of northern Argentina, a gravel and tarmac climb that crosses the Sierra del Obispo between Salta and the Calchaquí valleys. The summit, called Piedra del Molino, is at 3,348 metres, high enough to feel the thin air, and the views are enormous. The road is named after a bishop of Salta who is said to have crossed here, and the name has lasted longer than his story.

   Read the complete Cuesta del Obispo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Cuesta del Obispo comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Cachi, mostly downhill.

3. 3. 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

   about 155 km into the recorded legs you reach Cachi. Next is Molinos.

4. 4. Molinos

   Molinos sits at the bottom of a dry, wide valley in the province of Salta, about two thousand metres above the sea, with the Calchaquí mountains standing around it in bands of rust and ochre. The river that made the valley is mostly a braid of stones for most of the year, and the green is confined to a thin ribbon of poplars, vineyards and walled fields along it. Cachí is the nearest proper settlement to the north, roughly forty kilometres off, and Cafayate lies a long day's gentle riding to the south.

   Read the complete Molinos write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Molinos, late in the day. Next is Cafayate.

5. 5. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Finish at Cafayate. That is the ride.