Northern Argentina in a Flash:
Valleys, Mountains, and Ravines

9 Days - 8 Nights

Day 1 - Arrival in Tucumán

Reception at San Miguel de Tucumán Airport and transfer to the hotel.

Day 2 - Discovering Tucumán & Tucuman Yungas

We will begin by visiting the historic center and its surroundings, with places full of history reflected in its buildings and constructions. Plaza Independencia is our starting point, from where we will head to the Government House and all the historic houses that surround it.

Then, we will go to the Cathedral, the Church and Convent of San Francisco, a national monument because of the relics it preserves, such as the first national flag hoisted in Tucumán in 1814, among others; the Church of Our Lady of Mercy with its neoclassical style and simple interior; the Nicolás Avellaneda Provincial Historical Museum, which is the house where he lived as well as other political figures from the 19th century; the Church and Convent of Santo Domingo, among other representative buildings and houses. Once our tour of the historic district of Tucumán city is finished, we will continue to the 9 de Julio Park, designed by Carlos Thays, a French landscape architect, which features a beautiful flower clock, colorful paths, and walkways among trees.

Then, we will go to the Sugar Industry Museum "Casa del Obispo Colombres," which will teach us about the history of the sugar industry in the province from its artisanal beginnings. We continue to the most distinguished area of Tucumán city, Plaza Urquiza, known for its paths and spaces used by people for skating or cycling, and which is a green space for resting, surrounded by French-style architecture; the San Martín Theater, the Legislature, and the Casino. Plaza Alberdi, another green space with well-maintained lawns and benches, located in front of the General Mitre Railway Station, which will be our last stop on the tour.

Breakfast at the hotel. We explore the beautiful Tucumán Yungas combining mountain landscapes, history, and local culture. We depart from San Miguel de Tucumán via Route 9 towards the Celestino Gelsi Dam (formerly Cadillal), crossing the picturesque slide, the power plants, and the Loro River. We continue towards Tapia, arriving at the charming towns of Raco and El Siambón, where we visit the Benedictine monks' monastery. The route continues to San Javier, ascending up to 1,200 meters to admire the imposing Christ the Redeemer and enjoy panoramic views of the region. Then we visit Villa Nougues, famous for its elegant residences and historic architecture, before descending through Yerba Buena back to San Miguel de Tucumán. Departures: approximately 08:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Duration: approximately 6 hours. Includes transportation and professional guide. Does not include tips or lunch.

Day 3 - Tafí del Valle, Quilmes Indians Ruins & Cafayate

Breakfast in the hotel. Crossing the Abra and on the way to Ampimpa we can observe the giant cactus to our sides. A natural balcony of the Yocavil or Santa Maria valleys affords a good view of the town, Amaicha del Valle at a few kilometers. In this town live a unique indigenous community of the north east, the diaguita culture who make unique things and is a famous locality for wine in earthenware pots, alfajores, nougats and small cheeses. Furthermore we can visit and explore the pre-Columbian settlements of Fuerte Quemado and el Pucará de Loma Rica, remains that have been well conserved of this town with pebbled walls using a mortar of mud and filled with debris and there you can see some of the diverse elements that they use such as San Jose and San Maria urns and objects of bone and stone.

Also the Pucará de Los Cardones is an archeological site that is conserved naturally. Here we pass trails, rivers, gorges, the dam, amongst other attractive features that we meet. Crossing the river Yocavil we enter to the ruins of the Quilmes, the remains of the biggest pre-Columbian settlement in Argentina. When defeated by the Spanish, the residents were forced to walk thousands of kilometers to Buenos Aires, to a locality that now bears its name. We make a visit to the museum and later to the fortress constructed for this community. We pass El Bañado, Colalao del Valle and continue to the town Tolombón to enter to Cafayate. On the way the countryside changes from arid to vineyards, where we meet the Cafayate soils. We sleep in Cafayate.

Day 4 - Calchaquí Valleys through Cafayate

Breakfast at the hotel. We will continue our journey from Cafayate, by visiting the Calchaquí Valleys. We will visit the Cathedral "Nuestra Señora del Rosario" which contrast with the multi – coloured hills in the background and then we will cover the most traditional wineries in this beautiful city between valleys and hills of an impressive green colour, which is the most important one in the Calchaquí Valleys because of its "torrontés" wines above all, an ideal place because of the temperature and humidity to the development of this kind of grape with a sweet and fruited taste, together with their goat cheese. The name of the city was given because of an old native settlement which means "Bury of sorrows or sadness" (Sepultura de las Penas). We will be pleasured to taste some wineries´wines. We will continue to visit the Archaelogical Museum, a place where there is a great quantity of objects which belonged to native villages. Many people have been investigating, making excavations, restorations and exhibitions about them.

We will be wondered as soon as we watch those rare and eye-catching shapes, going through Quebrada de las Conchas, where we will be able to see figures such as the Devil´s Throat (Garganta del Diablo), the Amfitheater (Anfiteatro) a wonderful place where we can perfectly hear the echo of any sound and it is here where many festivals take place, such as the folklore; another shapes are the Obelisk (Obelisco) which makes a lonely crag, the Castles (Castillos) of an intense red colour which reminds the castles in the medieval times, the Yesera with its light sandstone formations, the House of Parrots (Casa de los Loros) named like this because there are stone walls which are the habitat for great flock of parrots during the summer; the friar (Fraile), the toad (Sapo) and the impressive Devil´s Throat in Salta, shaped as a human trachea and also called like that because of its colour.

We will make a stop in Alemanía, a lonely town, but we cannot miss the visit so we can admire its old country houses between green hills, the train station which doesn´t work anymore and now we can see the beautiful work of the craftsmen who invite us to bring a nice souvenir from this town. We will get ready to descend through the valleys. We will get to Dique Cabra Corral, next to Coronel Moldes, an ideal place to practise water sports, then we will go through some towns dedicated to the farming activities such as El Carril, where we will find many stock-tobacco companies and also fig tree, walnut tree and peach tree fields; La Merced, with its cleany streets and green spaces which make it so picturesque, and Cerrillos. All these towns belong to Valle de Lerma, where there are treasures which come from mines that were found and they are hidden somewhere between the hills, according to local stories. We will continue to Salta city, going through impressive landscapes that change on every curve we make in wonderful colours like the reddish hills, ochre colour of the grass, grey stones and green cactus. Night in Salta. If you want to see other excursion options in Salta, click here: Tours in Salta.

Day 5 - Discovering Salta

We will start our tour along the city from the nice 9 de Julio Square, so eye-catching because of its decorated coloured quarries and its fruited trees which leave a nice fragrance in the salteño air. From the square we will be able to have a first vision of its history and colonial past, as we will be surrounded by old buildings such as the Cabildo, the Cathedral, the Church of San Francisco, the Convent of San Bernardo de las Monjas Carmelitas, one of the oldest buildings in the city which was the entrance door to the convent and it is made of carob wood that was carved by the natives in 1762; its old houses complete the historical quarter, which are today very important monuments.

Then, we will go to the impressive and most recognised hill in the salteña city: Cerro San Bernardo. Before getting to it, we will tour along the streets, getting to Güemes monument, an argentinian general who is known because of its ideals of freedom, dispise to materialism and his love to his Motherland. We will get to San Martín Park where we will find the cable railway station, our means of transport to get to the hill so we can have an amazing panoramic of the city and its surroundings, with the hills at the background.

After the ascent, we will continue to a really charming place, which is chosen by many tourists because of its wonderful natural attractions and the different activities to do: the summer village of San Lorenzo, where we will find the Quebrada, an ideal place to spend the day at the edge of the river, listening its relaxing sounds. We will enjoy our way to it, as we will go through flowered Gardens, mansions and castles which are surrounded by small hills and where we can do (horse) riding, trekking and pic-nic. We will go back to the city, going through the Handmade Market (Mercado Artesanal) first, where we will be able to get some souvenirs from this beautiful city, such as silver and pottery pieces, rustic fabric of llama wool, craftwork in leather, among others.

Day 6 - Calchaquí Valleys through Cachi

Breakfast at the hotel. We will do the way around through the Calchaquí Valleys, this time through Cachi, driving between extremely lovely landscapes. During our tour to this charming town, we will be able to see beautiful tourist spots in particular, starting in Quebrada del Escoipe, almost a wild region followed by the homonymous river and it crosses several Bridges until getting to Cuesta del Obispo. This last one is also a nature work, as we start the ascent by a twisted and cornice road, where we will be surrounded by impressive green coloured hills, an indescribable view together with the vegetation, in contrast with the sky. The highest point in this way is Piedra del Molino, to 3348 metres above the level of the sea and, from where we will have a unic panoramic of the Quebrada del Escoipe.

Two kilometres before getting to Piedra del Molino, we will be able to appreciate the sign which says that we are in Los Cardones National Park that protects its vegetation, such as Neblina, Monte, Puna and Alta Montaña bushes. Some fauna like the taruca, vicuña, guanaco, puma, red fox, wild cat, Wessel, quirquincho, condor, carpintero de los cardones, ututo lizard, coral, yarara, among others, are preserved in this national park.

After coming through the highest point, Piedra del Molino, we will arrive at Valle Encantado, a place where shapes and colours are mixed and where the action of the wind and water sculpt the landscapes with curious shapes and reliefs. There we will find a small lagoon and cave paintings. Of course, if we are lucky, we will be able to watch condors flying through the sky. Later on, we will get to a small soft mountainside valley covered of bushes, which is eaten by the cattle, that we are surely going to cross during the tour. If we continue a few kilometres more, we will appreciate an enclosed basin and El Hervidero lagoon, the favorite place to graze by the guanacos.  

The Tin Tin Straight Line (Recta de Tin Tin) will be another unforgettable spot in our tour as we will watch it along the way we go, as it is a perfect straight line of 18 kilometres, from where we will be able to watch a great quantity of thistles and looking at our right we will see the Tin Tin Hill and at our left we will see the Negro Hill. We will go through this old inca road so we can get to Payogasta where we will be surprised with the red and reddish pepper plantations, now descending to Cachi town, which is located at the base of Nevado Hill between the homonymous river and Calchaquí. There we will go for a walk along the streets watching its dazzled white buildings, its houses made of adobe and paving streets, but the town stresses more because of its kindness and warm contact that the local people give. We will return to Salta in the afternoon.

Day 7 - Quebrada de Humahuaca

Breakfast at the hotel. Today a full day of history and landscapes will be waiting for us, as we will do the circuit to Quebrada de Humahuaca, where we will visit its prehispanic villages which date from hundred years ago and some are so well kept that they shows us its original buildings and houses, so we can visit and tour closer around them.

In first place, the Quebrada de Humahuaca was declared a Natural and Cultural Heritage Mankind in 2003.

We will start by crossing the Siancas Valley through Gral. Güemes town to tour a sugar cane, tobacco, cotton farming area, among others and we will get to the bordering province of Jujuy and its capital in a valley of 155 kilometres extense, which is surrounded of multicoloured mountains and hills, an arid vegetation area and río Grande. We will get into an area of an amazing variety of brown, green, ocres and reddish tonalities. We will continue to Yala, a summer village which is located in the middle of the mountains, rivers and lagoons, with guest houses and weekend houses, there is also the Potrero de Yala Provincial Park which preserves the Lagunas de Yala (Yala Lagoons) where some birds´ species can be watched. We will start ascending the quebrada, going through villages which are kept like the ancient years and they make an unforgettable postal through the landscapes.

We now arrive at Purmamarca, a picturesque town located at the foot of the impressive and unic Cerro de los Siete Colores, which surprise us with its amazing ranges that mixes with the environment tranquility, its vegetation and the blue sky, apart from the hundred ruins of the first villages in the region. We will continue to Maimará, a town which is exactly in the centre of the quebrada, there we will be able to appreciate la Paleta del Pintor (Painter´s Palette), with is multicoloured hills which honours its name; Posta de Hornillos where we will find a museum to live and be witnesses of the prehispanic life; we will go to Tilcara, a famous village because of its caves and its small church, which is one of the oldest ones in the area. We will enjoy some regional and exquisite dishes and then, we can do a tour where the craftsmen are so we can buy some native souvenirs, rustic fabrics made of llama and vicuña, with the company of those kind and thankful people.

Day 8 - Salinas Grandes & Purmamarca

We depart directly from Purmamarca, at the foot of the famous Hill of Seven Colors, beginning our journey through the Puna region. We start with a brief technical stop to walk a bit and acclimate to the altitude, while enjoying panoramic views of the hill and the town’s typical atmosphere. We continue our trip along the spectacular Cuesta del Lipán, a cliffside road where we’ll make several stops to take photos and relish the experience of being above the clouds, reaching our highest point at 4,170 meters above sea level. From there, we descend to 3,600 meters to arrive at the imposing Salinas Grandes, a dazzling white landscape that invites you to take the most creative photos and videos, living a unique and unforgettable experience.

The Salinas Grandes are one of the most impressive landscapes in northern Argentina, situated at about 3,600 meters above sea level, in the heart of the Puna region. This vast salt flat stretches as far as the eye can see, with its white, gleaming surface formed by millions of years of evaporation of ancient saline lagoons. Walking on the salt is a unique experience, as the horizon merges with the sky creating a sense of vastness and purity. The sunlight constantly transforms the colors and reflections, offering unique opportunities for memorable photos and videos. Furthermore, the Salinas Grandes are not only a visual spectacle but also a place rich in geological and cultural history, where one can feel the connection with the extreme nature and the traditions of the indigenous peoples who inhabit the region.

The return is made by the same route, but with a different landscape: the sun at our backs transforms the colors of the mountains, offering new surprising perspectives and hues. Back in Purmamarca, we’ll have the opportunity to enjoy regional cuisine (optional, not included), walk through the main square, visit the town’s church and stroll along the Paseo de los Colorados, admiring again the Hill of Seven Colors from different angles. We return to Purmamarca or we can head back to Jujuy or Salta.

Day 9 - Salta

Transfer from the hotel to Salta Airport. End of our services.