San Antonio de los Cobres

San Antonio de los Cobres is a town of adobe houses on the high plateau, at nearly three thousand eight hundred metres, built around the copper and silver mines and the railway that crosses the Andes to Chile. Its station is the base of the Train to the Clouds, which runs on to the La Polvorilla viaduct, sixty-three metres above a ravine at more than four thousand metres. Llamas, wind and the white light of the Puna set the tone.

The road from Salta climbs the Quebrada del Toro past Santa Rosa de Tastil and the Abra de Muñano, and arrives in about four hours. Most travellers stop for lunch and the train, and continue the same day north to the Salinas Grandes and down the Cuesta de Lipán to Purmamarca; a night here, in a simple hotel, helps with the altitude and opens the way west to Tolar Grande or south over the Abra del Acay to Cachi.

April to November is the dry season and the best time. Winter days are clear and the nights well below freezing; summer storms can cut the high roads.