Most road trips in the Northwest are about the landscape. This one is about the people in it: a woman making quesillo and humitas in her kitchen near Salta, a llama herder in the second-highest town in Argentina, a potter who still shapes clay the old way, a cook in Iruya with her own empanada secrets. Every day the car stops at a door that opens, and between those doors run some of the most dramatic roads in the Andes, from the Puna to a village that hangs off the side of a mountain.
Day 1 · Salta and the hills of Castellanos
Highlight · Quesillo, tamales and humitas made by hand in a local kitchen, or a morning with a country school.
Drive · 20 min
The car is collected in Salta for a 20-minute drive into the green hills of Castellanos, near San Lorenzo, where the first nights are spent. The afternoon brings the first encounter, to choose from: a local woman's kitchen, where quesillo salteño, tamales and humitas are made by hand, or a country school, its pupils and their farm work.
Night · Salta
Day 2 · Up to the Puna
Highlight · A turn around San Antonio de los Cobres with Anatolio's llama, or clay at Thuru Maky.
Drive · 180 km · 3 h
Up to San Antonio de los Cobres, a Puna town above 3,000 m, among salt flats, mineral-coloured peaks and the plants and animals that survive the altitude. Here the choice is between a walk with Anatolio, a llama herder who explains what the animal meant to the people of these heights and lends one for a turn around town, or Thuru Maky, "mud hands" in Quechua, the ceramic workshop where Alejandra Alejo works clay with ancestral techniques.
Night · San Antonio de los Cobres
Day 3 · Across to Purmamarca
Highlight · The reds of Los Colorados in the low early light, behind the Cerro de los Siete Colores.
Drive · 160 km · 3 h 30
Walk · Los Colorados
Down from the Puna into the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a World Heritage site. Purmamarca is an adobe village with roofs of cardón wood and mud, built around its 1648 church at the foot of the Cerro de los Siete Colores, with a craft market on the square. The Los Colorados walk, flat and winding behind the hill, is best taken early, when the light is low and the reds are deepest.
Night · Purmamarca
Day 4 · North to Iruya
Highlight · Along the riverbed to San Isidro, a hamlet on a rock, past donkeys, llamas and condors.
Drive · 150 km · 3–4 h
Walk · San Isidro · 8 km · 2 h 30–3 h
Three to four hours, depending on the state of the road, to Iruya, a village of steep stone streets where the indigenous and the Hispanic mix. The walk of the day goes to San Isidro, a hamlet built on a rock and seemingly stopped in time: almost 8 km along the riverbed, two and a half to three hours, with donkeys, guanacos, llamas and condors along the way.
Night · Iruya
Day 5 · Iruya
Highlight · Empanadas salteñas cooked with a local woman and eaten at her table.
A slow day in the village, and a lesson in a local woman's kitchen: empanadas salteñas, with all the secrets of the recipe, cooked together and eaten at her table.
Night · Iruya
Day 6 · Down the Quebrada to Castellanos
Highlight · The Paleta del Pintor at Maimará, its colours alive in the afternoon light.
Drive · 325 km · 5–6 h
The longest drive, back down the Quebrada de Humahuaca, with a stop at Maimará for the Paleta del Pintor, whose colours come alive in the afternoon light. The evening is for the garden and the pool in Castellanos.
Night · Salta
Day 7 · Salta
Highlight · A last short drive out of the hills to Salta airport.
The short drive to Salta airport, where the car is returned.
