Argentina through its communities

The great landscapes of Argentina are the easy part. What stays with travellers is the people who live in them: the milonguero who still dances by the codes of the 1940s, the weaver in a Calchaquí village, the family who harvests salt on the high plateau and cooks dinner for whoever sleeps under their roof, the Guaraní guide who reads the jungle. This journey crosses three regions and keeps that thread from beginning to end.

Day 1 · Buenos Aires

Highlight · La Boca, Palermo and Recoleta on foot, with the Teatro Colón and the Casa Rosada between them.

A first afternoon on foot through the neighbourhoods that explain the city: La Boca and its Italian immigrants, Palermo with its parks and avenues, French-styled Recoleta, and the landmarks between them, the Teatro Colón, the Congress and the Casa Rosada.

Night · Buenos Aires

Day 2 · By bike and kayak to the Tigre delta

Highlight · An hour and a half by kayak among the houses on stilts of the Paraná delta.

Out of the city partly by train and partly by bicycle, through the leafy northern suburbs to Tigre, where the Paraná breaks into hundreds of islands and channels. An hour and a half in a kayak on the delta waters, among weekend houses on stilts and riverside forest.

Night · Buenos Aires

Day 3 · Tango

Highlight · The neighbourhood milongas at night, where the codes of the golden age still hold.

A private tango lesson with a teacher chosen for the travellers' level, from the first embrace to the figures. At night, far from the shows, a tour of the neighbourhood milongas that keep the spirit of the golden age, where the codes of invitation and the walk around the floor have not changed in eighty years.

Night · Buenos Aires

Day 4 · Salta

Highlight · Salta seen whole from the cable car up Cerro San Bernardo.

A morning flight north. Salta is walked from its colonial square, and seen whole from the top of the cable car up Cerro San Bernardo.

Night · Salta

Day 5 · Through the Quebrada de las Conchas to Molinos

Highlight · Red rock carved by wind and water into the Devil's Throat, the Amphitheatre and the Castle.

South through the farming towns of the Lerma valley and into the Quebrada de las Conchas, a gorge of red rock sculpted by wind and water into the Devil's Throat, the Amphitheatre and the Castle. Lunch in Cafayate among the vineyards, and in the afternoon north along the Ruta 40 to Molinos, an adobe village around an old hacienda.

Night · Molinos & Colomé

Day 6 · Cachi and on to Purmamarca

Highlight · The Los Colorados path behind the Cerro de los Siete Colores, then empanadas in Tilcara.

Walk · Los Colorados

North to Cachi, one of the most beautiful villages of the valleys, through hamlets where homemade wine and preserves are sold at the door and weavers still make the region's ponchos. Then the long crossing to the Quebrada de Humahuaca and Purmamarca, with a walk along the Los Colorados path behind the Cerro de los Siete Colores. The evening is a cooking class in Tilcara, half an hour up the Quebrada, preparing and eating the empanadas of the Northwest.

Night · Purmamarca

Day 7 · Up to the Puna and the salt flats

Highlight · The salineros of the Salinas Grandes, at 3,600 metres, and a night with a local family.

Three days with the families of Espejo de Sal, a community tourism network of the Jujuy Puna. The road climbs the Cuesta de Lipán to the Salinas Grandes, at 3,600 metres, where the salineros show how salt is harvested, from the pools to the packing. In the afternoon, the cliffs of Barrancas, one of the main archaeological sites of the area, with petroglyphs and rock paintings. Dinner and the night are with a local family.

Night · Salinas Grandes

Day 8 · Alfarcito

Highlight · The cordillera and the Guayatayoc lagoon from the highest peak around.

A hike with a local guide to the highest peak around, with views over the cordillera and the Guayatayoc lagoon, and lunch in San Francisco de Alfarcito. For those who prefer not to walk, the villages of Santa Ana and Sausalito by car. Another night with a host family.

Night · Salinas Grandes

Day 9 · From the Andes to the jungle

Highlight · Down from the Puna to Salta, then across the country to Iguazú.

Down to Salta for lunch and an afternoon flight across the country to Iguazú.

Night · Puerto Iguazú

Day 10 · The Iguazú falls, Argentine side

Highlight · The end of the walkway over the edge of the Devil's Throat, the largest fall.

Walk · Upper Circuit · 800 m

Walk · Lower Circuit · 1,600 m

Walk · Devil's Throat · 1,200 m

A full day on the walkways of the national park: the Upper Circuit, 800 metres above the edge of the falls; the Lower Circuit, 1,600 metres that reach almost into the spray; and the train to the Devil's Throat, where 1,200 metres of walkway end over the edge of the largest fall.

Night · Puerto Iguazú

Day 11 · The Brazilian side and a Guaraní village

Highlight · Medicine, songs and the "spirit of the trees" in the Mbya Guaraní village of Fortín Mbororé.

Walk · Canyon trail · 1,200 m

The Brazilian side gives the panorama: a trail along the canyon facing the Argentine falls, ending a short distance from the foot of the Devil's Throat. In the afternoon, two hours in the Mbya Guaraní village of Fortín Mbororé, whose people share their medicine, songs, crafts and the "spirit of the trees" on a walk through the forest.

Night · Puerto Iguazú

Day 12 · Into the forest

Highlight · Yacutinga Lodge, deep in the Misiones rainforest beside the Iguazú river.

To Yacutinga Lodge, deep in the Misiones rainforest, in a private reserve beside the Iguazú river, for two days of guided walks and the life of the jungle.

Night · Comandante Andresito