Footsteps of the Conquistadores

We head north from Salta to San Salvador de Jujuy, following the old mountain road between these two historic cities, before climbing into the Quebrada de Humahuaca. This is the old Spanish supply route from Buenos Aires to Lima, and it’s replete with history from the past milennium. The Inca adapted an 11th century indigenous hill settlement at Tilcara, the pukara fort. When the Spanish arrived, they built churches, including Uquia’s San Francisco which has some rare and startling artwork. A colonial fort at Hornillos has been converted into a museum dedicated to the War of Independence, much of which was fought up and down the Quebrada de Humahuaca two centuries ago.

After passing through the relatively heavily populated Quebrada, we rise in altitude into the Puna, the mountain plateau of northern Argentina, through the colourful limestone rockscape of Tres Cruces, and visit the town of Abra Pampa, which remains to this day a hub for indigenous trade in llama, salt blocks, quinoa, and sweetcorn.

One of our overnight stops is Yavi, close to the Bolivian border, home to a 17th-century church and an old colonial house with an extraordinary history. At nearby Laguna Colorado there are petroglyph rock paintings from hunter-gatherer times. We also stay in arguably the oldest settlement in Argentina, Santa Catalina (founded in 1547), gateway to Laguna de los Pozuelos, a high altitude Altiplano lagoon that is home to 44 species of birds, including a colony of 25,000 flamingoes.

From here we take the classic Route 40, which links Argentina from north to the south along more than 5,000km, through some of the most remote parts of the country, many of them old and existing mining settlements like Pirquitas, Susques, and San Antonio de los Cobres: the latter is where the famous Tren a las Nubes (Train to the Clouds) makes its journey. We return to Salta through the Quebrada del Toro, visiting the pre-hispanic ruins of Tastil, and can also take a walk of two or three hours along a little-known section of the Inca trail.