Salt & Seven Colours

We head north along the mountain road from Salta to San Salvador de Jujuy, a taste of the verdant sub-tropical forest to the east of the Andes mountain range, rising into the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a canyon gouged out of the landscape with the eruption of the Andes between 12 and 15 million years ago.

The Quebrada de Humahuaca is remarkable not just for its great multi-coloured landscape, but its pre-Inca ruins, numerous old colonial churches, and characterful indigenous markets. It is also developing into Argentina's latest wine region, so let us know if you'd like to visit some of the world's newest boutique wineries. And of course, there’s the famous Seven Coloured Hill in Purmamarca which we’ll see in its best (morning) light, climbing up to a superb viewpoint which takes us away from the crowds.

From Purmamarca, we climb 2,000m in altitude in a winding 30km drive up the Cuesta de Lipan: a spectacular ascent of the outer Eastern range of the Andes, before descending to the Salinas Grandes, one of the most beautiful salt flats in Argentina.

Here you’ll see miners digging crystal salt from high altitude pools in temperatures of 30°C plus. You’ll also meet ex-workers who, thanks to tourism, now make a living carving salt block into ornamental llama and cacti, and etching impressive carvings on slates from the surrounding hills.

After a night in the high-altitude town of Susques (3,615m), we travel along the iconic Route 40 which runs all the way to Patagonia. We travel through stunning Altiplano scenery, including a close view of Tuzgle volcano, before emerging at La Polvorilla viaduct, the final destination for the Train to the Clouds near the mountain town of San Antonio de Los Cobres (at an altitude of 3,770m), where the sky is always blue and clear and the sunsets are spectacular.

On our final day, we’ll visit the pre-Inca ruins of Tastil and discover the mysterious story of the community who lived here, before returning to Salta through the multi-coloured and sparsely populated Quebrada del Toro.

On the four-day trip, we can also take a hike along a rugged and little-explored section of the Inca trail.