Salta

Welcome to Salta! Upon arrival you will be driven to your hotel in private service. Enjoy the rest of the day to explore the city. Salta is the selected jumping-off point for travelers seeking to explore the North of Argentina. From here, you can visit the most outstanding natural monuments of the area: the Humahuaca Gorge, or the Seven Colours Hill in Jujuy, a bordering province which is also famous worldwide. (Bear in mind that this is a stress-free hub: la siesta (mid-day nap) is kind of a religious ritual for locals, which means that between 1 pm and 5 pm shops are usually closed).

It’s time to prepare your two-day bag and hit the road again to get to the jaw-dropping Calchaqui Valleys. Why do you have to take a Calchaqui Valley tour? Enthralling landscapes and the cultural diversity of its inhabitants are two good reasons! Little pre-Columbian villages spread all over the valley, with amazing gorges backdropped by multi-colored mountains.

You will leave Salta on a 12 hour excursion beginning with the Laures and Escoipe gorges. We’ll pick you up at your hotel and leave behind the Lerma Valley to visit Laures and Escoipe, the first two gorges of the day.

The landscapes will still remain green, but colors will definitely change when we approach the Cuesta del Obispo, the windiest and most spectacular road of this area. We’ll climb up to 11000 feet high—Get prepared to see the world from above! This is the connective road to get to the high valleys, where the Calchaqui Valley wine region sits too.

Cachi

We’ll see enormous cactus while passing through Los Cardones National Park on our way to Cachi, a famous village, where Spanish and native tradition combines to form the most beautiful architecture.

In the afternoon, we’ll hit the road again to continue exploring the valleys and get to the town of Molinos and Angastaco.

Quebrada de Las Flechas - Angastaco

The trip will continue visiting Las Flechas Gorge, a special rocky formation which creates a labyrinth of sharp high peaks. After going down its mysterious passages, we’ll get to Cafayate where we’ll spend the night.

Cafayate

Cafayate is one of the most popular destinations of the Calchaqui Valley wine region. Cafayate wine is renowned in Argentina, especially because of the star product of the region: the Torrontes Wine. Enjoy the end of the day in this picturesque town sipping on a sunset drink in the main square, or a Malbec ice cream from a traditional Gelato Shop. Since there are many surrounding wineries, we thought that a visit to one or two of them could be interesting for you…so we’ve already scheduled it! According to weather and timetables, you will be able to take this memorable tour on your arrival day or the day after.

On the second day of this Calchaqui Valley adventure you’ll leave Cafayate and be immersed directly into the forbidding universe of Las Conchas Gorge, where the erosion has carved mysterious red shapes into the rocks.

Quebrada del Rio de las Conchas

Get prepared to visit this Natural Reserve for about 5 hours, to enjoy the views of its colorful hills while you go down its red-tinted promontories and discover the most particular rocky highlights: the Frog, the Obelisk and the Castles. The highlight of the day will be the Amphitheater and the famous Devil’s Throat. The amphitheater is a natural semicircular formation (65 feet), and is home to intimate concerts performed by local artists. Get inside and check the amazing acoustics by singing your favorite tune! Nearby, the Devil’s Throat will await, right at the end of Las Conchas Gorge. Going down this particular rocky formation, you’ll feel right in the belly of a giant!

Salta

At the end of the day, we’ll take you back to Salta. Enjoy the evening going to a peña to mingle with locals and eat the empanada salteña, a special variation of this popular Argentine dish.

Early in the morning, we’ll take you to the bus station to board a public bus to San Pedro de Atacama, the gateway to the orange-tinted sands of the notoriously driest desert in the world. You’ll cross the Andes Range through the “Paso de Jama”, one of the highest international passes in the world, and ride 200 km away (125 miles) until finally arriving in San Pedro de Atacama. The scenic route we take will be 12 hours in which you’ll enjoy stunning Altiplano scenery. It is important to point out that today you are leaving Argentina and crossing an international border. Please, keep your passport handy!

San Pedro de Atacama

In this village situated on a plateau between the mountains (at 2500 m.a.s.l.), adobe houses painted white, small restaurants in dirt streets adorned with lanterns, and snow-capped peaks watch over the village in the distance. Upon arrival, you will transfer to your hotel.

San Pedro de Atacama

After a long journey and good rest, enjoy your first morning at leisure in San Pedro de Atacama and get ready for your afternoon visit. Sugerences: Stroll through the handicraft market to see the exquisite ceramic pieces, a speciality of the Atacameños.

Valle De La Luna

In the afternoon, you will visit a National Reserve located in one of the world’s driest and most hostile zones of the world: The Atacama Desert (shared service). The world-famous Moon Valley houses a set of landscapes of incomparable beauty that resembles a fragment of the lunar landscape, to which it owes its name. Once inside the reserve (entrance fee not included), visit the Salt Mountain Range and admire the landscape from different spots. You will understand the delicacy of the clay while visiting ‘Las Tres Marias’, craved by nature and female guardians of this cosmic landscape. For the perfect closure, admire the landscape from the Great Dune, a majestic body of sand from where you will be able to see the Andes, Domeyko and the Salt Mountain Range.**Note: This tour starts and ends at our local operator’s office in the downtown area of San Pedro de Atacama

Geyser del Tatio

After an early morning pick-up at your hotel (shared service), experience one of the most astonishing phenomena produced by nature! Visit the beautiful geothermal field (entrance fee not included), a manifestation of the inner heat of the Earth and take the most amazing photographs walking across the trails. At dawn, with temperatures below zero, an impressive show may be appreciated, generated by the violent steam flows that rise up to 10 Mts. Enjoy and take the best pictures! Soon after that, you will enjoy a picnic-style breakfast. On your scenic drive back to San Pedro, you will pass by Machuca village and admire the wildlife on Putana River bofedal (wetlands).**It is not advisable to eat anything until you reach the Geysers.

San Pedro de Atacama

You will be dropped off at noon at San Pedro de Atacama downtown and you will have the rest of the day at leisure to have lunch, relax and if you like joining an afternoon excursion.

At the appropriate time, you will be driven from San Pedro de Atacama to Calama Airport ‘El Loa’ (shared service). **Notes: Schedules and the order of the visited attractions are estimated and may vary due to conditions of an operational nature such as bad weather, traffic, etc.