Andean Northwest
Discover Andean Northwest
Introduction
The Andean Northwest is the oldest-settled part of Argentina and the least Argentine-looking. It runs up against the Bolivian and Chilean borders across high desert, salt flat and cactus country, and its culture is Andean rather than European — Quechua words in the Spanish, panpipes rather than bandoneón, and Inca roads that were here well before anyone from Spain arrived.
Salta is the regional capital, a colonial city of low ochre buildings under wooded hills, and the base for almost everything. North of it the Quebrada de Humahuaca is a UNESCO World Heritage site — a river valley that has been a trade route for ten thousand years, with the layered mineral colours of the Hill of Seven Colours at Purmamarca and villages of adobe and cardon cactus wood. The Salinas Grandes salt flat sits on the pass above at more than four thousand metres.
South and west the land turns to vineyard. Cafayate grows torrontés, the white grape Argentina has made its own, at altitudes above one thousand seven hundred metres, and the road there runs through the red sandstone gorge of the Quebrada de las Conchas. Further up still, the vineyards around Molinos are among the highest in the world. The winter months from May to September are dry, clear and the best time to go; the summer brings rain to the valleys.