Location:

Salta and Jujuy provinces in the Argentinean northeast region near the Andes Mountains and Bolivia, 1800 km from Buenos Aires.

Duration:

9 days.

Activities:

Friday:
We leave Buenos Aires at 7 p.m.

Saturday:
We arrive in the capital of Salta at 6p.m. after traveling for 20 hours. It is possible to fly, but that will be an extra charge. The group will all meet at the first night, which will serve as a rendezvous point for those who chose to fly. Transfer to Chicoana.

Sunday:
We start the day with one of the trip's highlights! We leave our Minibus on Road 68 then cross the town of El Carril and follow Road 33 to start climbing the Quebrada de Escoipe following a river flowing from the mountains. It is a beautiful place surrounded by green vegetation and tremendous mountains. Then we keep on climbing the famous Cuesta del Obispo (bishop slope) an amazing and untiring climb until finally we reach the Piedra del Molino at 3348 meters above sea level. After taking in the amazing views, we prepare to descend the same dirt track we used to uphill on the van.
57km of dirt roads

Monday:
We pack up the Minibus and drive from "Salta" to "Jujuy" through the "old road n° 9". In "Campo Alegre" dock we start riding through the subtropical forest and that even it allows car traffic, since the road was replaced by the new "Highway 9", it's very clear for cycling.
After riding this narrow and changing road, definitely different to what we´ll see in the next few days, we arrive at the "La Ciénaga" dock for lunch. We load the bikes for a drive to "Purmamarca"
a small and typical pre-Columbian representative of the South American Indian culture town.
43km of dirt roads

Tuesday:
After breakfast we catch the minivan and head towards one of the most unexpected places of the trip. We end up in the middle of white, dry and huge "Salinas grandes" (Salt mines), in Jujuy Province.
After climbing the "Cuesta de Lipán" an amazing uphill from 2000 to 4.200 m.o.s.l. we´ll be able to see the "Puna" where it's possible to watch "vicuñas and llamas" the South American typical mammals. On the other side of the mountains we'll arrive to the white immense mirror, composed by the salt mines where we´ll receive an explanation about the process of the extraction of the salt.
After the lunch we prepare ourselves to enjoy a great paved downhill up to "Purmamarca".
We do recommend the "Purmamarca" church visiting, the square full of colorful handy-crafts and an early picture of the "Seven colors hill".
40km of paved roads
Elevation gain: 2000mts downhill.

Wednesday:
In the morning we drive from "Purmamarca" through the "Quebrada de Humahuaca" declared patrimony of humanity by UNESCO for its cultural and natural legacy, passing by Tilcara, Tumbaya and Humahuaca.
After passing by Humahuaca we take the detour to "Iruya", through a dirt road that slowly takes up to 3.900 m.o.s.l. passing by small towns like "Iturbe" and "Chaupe Rodeo".
Once in the highest point in the "Abra del Cóndor" we set the bikes up and we go for a great downhill, following a zigzagging narrow dirt track, surrounded by "pircas" the old rock fences, inheritance of hundreds of years, and now used to separate the locals "culture terraces" and the cattle fields (llamas, sheep, goats).
The natural frame is outstanding: slopes, rock walls, dried rivers and huge hills.
We arrive at "Iruya", an incredible tiny pre-Columbian town placed on a very steep hill, that lodges very low houses made on mud, small narrow stone paved streets and a beautiful church.
31,5km of dirt roads
Elevation gain: 1300mts downhill.

Thursday:
Today we´ll hike: Early in the morning we´ll walk from Iruya to San Isidro, a tiny small town located 8km north from Iruya. Slowly uphilling, crossing the river several times, in the middle of different colours mountains, maybe watching some condors in the sky, we´ll arrive to San Isidro, a "no cars" small town, heritance from old southamerican Incas, where we´ll find excellent handycrafts.
16km of singletracks

Friday:
From "Iruya" we drive back the dirt track on wednesday, and from the top of the hill, we ride downhill towards the "Quebrada de Humahuaca". It'll be another zigzagging downhill from 3900 to 3000 m.o.s.l. up to the "Road 9"
There we´ll head south towards "Humahuaca" where we´ll put the bikes on the trailer to drive the last kilometers to Tilcara.
For those interested in archaeological ruins, we arrive with time left to meet the great "Pucará" de Tilcara which means "fort" in Indian language. The "Pucará" was founded in the year 1908 and started to be recovered by two archaeologists "Ambrosetti" and "Debenedetti". The final recover was done by the U.B.A. (University of Buenos Aires) in 1948 and left the "village" like it was supposed to be in the Inca's time.
52km of dirt roads
Elevation gain: 900mts downhill.

Saturday:
From "Tilcara" we drive to "Yala", following the river and "Quebrada de Humahuaca" going down from the puna to the "Yungas" (subtropical forest).
In "Yala" we head west, and once we arrive to "Los Nogales", a local tourism villa, we set the bikes up to start a challenging uphill inside the park "Laguna de Yala", following a dirt muddy and green track, that contrasts to what we've seen before.
Alter the hard ride from 1600 to 2100 m.o.s.l. we'll enjoy a fast downhill and again a new uphill to arrive to a great landscape viewpoint. Some few more kilometers and we'll arrive to the thermal pools where we'll find hot spring water to relax. We load the bikes for a short drive to "Salta" where the program ends. Those going to Buenos Aires must prepare to do an overnight drive.
28km of dirt roads.

Sunday:
We arrive at Buenos Aires around 4pm.