The Northwest

The history of Argentina began in the Northwest, in the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, and Tucumán, along the ancient road of the Incas. In the late 1400s, the Incan people traveled southward from Peru along this route to conquer the tribes of northern Argentina and Chile. Half a century later the Spaniards traveled the same route in search of gold and silver. By 1535 the Royal Road of the Inca had become a well-established trade route between the mines in the north and the agricultural riches of Argentina to the south. Examples of the pre-Hispanic and colonial cultures remain in the architecture, music, language, dress, and craftsmanship found in small villages throughout the region. Churches built by the Jesuits in the 17th century dot the landscape; Incan ruins lie half buried in remote valleys and high plateaus; and pre-Inca mummies continue to be discovered in the highest peaks of the Andes near Salta.

Neighboring Bolivia calls the high-altitude Andean desert of this region by its Spanish name, the altiplano, but Argentina prefers the ancient Quechua Indian term: the Puna. The desert covers an area of 90,000 square km (34,750 square mi) from Catamarca north across the Andes into Bolivia, Peru, and Chile. Alpaca, guanaco, llama, and vicuña are the only animals you'll see; dry grasses and thorny shrubs with deep roots searching for moisture the only plants. The wind is relentless. Who could live here? Just as you've asked yourself this question, the colorful red poncho of a coya (native woman of this region) momentarily brightens the barren landscape as she appears out of nowhere, herding llamas into an unseen ravine. Many people can't breathe at this altitude, let alone walk or sleep: luckily, ordinary mortals can experience a taste of the Puna from El Tren a las Nubes (The Train to the Clouds) in Salta, or by car driving north from Humahuaca to La Quiaca on the Bolivian border.

Down in the valleys, the colonial villages of Cafayate and Cachi bask in the warm, sunny Calchaquíes Valley on the border of Tucumán and Salta provinces. The soaring cliffs of the Talampaya Canyon in La Rioja, with its fossils from over 200 million years ago, the Quebrada de Las Conchas between Salta and Cafayate, and the Quebrada de Humahuaca in Jujuy Province all impress with their peculiar rock formations. The peaks of the Andes run down the border with Chile and subtropical jungle bursts out in Jujuy and Tucumán, which also has some of the most productive agricultural land in the country.

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