Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
commodation is at a curious ecological community 4km down the park road from
the turnoff.
From the access road on the RP5, it's 37km on gravel to the park entrance and a
further ten to the trailheads and campsite. The park access road fords several
streams that are impassable in a normal car if it's been raining (likely from Decem-
ber to March). You can also arrange guided visits from Salta. Last fuel is at the
General Güemes-Salta junction, 160km from the park, so make sure you fill up
there.
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Valles Calchaquíes
One of Argentina's most seductive off-the-beaten-track zones is a winning combination
of rugged landscapes, traditional workshops, strikingly attractive adobe villages and
some top wines. Small but sophisticated Cafayate, with its wineries and paved highway,
presents quite a contrast to more remote settlements such as Angastaco or Molinos, while
Cachi, accessible from Salta via a spectacular road that crosses the Parque Nacional Los
Cardones, is another peaceful and popular base. Vernacular architecture in these valleys
merits special attention - even modest adobe houses sport neoclassical columns or Moor-
ish arches.
The indigenous Diaguita (Calchaquí) here put up some of the stiffest resistance to
Spanish rule.
Parque Nacional Los Cardones
Flanking the winding RP33 from Salta to Cachi across the Cuesta del Obispo, this takes
its name from the cardón (candelabra cactus), the park's most striking plant species. In
the treeless Andean foothills and puna, the cardón has long been an important source of
timber for rafters, doors, window frames and similar uses. You see it often in the region's
traditional buildings.
Los Cardones is free to enter and has no services - though a visitor center on the main
road is gradually being renovated - but there is a modern
park office
( 03868-496005;
loscardones@apn.gov.ar; Payogasta; 8am-3pm Mon-Fri)
in Payogasta, 11km north of Cachi.
Take plenty of water and protection from the sun. Buses between Salta and Cachi will
stop for you, but verify times. Most people disembark at Valle Encantada, the most ac-
cessible, picturesque part of the park.
