Argentina e Cile, Deserti Altiplanici

Buenos Aires is one of the great metropolises of the southern hemisphere, a city that blends European architecture with a Latin American soul in a unique and unmistakable amalgam. Founded on the banks of the Río de la Plata, the Argentine capital extends for dozens of kilometres through a fabric of neighbourhoods, each with a distinct personality and its own piece of history, culture and everyday porteño life. The historic centre revolves around the Plaza de Mayo, where the Casa Rosada — the famous pink-hued seat of government — overlooks a square steeped in political memory. Nearby, San Telmo preserves a labyrinth of nineteenth-century lanes, Sunday markets, art galleries and milongas where tango reverberates from mid-afternoon. La Boca, on the Riachuelo waterfront, is renowned for the vividly painted tin-clad houses of El Caminito and the Bombonera, the iconic stadium of Club Atlético Boca Juniors. To the north, Palermo divides into elegant sub-districts: Palermo Soho with its design boutiques, Palermo Hollywood with its restaurants and nightlife, and the Bosques de Palermo for leisurely walks. Recoleta is the neighbourhood of grand tree-lined boulevards, French-style mansions and the monumental cemetery where Evita Perón rests, a secular pilgrimage site for visitors from around the world. The revitalised Puerto Madero offers luxury restaurants, a waterfront promenade and the Puente de la Mujer footbridge designed by Santiago Calatrava. Porteño gastronomy deserves its own chapter: the asado is far more than a meal — it is a social ritual; alfajores, medialunas and dulce de leche are fixtures in every panadería. The restaurants of Palermo and San Telmo serve creative cuisine that blends Argentine tradition, Italian and Spanish influences and contemporary trends. Buenos Aires is also a city of theatre, literature and visual culture: the Teatro Colón, one of the world's great opera houses, is an eclectic architectural masterpiece inaugurated in 1908; the Avenida Corrientes concentrates historic bookshops, literary cafés and art-house cinemas. Museums — from the MALBA to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes — hold internationally significant collections focused on twentieth-century Latin American art. A city that never sleeps, Buenos Aires is experienced at night: porteños dine late, dance until dawn, and debate politics and football with equal passion. Every visit leaves something unresolved — a San Telmo alley still to explore, a milonga still to try. That is the spell that keeps travellers coming back.

Salta is one of Argentina's best-preserved colonial cities, nestled in an Andean valley at 1,187 metres above sea level in the north-western part of the country. The Plaza 9 de Julio, with its ochre baroque cathedral, the Cabildo and cream-coloured arcades, forms one of the most harmonious historic centres in the entire Argentine North West — earning the city its enduring nickname, «Salta la Linda». The Museo de Arte de Alta Montaña (MAAM) houses some of the most perfectly preserved Inca mummies ever found in the Andes, recovered from the summit of the Llullaillaco volcano at over 6,700 metres. Salteño cuisine is among Argentina's most distinctive: empanadas prepared to the local recipe with meat, hard-boiled eggs and olives, and locro, a hearty corn-and-bean stew, are fixtures in the bodegones of the old centre. The high-altitude wines from the Quebrada de Cafayate, south of the city, round out the gastronomic offer. Salta is also the ideal base for a series of extraordinary excursions: the Quebrada de Humahuaca to the north (UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Tren a las Nubes that climbs to the La Polvorilla viaduct at 4,200 metres, and the adobe villages of the Calchaquí Valley. The golden light of sunset on the rust-coloured mountains surrounding the valley turns every evening into an unrepeatable chromatic spectacle.

The transfer from Salta to Cafayate offers a journey through some of the most spectacular and fascinating landscapes in Salta Province, in northwestern Argentina. Along the route lies Los Cardones National Park, where you can admire vast stretches of giant cacti and breathtaking desert scenery. Cachi is a colonial adobe village in the Calchaquí Valley of Salta province, at 2,280 metres above sea level, reachable from Salta via the spectacular Cuesta del Obispo — a mountain pass exceeding 3,300 metres with views over misty forests and high-altitude grasslands. The village has streets of white limestone dust, low houses with roofs of cardón cactus and an eighteenth-century colonial church whose interior furnishings are carved from the only local wood available: dried cardón. The Calchaquí Valley around Cachi is a landscape of lunar deserts, white volcanoes and high-altitude vineyards; small local producers offer artisan wines of extraordinary authenticity. The village's Museo Arqueológico holds artefacts from pre-Inca cultures of the valley. The quiet atmosphere, the intense altiplano light and the monastic landscape make Cachi an ideal stop for those seeking an alternative Argentina, far from the crowds. Cafayate is a charming wine town set in the Quebrada de Cafayate, around 180 kilometres south of Salta, in a landscape of red canyons, wind-sculpted rock formations and vineyards growing between 1,700 and 2,000 metres above sea level. This high-altitude microclimate, dry and sun-drenched, is ideal for white Torrontés, Argentina's most distinctly native grape variety, and for notably structured Malbec wines. The bodegas in the area open their cellars to visitors for tastings and tours: Bodega Etchart, Bodega El Esteco and Familia Zuccardi (with its modern stone winery in the surroundings) are among the most visited. The centre of Cafayate, with its cathedral overlooking the main square, cobblestone streets and craft shops, retains the quiet charm of a colonial inland town. The Quebrada de las Conchas, the red sandstone canyon traversed along Ruta 68 towards Salta, is one of Argentina's most spectacular geological landscapes.

The transfer from Cafayate to Salta offers a journey through some of the most spectacular and fascinating landscapes in Salta Province, in northwestern Argentina. Along the route between Cafayate and Cachi lies Los Cardones National Park, where you can admire vast stretches of giant cacti and breathtaking desert scenery. If you have extra time, a detour to Cachi is highly recommended. This picturesque colonial village is nestled on the slopes of the Andes and is famous for its cobblestone streets, whitewashed houses, and historic churches.

During the journey from Salta to Purmamarca, you cross the majestic Andes Mountains, with breathtaking panoramic views of canyons, valleys, and snow-capped peaks. Along the way, it is possible to stop in picturesque villages and towns, where you can immerse yourself in the culture and traditions of local communities. A stop at the Quebrada de las Conchas is highly recommended: located roughly halfway between Salta and Purmamarca, this gorge features a series of spectacular rock formations, including the famous Amphitheatre. Before arriving in Purmamarca, you can also stop in Tilcara to visit the Pucará, an ancient fortified settlement built by pre-Columbian Indigenous peoples. San Antonio de los Cobres is a remote town of miners and herders on the Salta altiplano, at 3,775 metres above sea level, on Ruta Nacional 40 and along the route of the Tren a las Nubes. Its name recalls the copper mines (cobres) that gave rise to its founding: today the town lives from the tourist transit tied to the train and from the Kolla communities that inhabit the Puna. The thin air, the arid colours of the Argentine Puna — yellows, pinks and clay brown — and the intense altiplano light create an alien and fascinating atmosphere. The town is the highest point accessible by road along the route towards the Puna de Atacama and the Chilean border. Purmamarca is a small adobe village in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, the Andean valley of north-western Argentina declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. At 2,324 metres above sea level, the village clusters around a colonial square shaded by an ancient algarrobo tree, with the seventeenth-century church of Santa Rosa de Lima looking towards the Cerro de los Siete Colores — the hill of seven colours, the symbol of the village and of the Quebrada itself. The colours of the Cerro are the result of millions of years of superimposed geological deposits: pink, purple, orange, green, ochre yellow and brick red alternate in horizontal bands that shift in tone throughout the day. The craft market under the square's arcades offers textiles, ceramics and jewellery from the Kolla indigenous communities. Purmamarca is also the starting point for the Cuesta de Lipán, the plateau road that climbs towards the Puna and the Salina Grande, the great salt flat at 3,400 metres.

San Pedro de Atacama is the exploratory heart of the driest desert in the world: an ochre adobe village at 2,400 metres in the Antofagasta region, surrounded by volcanoes, salt flats and lagoons of unreal chromatic beauty. The Plaza de Armas with its colonial church in volcanic stone is the centre of a community that coexists with dozens of adventure operators, establishing itself as one of the most vibrant exploration tourism hubs in South America. Dawn at the Valle de la Luna — a lunar landscape of dunes and salt formations bathed in pink light — is one of the continent's most extraordinary visual experiences; at sunset the sky turns orange and violet, and the silence of the desert becomes absolute. The Salar de Atacama, a few kilometres away, hosts colonies of pink flamingos reflected in the still saline waters like a mirror. Nearby, the El Tatio geysers are active at dawn at over 4,300 metres, where steam rises into the freezing Puna air in a breathtaking spectacle. The altiplano lagoons of Miscanti and Miñiques, at around 4,100 metres, display colours ranging from pale blue to deep turquoise, framed by volcanic cones. The Museo Arqueológico R. P. Gustavo Le Paige holds an extraordinary collection of Atacameño cultural artefacts, including mummies perfectly preserved by the extreme dryness. San Pedro is also a privileged haven for stargazers: the Atacama's night sky, with its exceptional transparency and absence of light pollution, is among the most star-filled on Earth, and several facilities offer guided observations of the southern constellations. After excursions, the dusty village streets come alive with travellers seeking local crafts, Andean cuisine and a good pisco sour.

Along the way, you can admire vast stretches of desert, rocky mountains, and unique geological formations. Calama is a mining city in the Antofagasta region, the northern gateway to the Atacama desert and the main service centre for the area's copper mines, including the celebrated Chuquicamata, one of the largest open-pit mines in the world. The city is a mandatory transit hub for travellers heading to San Pedro de Atacama overland; nearby Ojos del Salado is the world's highest active volcano. Calama offers modern amenities and good air connections to Santiago. Santiago de Chile spreads across an elevation of over 500 metres at the foot of the Andes, with the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera rising on the horizon like a permanent, almost surreal backdrop. Founded in 1541 by Pedro de Valdivia, the Chilean capital is today a modern, cosmopolitan metropolis of over seven million inhabitants, capable of surprising visitors with the variety of its neighbourhoods, its cultural vitality and quality of life. The historic centre revolves around the Plaza de Armas, flanked by the Catedral Metropolitana, the Palacio de la Real Audiencia and the Museo Histórico Nacional — a few blocks are enough to retrace five centuries of colonial and republican history. Nearby, the Barrio Lastarria is a bohemian hub of art galleries, antiquarian bookshops and cafés open late into the night; the Barrio Italia enchants with its vintage design shops, fusion restaurants and murals that turn walls into open-air canvases. The Cerro Santa Lucía, a small hill in the heart of the city, offers a stroll through romantic gardens and panoramic viewpoints, while the Cerro San Cristóbal — reachable by funicular or on foot — rewards climbers with a 360-degree view of the entire metropolitan area. The lively, colourful Bellavista neighbourhood is home to the house-museum of Pablo Neruda, La Chascona, where the Chilean poet lived among storytelling objects, coloured bottles and a garden of curiosities. Upscale shopping concentrates in the modern Barrio Providencia and leafy Vitacura, where international boutiques share space with craft markets and tree-lined parks. The gastronomic scene is among the most dynamic in South America: from corvina ceviche to pasteles de choclo, from empanada de pino to lomo a lo pobre, Chilean flavours find accomplished interpreters in Santiago's restaurants, blending tradition and creativity. The markets of La Vega Central and Mercado Central offer an immersion in authentic Chile, amid aromatic herbs, exotic fruits and the freshest fish from both oceans. Santiago is also an ideal base for day trips: the wineries of the Maipo Valley to the south, the Valparaíso and Viña del Mar riviera to the west, and the ski slopes of Valle Nevado and Portillo to the east. An efficient metro network makes it easy to move between neighbourhoods, and the city boasts a first-rate museum offering, from the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes to the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos. Santiago de Chile is a capital that never ceases to astonish, weaving Andean grandeur with the irrepressible energy of a young city in perpetual transformation.