We spent much of January 2017 house sitting in Salta, Argentina, however, we still managed to get in some miles. About 320 of them (515 km), to be precise, and they were all epic. If you like stunning landscapes you won’t want to miss our South American road trip driving route for January 2017, including drive-lapse video at the end of this post which lets you see what we saw through the windshield of our truck as we traveled.
Amazing landscaes in northern Argentina.
January 2017 South American road trip driving route in Argentina
We left Salta and did a little loop through the Andes to the wine region of Cafayate, traveling up Argentina’s famous Route 40 (one of the longest national highways on earth) and back to Salta.
See our complete short but sweet road trip driving route during January 2017 on the map below.
From Salta we drove to the wine region of Cafayate through the red rock landscapes of the Quebrada de las Conchas. After consuming a fair amount of delicious wine and visiting the wineries of El Esteco Winery and Vineyards and Piattelli Vineyards we continued north on Argentina’s famous RN-40 through the Calchaquí Valley.
A few hours north of Cafayate we were sidelined for three hours while we waited for a dangerously swollen river to subside enough to cross. We then drove through the spectacular Quebrada de Las Flechas to the town of Molinos. From there we got even more remote to reach the Bodega Colomé Winery.
Next, we continued to the town of Cachi (where we finally saw pavement again) and crossed Cardones National Park and its forests of cactus, eventually dropping down to Salta and the Valle de Lerma via the Cuesta del Obispo.
Quebrada de las Flechas in northern Argentina.
See what we saw out there on the road in our drive-lapse video, below, which was shot by our Brinno camera attached to our dashboard.
Here’s more about travel in Argentina
Wow! The landscape is definitely stunning! I love that there were some wineries thrown in for good measure!