Turism

 

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is one of the world’s biggest cities in which, including the suburbs, there are over 11,000,000 inhabitants. It is also the most elegant and active city in South America and the one that summarizes the heterogeneous essence of Argentines the best. With a modern, hip structure and dynamic activity, it has managed to preserve old traditions and endearing corners. Visitors feel fascinated because of its environment, because neighborhoods have all different personalities, and also because people are warm and there is a wide range of shopping and cultural proposals. Buenos Aires is surrounded by the splendid Argentine nature and it is the great cosmopolitan door to South America.

Córdoba

Córdoba is one of the most important economic centers in the country. It has with many contrasting features— it is both a cultural and tourist-like destination, a traditional and modern city, with an industrialized as well as a home-made production. A hilly landscape and favorable weather conditions are distinctive in Córdoba, a place where natural sceneries are mixed with colonial monuments. Little towns, historical antiques and cave paintings are found in a pleasant valley landscape, high plains and gorges. Cordoba’s hills rise toward the northwestern Pampas plains. They are part of the “Sierras Pampeanas” mountain range, reaching 2,790 m high in the Champaqui hill. All these hills are particularly appealing because of their fertile valleys, deserts and salt mines. All along the way northward, you will find many 17th and 18th century chapels and farmhouses inherited from the Jesuits.

Talampaya National Park

Going along Cuesta de Miranda, Chilecito is 161 Km away from Talampaya National Park. Talampaya River Canyon reveals amazing multi-shaped layers in its almost 150 m high red walls, where condors nest and interesting rock carvings made by indigenous people can be found.

Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley)

If you spend the night in San Agustín del Valle Fértil in the Province of San Juan, you can visit Ischigualasto Provincial Park, also known as Valle de la Luna, where there was a lake millions of years ago, and today, plant, dinosaur and other animal fossils can be found.

Quebrada de Humahuaca

If you go north of San Salvador de Jujuy, you reach this natural path leading up to the high plateau. Colorful landscapes are the perfect background for this patchwork of small villages, which are sprinkled with adobe houses, historical chapels, and Pre-Hispanic ruins. Time seems to have stopped in the Quebrada de Humahuaca (Humahuaca Gorge). One of the most beautiful towns in this region is Purmamarca, an indigenous little village surrounded by the Cerro de los Siete Colores (Hill of the Seven Colors), which, on its colorful strata, reflects the different geological ages. Further North, in Maimará, you will come across "La Paleta del Pintor" (The Painter's Palette), a stretch of land where mountains are "painted” with fringes of different colors. One of the main attractions in this gorge is the Pucará of Tilcara, a pre-Columbian fortified city built by the native American Omaguaca people. Every June 21, the day of the winter solstice, people gather by the Monolith of the Tropic of Capricorn to celebrate the Inti Raymi (Sun Festival), an ancient Aymará celebration carried out to welcome the new farming cycle. Humahuaca was founded by the Spaniards by the end of the 16th Century. Its church and the Museo Folklórico Regional (Regional Folkloric Museum) provide a complex overview on the uses and customs of the region. 12 Km from Humahuaca, you can visit the mysterious ruins of the Coctaca farming terraces, where you will be met by a checkerboard pattern of pircas, or stone walls. Quebrada de Humahuaca (Province of Jujuy) was declared World Cultural Landscape by UNESCO on July 2, 2003.

Salta and the "Tren a las Nubes" (Railway to the Clouds)

Running down Cuesta del Obispo we reach Valley of Lerma dominated by Salta "la linda" (the pretty one), which is probably the town with the largest number of colonial remains in the whole country. Here is where the Train to the Clouds starts its journey up the mountains, which will end in San Antonio de los Cobres, 4,200 metres above sea level and 163 Km away from Salta.

Cataratas de Iguazú (Iguazú Falls)

The Iguazú National Park, located at eighteen kilometres from Puerto Iguazú, was declared Natural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The famous falls are inside this Park. The deep flowing waters of the river fall from a height of 70 metres through 275 falls over 2.7 Km. The frontier with Brazil goes through the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat) where the falling water gives the illusion of magic rainbows. The National Park is full of the exotic subtropical vegetation which surrounds the falls and has 2,000 plant species - gigantic trees, ferns, lianas, orchids, - 400 bird species - parrots, hummingbirds, toucans - jaguars and yacarés (caimans).

Patagonia

The Andean Mountain Range displays all its greatness in the Patagonian provinces. Thousand-year-old silent forests with native vegetation extend to the banks of the lagoons. On mountain tops, nature overflows in granite needles and icy fields brimming with glaciers in lakes of unique beauty. The paintings on the sides of the Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands) have survived for about 10,000 years, and embody the oldest expression of the South American peoples. Imposing mammals and sea birds go through some rough seasons on the Patagonian coasts where they spend part of their life cycle. Colonies of sea lions play and rest on small islands and sandbars. Southern elephant seals have their greatest continental station in the world on Península Valdés. Nuevo and San José gulfs, separated by Carlos Ameghino isthmus, bear witness to the arrival of the Southern Right Whale, which punctually gets there for giving birth and breeding. Creole hares, rheas and guanacos (a lowland relative of the upper-Andean llama) run through the plains, and in Punta Tombo the largest colony of Maguellanic penguins nests. The amazed look of the visitor beholds this cadence that has been repeating itself since time immemorial. Farther south, you should visit Tierra del Fuego and Ushuaia— the latter being the southern-most city in the world. They are both an open door to the immense solitude of mysterious Antarctica.