Tucuman - Exploring the region by car

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Tucuman - Exploring the region by car

South America » Argentina » Tucumán » San Miguel de Tucumán
February 13th 2008 by Anglo Dutch connection goes Latin

TUCUMAN
Casa Historia de la Independencia where the Independence Act was signed. Hosts a fantastic 'Light and Sound' show to illustrate the proceedings before the Act was signed... Need to be fluent... [more]

After being stationary for 2 1/2 weeks in Mendoza, we fancied some exploring. We considered our options in the north of Argentina because by mid February we want to end up In Bolivia.

After some serious meetings and some consultancy from locals, we decided to go the provence of Tucuman. A bit off track for us, but supposedly very beautiful.

SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMAN
We were not going to be dissapointed! We put our base camp up in the capital of the provence: San Miguel de Tucuman, a city with 750,000 inhabitants in located in a valley. As a consequence of which, Tucuman (the city) is hot and humid. We decided to do what the well off locals do as well. Take a car and go to the more pleasant climate of the villages in the surrounding mountains.

After two night in our modest (and humid....) hostel, we hit the road with our rental car, a comfortable little Ford (with airco!!).

SAN JAVIER
Our first destianation was San Javier, a little village in the mountains, 25 km out of Tucaman Capital (as the locals call San Miguel de Tucuman). The main attraction is Spa Hotel with a

TUCUMAN
Casa de Gobierno

spectacular view over the valley and Tucuman Capital. The hotel (with sauna, gym, great restaurant etc ) had a good deal going on for a 1 night stay including, breakfast, dinner and use of all facilities. Very tempting, but since we were on our way for about half an hour, we decided to keep this in the back of our minds.

RACO / EL SIAMBON
Next stops were Raco and El Siambon (Benedictine Monks prepare traditional sweets here...). We saw some fantastic houses and an old monestry. The best thing was lunch though. We never get bored of the excellent steaks and salads in Argentina.... We had to ask the waiter the price of a fantastic 10 bedroom house we could see from our table. 75,000 GBP/100,000 euro was the answer (probably his beings he answered so quickly)....... So if any of of you who read this has money to spare.....

TAFI DE VALLE/AMAICHA DEL VALLE / RUINES DE QUILMES
Now we headed for Tafi de Valle. The paved road ended suddenly. we thought nothing to worry, that will not last for long. It did though..... 3 hours of dust, massive rocks, 5 river crossings (!!!) later we

Gauchito Gill
Legendary "Robin Hood" of Argentina. The majority of roads display red flags to represent Gauchito Gill. You have to beep your horn for good luck!!.... we needed a lot of that on the winding road from... [more]

were on paved road again. Not after we had climbed over rocks into a river to ask some clothing washings locals, for directions though.....Also we did our good deed this day. We picked up a local, who was stranded with her family, because of a broken down car. Since we had been praying on our bumpy ride that this would not happen to us, we could really put ourselves in her position. So we dropped her off in her local village just in time for her school classes. We felt good about ourselves!

Taffi de Valle is not a really happening place, but relaxing enough to start well rested the next day again. We went to Amaicha del Valle first, a really dusty little village, that was recovering from a 4 day festival. After chasing of the flies for half an hour during our cafe con leche, we hit the road again. Inhabitants of this place are mostly descendents from ancient settlers.

The ruins of Quilmes was next. Here the native indians fought for the longest time against the Spanish Conquistadores in the 17th century. It was sweltering hot, but we managed to climb some high up rocks,

Amaicha del Valle
Calchaqui Valleys tour - day after the 4 day Pachamama festival. Don't think he was ready to go home!!!

to get the best pictures. Worth telling is that this tourist highlight of the area, is not post signed. We missed it twice and only found after asking a local hostel.... This normally better organised in Argentina!
The best part of the trip was the amazing scenery.....

The last day we decided to treat ourselves to a stay in the excellent hotel in San Javier, we spotted on the first day. We really looked forward to some excersise and spa treatment!!