Adventures in Atacama and North-West Argentina
Federico Norte - Aventurarse Expert

The provinces in the Argentine North-Western region are rich with natural privileges. This is not as important, though, as its strong historic legacy, inherited both from ancestral cultures and the Spanish colonies that came from Peru. Sometimes it is hard to explain or transmit the feelings and sensations I go through when I guide small groups of tourists, nature-loving and seeking to rest from the city's pressures, around these beautiful whereabouts.

To walk through the ruins of a city built before the Incas ruled the land, where thousands of people used lo live, is an exciting image. To see the left-overs of walls, burial grounds and public gardens, where over 700 years ago an active social and commercial life took place, is like observing images in our mind, scenes that could take place long time ago.

But there is much more. Rafting down the Juramento river, horseback riding around mountain pastures 3000 meters above the sea, trekking a mountain ridge, feeling the overhead flight of condors; these are memories that will stick-out forever in the mind of any sensible and nature-loving person.

I understand that the true essence of a place is in its people. In their interior, the region´s nature is kept. In their faces and their skin, the passing of time and the climate's roughness. In their spirits, all of the culture's baggage, in this case, product o the fusion between Spanish and indigenous blood. This region is definitely a dreamland that hasn't been discovered by to many people. It's people are hospitable, kind and gentle, whether they come from, Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca or La Rioja.

From Chaco's woodland to the Andes, we can find transition forests, subtropical jungles, fertile valleys and dry valleys. Because of this ample geographic variety, it is easy to expect climatic diversity. That is why the place's magic calls us to travel. In one whole day, driving through 500 kilometers, I usually use the heating in the morning and the air conditioning in the afternoon, the landscape changing from valleys to snow covered mountains, frozen springs at 4200 meters, salt deserts and sub-tropical jungles.

Pay the neighbor a visit: Atacama

As if the fabulous surroundings of this wonderful theatre of man and nature weren't enough, there are two mountain passes that connect us to one of the most arid deserts in the world. This is Atacama, found in Chile's second region. Without a doubt, another sensitive and spiritual shock awaits us when crossing the Andes and finding the crib of Atacama culture. The place is incredible, in this arrogant desert, only a few patches of green can be found around its most important city: San Pedro de Atacama. A line of volcanoes forms its Eastern limit, and on the other side a gigantic white blanket, the Atacama salt lake, extends into the horizon.

Pink flamingoes in salt lakes, geysers that explode at sunrise and archeological ruins are part of this crazy collage of interacting images. The scenery is despairing when we stand on the active Láscar volcano, or from the legendary Lincancabur, with its height of 6000 meters, dominating the desert. These, including the despairing scenery, are the main attractive for the world's mountaineers. They come to San Pedro in order to encounter the place's silence and mystique.

This region must be thought of as a desert to explore, and not only part of the way for people traveling the Machu Picchu or Patagonia.

Millions of stars in a sky free of pollution, the mountain breeze and the jungle's rich, green color. My final message is: Forget the feeling of belittlement that invades many people when they stand before this scenery. This region awaits us to feel immense as nature itself, for men are part of it.