From Salta to Santa Cruz, drain the Andes Mountains and its foothills many winding roads that border the “high” beauty: the Quebrada de las Conchas Salta, Route 7 to the Christ Redeemer in Mendoza, the water crossing to Chile Black in San Juan, the route to the viewpoint of Cochuna in Tucuman and Camino of Monte Zeballos in Santa Cruz.

From the height, the edge of a cornice road, it captures the true dimension of the vastness of a landscape. The notion of space is lost as it enlarges the visual horizon, and getting it back soon when more than 1000 meters below is a small black dot moving on four wheels in slow motion through the route.

In a country like Argentina, sailed across the Andes, there are many paths where the previous scene is repeated, that they could write a travel guide with thick mountain trails. Then an almost arbitrary “high road” among many others, elected by region from the northwest to Cuyo and Patagonia.

The way Iruya:

On a trip to Iruya, like many other mountain villages in Salta, the way to there destination is worth the same. For starters, you go through all the Quebrada de Humahuaca in Jujuy. Leaving the famous broken pavement ends and gravel begins a very good state, first by the National Route 9 and then the provincial 133. A total of 70 kilometers, which can also be made collectively by a line connecting daily with Iruya Humahuaca.

The road climbs up to 4 thousand meters in the Abra del Condor, just the border between Salta and Jujuy. Then the road begins to descend in a zigzag pattern, while turning the bright colors of the hills and behind the window are little path that trace diagonal lines on the mountain. Far rectangular and circular stone walls proliferate, and appear herds of llamas, goats and sheep with their shepherd behind. There are also groups of two or three houses with a church, or homes that are directly travelers, all of adobe.

Calchaquies Valley:

Starting from Salta city along National Route 68 is reached the Quebrada de las Conchas, a panoramic road that leads to the town of Cafayate by Calchaquies Valley. A total of 66 kilometers between sedimentary mountains all imaginable shades of red that reflect the successive surfaces of the planet, accumulated on top of each other is between 65 and 75 million years.

The journey begins with the Lerma Valley, with its green plantations snuff, up to a village that became ghost when they closed the train. Just outside the village of Germany there is a sign that says “Quebrada de Cafayate. But the official maps say “Quebrada de las Conchas”, and everyone knows it as such. The name derives from that the area was once a sea coast and their petrified remains of molluscs were on the mountain.

From Germany begins then the spectacular Quebrada de las Conchas, where as you move up its 70 miles pranced among the hills, mountains, red to extremes not to believe, azulísimos skies. And also the famous start Calchaquies Valley. The road ascends slowly and thistles are the first solitary, rapidly multiply everywhere, even on the edge of the mountains.

As the route is close to Cafayate, the landscape is increasingly striking, with deep reddish depressions that harbor hills terrain formations carved by wind, as pointed towers and plateaux which appear the ruins of a walled castle. And every so often appears limited human component, expressed in very precarious adobe houses, many of them abandoned. However, in the mountains lived a lot more people than you can imagine, who meet in the chapels lost in the middle of nowhere on mass. And the boys, meanwhile, come walking all alone down the mountain toward the school in the Santa Barbara site, a house of study that would be idyllic if children had to walk for hours along the slopes to get to class.

Of the many stops are made along the way, are the most unique landscapes in the Garganta del Diablo and the Amphitheater. Two sedimentary throats (the second is more closed than the first), where the whim of nature created two reddish pits 70 meters high that were part of a huge prehistoric lake that the bottom fell out ages ago. In the case of the Amphitheater, is a large semicircular hole that produces incredible echo effect. When you reach the vineyards surrounding the town of Cafayate to 1600 meters above sea level, the gorge opens into a flat landscape, but the background is very dark hills rise one that, according to geologists, have 500 million years of when life on Earth existed only in the deep sea.

Los Caracoles Walk:

From the city of Mendoza vehicle made several trips into the mountains. One very striking and is easy to get to the hotel spa Villavicencio along the Camino de Caracoles (Provincial Route 52). But the most popular excursion is known as High Mountain, you can do with common vehicle visiting the main Mendoza valley, passing by Villavicencio and Uspallata to take National Route 7 and lead to the Aconcagua Provincial Park. There is a trek of only about 400 meters by gentle hills leading to the balcony of the Lagoon’s trailhead.

“Sanjuanina” Range:

The crossing into Chile by the International Paso Agua Negra (across the Andes) is one of the most colorful tour of the province of San Juan. The road, although land is consolidated, without complexities and the ideal is to go with a 4×4 truck (with ordinary car should go very cautiously).

The road climbs up over 4000 meters above sea level and the mountains there is simply no vegetation. Not even a minimum Yuyito grows, the naked eye there is no trace of life on earth. The dryness also reveals the complex geological diversity of the mountains, reflecting a range of minerals multicolored yellow, green, red, violet, white, ocher, brown and orange, sometimes covered with patches of snow lonely. Also near the tops are several glaciers in height.

Zeballos Mount:

In the northwest corner of Santa Cruz, the people of the ancients is the starting point to walk the Camino del Monte Zeballos, a portion of Route 41, one of the most spectacular in all of Patagonia. It is the highest road in the province, starting from 200 meters above sea level (with Jeinimani river routes to the bottom of a valley) to reach the 1500 peak. At first he crosses the pure steppe with its sparse vegetation, and fifty miles later is a forest of 900 hectares with many ñires and some beech. The place is ideal for a picnic by a spring wild in the woods. Sometimes travelers choose any old path opened by lumberjacks to abandon the car and walk for a while.

Tucumán Walk:

Tucumán province also has its path with sinuous curves up until Cochuna viewpoint. It starts from the capital along the highway and then Faimallá National Route 38, passing through villages sugar plantations and mills that pollute the environment. In the city of Concepcion take route 365 west to the town of Alpachiri, which has an input offset to the Parque Nacional Los Alisos. But the road is not good and almost no one visits the park itself, but makes a detour to the viewpoint of Cochuna, for an environment very similar to the park. A few kilometers appears Samai Cochuna resort, where you can take a hike through the jungle observing large trees such as laurel and cedar, bamboo reeds and tree ferns. Once at the viewpoint of Cochuna see the forest from above and the peaks of the mountains of Aconquija. From Tucuman to the lookout is 140 kilometers and from there you can go back or go a bit further to the town catamarqueño of placements.

Bon Voyage!

Located at over 3800 feet, Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world and one of the legendary places in South America. Heir to ancient traditions and myths, surrounded by mountains and dotted with islands, is an invitation to discover the beauty and mystery of the Bolivian highlands.

A mirror of open water in the highlands, where altitude breath away, keeps the secret of the origin of the Inca empire, the source of a culture that continues to cast its light, after years of darkness, on the civilization that was imposed. Lake Titicaca, in the past revered by the Incas and today considered one of the purest places in the world, is the origin of this rule. That empire was Tahuantinsuyo, who was in this region of Titicaca (now shared between Bolivia and Peru) where natural treasure raising llamas and alpacas, growing quinoa, potato and other agricultural products.

Floating Islands:

Titicaca is worthy of a chapter in the book of records: located over 3800 meters high, is the highest navigable lake in the world, extends over some 8000 square kilometers and has a maximum depth of 280 meters. It is situated only 70 kilometers west of La Paz, from where excursions by the lake, islands and surrounding natural areas. An asphalt road connecting La Paz and Copacabana, next to Lake Titicaca, whose waters of rare transparency are fed by the glaciers of Apolobamba and Real. The surrounding mountains seem very close, but they are actually about 30 miles away, almost invisible for the purity of air, which seems to narrow the gap. Other tourists prefer to visit from Puno, the Peruvian side, or integrated into a larger circuit that part of La Quiaca in Jujuy, passing Villazón (Bolivia), the Salar de Uyuni, Potosi, Sucre, Cochabamba, La Paz and Copacabana.

Whatever the route chosen, Lake Titicaca holds the most beautiful scenery imaginable, with its harmonious water dunks against the giant peaks of the Bolivian Andes, which appear watch snow forever the fates of indigenous islands devoted to their gods. These islands break the surface outcrops are just the same mountain range that surrounds the lake.

Titicaca region can be visited all year round, thanks to a sunny climate moderated by altitude but, refreshing altiplano nights by lowering the temperature significantly. The impact of tourism in the area, also frequently visited by travelers arriving from Peru after Cusco and Machu Picchu tour.

Copacabana and islands:

On the shores of Lake Titicaca stands the town of Copacabana, a tourist and archaeological site famous for its shrine, it was in pre-Columbian times a place of worship and ceremonial astronomical observation. If today is dedicated to the Virgen Morena, the city was the destination of pilgrimages to the Island of the Sun and Moon. The present Catholic church was erected in the central city square in the sixteenth century, and is a little gem shining white domes whose altar glitters with gold and silver. From Copacabana shipped out numerous excursions to the Islands of the Sun and the Moon, or walks to the viewpoints that are nearby, including pre-Columbian archeological sites such as Pitchfork’s Trail (an old observatory), the Kusijata or Intikala. They have some accounts that this city, ancient, takes its name of “Coppa-kcaguaña” or the “path of the stars that leads to God” is that since there is clearly seen that compass pre-Columbian is the Southern Cross.

Copacabana

One of the most interesting places to visit is the Isla del Sol, on Lake Maggiore, where are many vestiges of the cultures Tiawanakota, Aymara and Quechua that inhabited this place since time immemorial, before the Incas: the steps of Yumani (all a challenge for the legs), the palace of Pilkokaina the Chincana the Footsteps of the Sun and the Sacred Rock. Also be reached by boat to the Isla de la Luna, also known as native Koati second holiest site in local indigenous people, and where women are concentrated worship in the form of the Maidens of the Sun.

The lake is another must see places, such as Uros Island, where all the buildings are raised on piles of eucalyptus, and everything is made with flexible stems of cattails, the same floor as they make the typical boats that ply the lake waters and are a symbol of Titicaca. While naturally there are catamarans, hydrofoils and other boats, the “Totoritas” or “little horses of reeds” hold a unique tradition and are the most sought Postal these waters. Well I know the people of Suriqui, so working in construction who were elected by the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl to build the boat of reeds with which they could prove that these boats were capable of long ocean passages.

On the Island of the Uros people live mainly in the reed handicrafts, hunting and fishing. Local traditions are also skin deep on the Island of Taquile, where several Inca ruins. However, one of its main attractions is that you can spend the night at the people who organize themselves and tourist services are known for their hospitality. Equally interesting is the island of lovers, the most populous of the lake, which also has great archaeological value. Whichever island you visit, where people are moving, trade, talk, bargaining, and the warmth of men and women who populate the highlands is one of the most intimate events that take visitors to these places suitable for condors. When there is a little more time, or particularly interested in ecotourism around the lake are ideal for trekking and mountaineering. Meanwhile, the Mirror Lake Titicaca is jealously guarding its secrets well protected by the double barrier of the height and depth, from the invisible mermaids to hide in the background, the fund that was once thought endless up sunken treasure. .. not to mention an entire city, an Andean Atlantis which states that still shine, submerged, gold and silver of the Incas.

Useful Data:

How come?

You can travel to Lake Titicaca from La Paz, then taking the paved road that leads to Tiquina Strait, after crossing by boat to Copacabana. You can also enter from Argentina by La Quiaca, following the stages described above, or from Lima (Peru), another major resorts around the lake.

Climate:

It should be noted that it is an area of high thermal amplitude, with sunny weather during the day and drop in temperature overnight.
 
Excursions:

Around Lake Titicaca excursions can be arranged for ecotourism, adventure tourism, mountain climbing and trekking, as well as sailing and visits to the islands

Meals:

A visit to Lake Titicaca is a good opportunity to sample the local cuisine, especially the trout that are caught in the lake water itself, and quinoa-based dishes and other Andean cereals.

Bon Voyage!

The most Westernized of the Chinese provinces have the third tallest building and world’s fastest elevator. Prodigal in national parks, beauty and curiosities, yet keeps one of the Malay tribes that inhabited the island for the first time. Women plant tea and men teach classes in tai-chi. At the heart of the mountain. Dozens of tunnels and bridges built without the aid of machinery crossing the main mountain range of Taiwan. Taiwan is where Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalist followers fled in 1949 after fleeing Mao Tse Tung and his army. His sovereignty is still disputed. It is a major player in the world of high technology. Its capital, Taipei, with a population of 22.7 million, claims the world’s tallest building. Rest in plate tectonics, and is regularly hit by earthquakes. A short drive brings us to the Democracy Monument in Taiwan was built in honor of Chiang Kai-shek.

The next item on our itinerary is the world’s tallest building, Taipei. Designed to resemble a bamboo stalk, the structure combines strength with flexibility: a good thing considering that is built on this land prone to tremors. We hopped on the world’s fastest elevator, rising from the ground floor to the 89th floor in 37 seconds. Practically we do not feel the speed.

Taroko National Park:

We headed for the most famous national park of Taiwan, Taroko, a few hours’ drive from Taipei. The park is along the Taroko Gorge. A constant work in progress still geological tectonic plate formed, creating Taiwan’s central mountains, cut by the river Liwu in dramatic cliffs. We entered into an intricate Chinese landscape, a land vertically with layers of trees and rocks. The way the park is a marvel of engineering that involves a procession 38 tunnels and bridges. “At that time there was no heavy machinery available,” says, “so much of the road had to be built with the sweat of the workers.” We are en route to Shakadang trail, which runs through a ravine which flanks the Bridge of the Hundred Lions. Its railings are decorated with statues of these cats. “Shakadang is an Aboriginal word that means the molar tooth,” says Weiling. Refers to the rocks that are in the creek. “They quickly get, milky white, many the sizes of small elephants. And the creek! A beauty, a deep aquamarine.

We head for the Eastern Rift Valley, heading for the Bunun village. During the past decade this Aboriginal settlement has become a tourist site. The members of the Bunun tribe descended from some of the original inhabitants of Taiwan, which found their way to the island for over 5,000 years, many from the Malay Archipelago. The Bunun are one of the original 13 tribes recognized by the government.

Kenting Holiday:

In four hours of Bunun have traveled to the modern resort of Kenting. Come to the Hotel California, which is like a youth hostel, located on Main Street. The hotel has a certain charm. The lobby is a playful combination of bar, business selling beach items, and cafe. Kenting is a gully. The main street becomes a pedestrian zone when it develops the festive night market. Dozens of vendors sell roasted duck heads, chicken feet, tiny sea shells cooked with animals inside, as well as clothes, souvenirs and other things.

One of the reasons why tourists come here is to visit the Kenting National Park, the first of Taiwan. It is a mixture of coastal areas with reefs, caves and rock outcrops. In the park visitors center, we see a video of the regional geology, including rapid decline unusual cliffs and river sand, and on wildlife, led by an amazing variety of birds (about 310 species) that share the crowded airspace about 216 kinds of butterflies.

Alishan, a land of giants:

Alishan is one of the highest mountains in Taiwan and came to the center of the National Park where you will find after a long journey through rolling hills, terraced with tea fields. There the women, who are protected from the sun using bamboo hats, gather the leaves of tea plants. The oolong tea, grown in this cool mountain climate and humid, is considered the best in Taiwan.

Also walk the path of one of the highest mountains in the world and find some of the oldest inhabitants of the Earth: the giant cypress trees, venerable trees that have withstood centuries and sometimes millennia, from typhoons, earthquakes, landslides and forestry. The first glimpse giant that is 25 meters high. With 1,500 years old, is relatively young. The oldest tree here germinated around the time of Christ. It reaches 45 meters high and its circumference is 12 meters.

Good luck!

A trip from Palermo to Taormina, a journey that reveals the lesser-known charms of the magnificent Mediterranean island. There are many ways to reach Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean and epic, but none compares to it by sea. When one approaches the coasts, invites the slow ferry to lose his gaze on the blue-green waves and think that Greek ships sailed on them, Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman and Spanish over the last two eighteen hundred years.

While the ship engines roar to the dock, the image of Sicily is emerging as a kind of navel of western civilization, a place that bears testimony to almost all events that are part of the normal rate of a history textbook, from the splendor Greek culture to the Crusades, the Napoleonic era to World War II.

Tours through the streets of Palermo:

The first stop on the route for the “real Sicily” is Vucchiria, a poor district of Palermo that has grown around a multicromático seafood market and land. There, Ciccio draws us into an old inn to prove “sangue di Sicilia”, an appetizer fortissimo burgundy color, combining red wine and different kinds of vermouth. To give place at the bar of the inn, the owner of the premises, a Sicilian from over 100 kilos, clean away to slap the customers who rely on their elbows numb and then with a smile of good host, invites us to approach.

In a nearby restaurant to eat paste alle sarde port, the emblematic dish of the island, and then left to walk around the downtown. Ciccio is especially proud to get to the Teatro Massimo, Palermo Columbus, the scene of the final images of The Godfather III. Nearby, in Piazza Castelnuovo, is the other major theater in the city, the Politeama, built between 1867 and 1874, which was the epicenter of high culture in Palermo during the long years when Massimo was closed for renovations.

Vucchiria, a poor district of Palermo:

Via Vittorio Emanuele is the main artery and threaded the major tourist landmarks of the city, so we walked for much of the afternoon. In a succession of architectural styles incredible pass the Piazza Bellini, where the Norman church La Martorana, Piazza Pretoria (one of the centers of nightlife) and Quattro Canti, before culminating in the magnificent Cathedral, built on what was first an early Christian basilica, then an Arab mosque and then a Christian church Norman.

Syracuse:

The road crosses a slow and winding route, but very beautiful with the Mediterranean waters always appear on the left. Before going to Agrigento, we stop at the Scala delle Turchi, a cove enclosed by cliffs of pumice to which erosion has shaped staircase. They look a long time the waves and the silhouette of Tunisia that appears in the distance across the sea, and then down to take a bath.  

Agrigento is a disappointing town with modern buildings, old town with an insulated, so we left immediately to the Valley of the Temples, where the complex is best preserved Greek temples in the world. It is a truly moving site. It is a city founded in 580 BC. in its greatest splendor was inhabited by nearly 200,000 people. All the monuments of Doric style are complex and include highlights the Temple of Concordia, a sort of Parthenon, 42 meters long which is in perfect condition. Walking down stone paths to other wonders we like the temples of Hercules, of Olympian Zeus and Castor and Pollux, the tomb of Theron and the marvelous Hellenistic-Roman quarter, which preserves the layout of part of the city, revealing visitors many aspects of what was the lifestyle of the inhabitants of Agrigento in antiquity. Late in the afternoon, we sat on the steps of a temple to watch the sunset over the ruins, staining red and gold.

Catania: (Heritage Sites by Unesco)

The last leg of the journey starts for Piazza Armerina, another hidden jewel of the Sicilian interior, which has a historic center where the great baroque splendor reached, as in the town of Noto, which is known as “the garden stone “by the magnificence of its buildings. Just a few miles north of Syracuse is Noto, with its famous Roman amphitheater, the Greek Theater and the peninsula of Ortigia, the original core population of the Corinthians who founded the city.

Close to the coast, we continue north and pass through Catania, the second largest city of Sicily, which was nearly destroyed by an eruption of Mount Etna in 1669. Declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, is home to a wealth of baroque buildings, many of them clustered around the Piazza del Duomo and the central Via Etnea.

Taormina, the last stop is a beautiful site that is overfished by mass tourism. It stands on a cliff overlooking the sea, on whose summit retains an elegant Greek amphitheater. Her beauty was undeniable that the twentieth century was frequented by writers and Hollywood stars as Truman Capote, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, while still a hidden and lovely spot.

Sicilian cuisine:

Sicily may be well worth a trip simply gourmet. As usual in Italy, every city, every region, every village has its particular delight. In Palermo, the stars are pasta alle Sarde (pasta with sardines and pine nuts), the Arancino (rice fried meatballs and parmesan), the caponatta (an entry consists of eggplant, olives, capers and basil) and delicious cannoli ( a kind of sweet cannelloni, stuffed with sweetened ricotta, orange and chocolate). In Erice and Trapani, include sea dishes like tuna cooked with garlic, tomatoes and capers, and granite (slush ice with fruit juices), while the Agrigento area is famous for its wines. The Catania is a typical dish of pasta (pasta with tomato sauce, eggplant and ricotta) and in the vicinity of Syracuse is generally serve the best fish sauce San Ferlicchio Spada (swordfish grilled with lemon, capers and parsley). Furthermore, all regions of Sicily have in common the passion for marzipan sweets.

Bon voyage!

The small Patagonian town, is a hundred kilometers from Puerto Madryn is a quiet haven from which to observe the fantastic marine wildlife. Within hours of arriving at this town one feels that almost all its inhabitants know it. And if you enjoy walking you can leave the car keys forgotten in a drawer in the hotel.

Just get going and headed for the Avenue of the Whales. While the name is flashy, it’s a street, the only paved, a little more than a thousand feet, through which the life of the place, which is not agitated.

Is that about 400 people live here, although in summer the population is multiplied by the thousands. And the reasons on: a small bay surrounded by cliffs and washed by a calm, coupled with boat trips, whale watching between May and December. It is also ideal for sports such as diving, kayaking, trekking, horse riding and mountain biking.

However, pyramids are not only known for its tranquility. Also for their first and quaint houses, built with metal sheets. A village that once had 2,000 inhabitants and was born in 1900, driven by the exploitation of salt in the heart of the peninsula, as regards the carriage of the train salt exhibited in the square, and for the killing of sea lions.

Fortunately times have changed, and if something is rescued today in the village, which until the nineties relied on a generator that left everything in the dark at midnight, is respect for nature and its fantastic marine wildlife.

Activities and accommodation:

The avenue is like an irregular horseshoe, always leads to the ocean and bay, about 700 meters and two small commercial areas at each end. Already in contact with water, riding in a kayak is not a bad idea. A discipline that is commercially launched two years ago, proposes a different encounter with the landscape and is ideal for families, although the minimum age required is 10.

Then the silence is the main character, only crossed by the singing of the birds, while it should not be making any effort to stop and observe the schools that run the seabed transparent. The proposals are for all tastes and physical states, from outputs of a couple of hours to a cave full of fossils to whole day trips or more, lunch included, to some lonely little beach.

At this time of year should not get here without booking accommodation. There are possibilities of choosing between hotels, lodges, hostel and campsites. Among other options, the Las Restingas, almost on the beach, the Inn The Paradise, a little further from the sea, about 700 meters, but with the charm of a typical construction, $ 150 double room, breakfast included . There, in the time to sit at the table, it is suggested an entry: the Vieyra the four cheeses ($ 50), which may well be accompanied by a Marcus Sauvignon Blanc, $ 24. Must-see.

At the end of the day would be unforgivable not to walk on the cliffs overlooking the beach called the Caves, near the town, which some daring sliding down a rope. Now it only remains to sit facing the sea while the sun is lost in the horizon, leaving a deep reflection on the rocky walls.

Make tourism in harmony with nature!