The Northern Express: Salta, Cafayate & Purmamarca

Arrive in Salta, the anchor city of the Argentine northwest. Everything on this extension leaves from here and comes back to here, so the first afternoon goes to the city itself rather than to driving out of it. Meet your guide, then start high: the panorama from the top of San Bernardo Hill, because the layout of the place makes far more sense from above than from a street corner. Down from there to Belgrano Square for the Cathedral, the Historic Museum of the North and the Town Hall. Finish at the artisan market, where bargaining with the vendors over Andean handicrafts is most of the fun.

A full day out and back, and the drive is half the reason for it. You leave Salta for Cafayate, 189 kilometers through Cerrillos, La Merced and a string of small rural villages, then into the ravines of Las Conchas and Los Médanos, where the rock does most of the talking. Stop at Alemania, the last station of the Belgrano Railway, and at Guachipas to see the wall-painted caves. Cafayate itself is vineyards and one winery visit with a tasting. Torrontes is what the region is known for, so drink that rather than what you would order at home. Back in Salta in the late afternoon.

Head north out of Salta for the Salinas Grandes, the salt flats lying on the boundary between Salta and Jujuy provinces. In photographs they look flat and bright. In person they are blinding, a white plain running for miles with nothing in it to give you a sense of scale, and that is the part nobody warns you about. A guided visit covers what the flats are and how they got there. Afterward you transfer to Purmamarca and check in for two nights, and the pace of the whole trip drops a gear.

Wake up in Purmamarca, at the foot of the Hill of Seven Colors and inside the Quebrada de Humahuaca, the valley of ravines UNESCO listed as World Heritage in 2003. The day goes to the nearby town of Tilcara and its ancient Pucará — the fortress of the Tilcara civilization that once held this region, and your guide will explain who they were. Then back to the same hotel in Purmamarca. Two nights in one town is the argument here: the rock reads one way in morning light and another by late afternoon, and you are still there for both.

Take a last look at the Hill and at Purmamarca, then transfer back to Salta. Nothing else is scheduled, which is deliberate. You check into your hotel and the rest of the day is yours, and Salta rewards a second and slower pass now that you know how the city is laid out. This is also the point where the extension quietly hands you back: whatever you have planned next in Argentina starts from Salta, and Salta is where you already are.

Breakfast, and then your guide takes you to the Salta airport for your flight home or on to the next destination. Six days later, and you are standing where you started. That is the argument for an extension shaped this way. The northwest gets folded into a longer Argentina route without bending it, and the trip you built around it carries on exactly as planned.