To the northeast of Fiambalá are the sand dunes Taton, Saujil, and Medanitos—offering what are said to be some of the most beautiful views in Argentina. You can also go sandboarding there. The Taton dune is 2,845 meters above sea level, which I hear makes it the tallest sand dune in the world. The grains are white and incredibly fine.
Route 60 runs west out of Fiambalá into the Andes. From there, it crosses over the great mountain range and links Argentina to Chile at San Francisco Pass. It’s 200 kilometers from Fiambalá to the border, with gorgeous scenery along the way. You start by traveling through Quebrada de la Angostura. The road is paved, but the mountains rise up like walls on either side in changing shades of red and green. The views are spectacular.
The next landmark is a valley known as Vale de Chaschuil, with its beautifully colored mountains in the distance. The range begins to show off its snow-covered side as you get nearer to the Chilean border. It was thrilling to think we were actually crossing the Andes!
There are huts along the road offering shelter as well. They are stocked with water, snacks, candles, and other essentials.
Unfortunately, when we reached the border, we found the road closed—apparently due to snowfall on the Chilean side. The closure came as a shock, as we had planned our whole trip to avoid catching the tail end of winter. The border is at an altitude of 4,700 meters, and the temperature was just 3ºC despite the fact that we were into October. The wind blew hard enough to make our fingertips and ears painfully cold. Before us rose an unspeakably beautiful mountain range, rising more than 6,000 meters in the air.
We waved goodbye to Chile without entering it, and turned around.
We headed south of Fiambalá to La Rioja, where pouring rain stopped us in our tracks for two days. After the third day we were back at it, driving around the provincial capital of San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca and taking it easy. Eventually, it was time to head back to Brazil.
Two things stuck with me from our trip to Argentina. First, the economy is in rough shape, with inflation hitting 166% between November 2023 and November 2024. Small-town shops and hotels have stopped taking credit cards as a result, making travel extremely difficult. It was never like that before.
They wouldn’t even take a credit card when we tried to buy tickets to the hot springs, and what’s more, everyone (Fiambalá locals, people from Catamarca Province, Argentinians from other provinces, and foreigners) paid a different rate to get in. Telling them we drove all the way from Brazil in our own car fell on uninterested ears of course, and we ended up paying 24 times what the Fiambalá locals were paying. It was the same at other tourist destinations, as well.
Our road trip didn’t end up going as planned and we hit some bad weather, but there’s no getting around things like that. I’m grateful for our kindhearted guides and hotel staff, as well as the friendly Argentinians we met in the villages who made our trip a lot of fun.
