From Gauchos to Volcanoes
From €1,125 per person (10 days) excluding flights, based on 2 persons traveling. See itinerary below. For 3 to 7 days itineraries contact us.
Price includes gauchos guides on horseback, transport of all luggage & food by mule, gaucho cook & meals, tent, camping equipment, hay for horses, camp fees & 2 personal horses (inc. for 3 free days). Not included: transfers, travel extensions, extra personal food & reservations of accommodations before departure and at the end.

A 10 day trek starting from near Salta; this journey takes you through a great variety of landscapes from canyons and cactus filled valleys to a high pass with puna vegetation and the Toro canyon at the end. You arrive at the starting point by remise or taxi from Salta in the morning where you will meet the gauchos that will guide you. At the end of the trek you camp or sleep in Santa Rosa de Tastil. The next morning you can visit the ruins of Tast at sunrise and either travel by bus in the midday to San Antonio de las Cobres or in the early morning to Salta.

You start at an altitude of around 2500m, go over a pass of 4600m the last day and end around 3100m. The rides are suitable for riders with little experience or even people who have never ridden before. The horses are used to difficult terrain, are born in the mountains and are very relaxed. You can decide to do an excursion by foot, and when you get tired can always jump on a horse for a moment to relax & enjoy the scenery with full attention.

Note: The itineraries on foot are a little shorter and different then the horse riding itinerary we have mentioned here. Horseback rides for single persons are also possible.

High Andes Mendoza trek
September to April tailor made departures, including Christmas From €775 (6 days) per person, based on 2 persons traveling. Riding in the High Andes up to 5000 metres altitude. Price includes all meals and excludes transfers.

Crossing of the Andes in 7 days
from Argentina to Chili. You have magnificent views of the highest mountain of the Andes, the Aconcagua, of nearly 7000m. The crossing involves an exchange of horses and custom formalities on horse. You ride from Argentina to Chile in the footsteps of the legendary San Martin, one of the liberators of South America. Scheduled group departures for crossing of the Andes 2009 - 2010: several dates in January and February. Price 1200 Euro pp. Individual departures can be arranged. For 2-6 persons ask for a quote. From 6 persons or more the price is 1200 Euro pp.

Other tailormade options:
Tailormade self drive tours in NW Argentina, From €395 (9 days - Valles Calchaquies - welcoming 3-4 star hotels) per person excluding flights and car rental, with a minimum of 2 persons. We offer up to 21 day programs which take you through valleys, altiplano & canyons in Salta & Jujuy, NW Argentina. Price includes guide notes, GPS designed walks & location of archaeological sites.

Extension to San Pedro de Atacama & Southern Bolivia. We offer our guiding services as well for those who wish to explore the area between Salta, San Pedro de Atacama, La Paz & Cusco with the use of 4x4 & local buses.

Itinerary, 10 days trekking
Day 1-2: You are brought by a remise or taxi from Salta to the start at a very small village at around 2500m. You travel along broad river beds through colorful canyons & rock formations.

Day 3: You have a free day near a hacienda in the middle of nowhere. Here you can see condors nestling in a huge cliff and puma trails in the river bed. The day can be used to make a guided walk through the area, visit some gaucho families, observe several impressive pre-Inca petroglyps, an indigenous pre-Inca village & an indigenous cemetery. You can jalso just relax and take a bath in a river nearby and use this day to explore the decor of rocks & cacti a little further on foot on your own.

Day 4-5: You travel through a long canyon to an impressive viewpoint near a pass of 3500m and a hacienda where the sunset will amaze you with a huge variety of colors. The next day you cross the pass and descend into a canyon until you reach several fincas in the middle of fields of giant cacti.

Day 6-8: The next day you continue through a wide valley and visit the remnants of a large administrative Inca centre, which is rarely visited. You climb again to a pass of 3500m and camp just below the pass in a wide open space. From here you first descend through a deep canyon and then start slowly climbing into a valley to 3600m high. You pass several haciendas & a local school. The children might be very interested in talking with you.

Day 9: You have a free day to rest at the beginning of a long and steep climb for crossing a high pass the next day. You can make a small excursion on foot or by horse to have a view from a nearby snow topped volcano of around 6000m. It is interesting to note that the zone where we camp has been a workshop where indigenous people & Incas used to make their stone tools. They traveled over the same pass in past times. Day 10: In the early morning you climb over a steep trail steadily to a pass of around 4600m high with spectacular views in all directions of volcanoes & the altiplano. You lunch after the pass after which you descend into canyons of volcanic rock formations. At this altitude you can still find big Azorella mosses, which have become more & more rare in the Andes. You end up in the Toro canyon on the foot of a mountain with the most impressive pre-Inca village of the south of Latin America.