Deserts, mountains and salt flats surround San Antonio de los Cobres, a landscape where the Tren a las Nubes (Train to the Clouds) passes through and where the Puna is manifests itself in all its immensity

The town
It is located 167 km (2hs 30min) from the capital of Salta and at 3,775 meters above sea level at the foot of Cerro Terciopelo, which is so named because of its soft textured appearance. Not to be missed is the church and the streets of this beautiful place in the heart of the puna, where the buildings still preserve ancestral techniques, such as adobe and thatched roofs. It is one of the "Magical Places" of Salta because of its history, which is linked to the construction of the C-14 branch line that communicates the North of Argentina with Chile and through which the Train to the Clouds travels, being the Viaduct La Polvorilla the most outstanding tourist attraction of the route.

San Antonio de los Cobres, a Magical Place

The locality is part of the Magical Places Program, because it is located in the immensity of the Argentine high plateau, located more than 3,500 meters above sea level. The distinctive aspect of this locality is directly linked to the arrival of the General Belgrano railroad to the Puna Salteña, marking a before and after. On the one hand, it accentuated more its condition of town of passage between the commercial circuits towards the Pacific, the zone of Atacama and the port of Antofagasta in Chile and on the other hand, it put the locality in the tourist map of the world for being the starting and final point of the route of the Train to the Clouds.

C-14 Branch Line and Train to the Clouds

Parallel to the National Route N°51 that leads to Chile, you can observe bridges, tunnels, curls and incredible zigzags through which the famous Train to the Clouds travels, which are part of one of the most outstanding engineering works ever made by man, the C-14 Branch Line, both for the territory and the technology available at the time of its construction, between 1930 and 1940, commanded by the American engineer Richard Fontaine Maury and his team, in which many local people participated.

La Polvorilla Viaduct

Passing San Antonio de los Cobres, about 18 kilometers away, you can enjoy this incredible engineering work, with its 63 meters high and 224 meters long. In this place, the Train to the Clouds stops to admire the landscape at 4,200 meters above sea level.

The National Pachamama Festival

San Antonio de los Cobres celebrates in August the National Festival of the Pachamama, Mother Earth. The celebration begins with a procession; a well is dug in the earth, a well that symbolizes the "mouth" of the earth and the rite of the invitation to the mother earth is carried out, throwing to the mentioned well the main part of a collective banquet, that is to say, morsels of "Tijtincha": Bites of "Tijtincha" Boiled dried meats with corn cobs, corn with husk and/or peeled, dried beans, spicy, roasted, empanadas, Andean potatoes, mote and piri, food based on corn flour and llama fat and symbolizes abundance, so that we never lack money. Different drinks are also offered, among which only the chuya, a handmade drink made with corn and quinoa, is offered on this day. The whole ceremony is carried out accompanied by the aroma or saumo of the chacha (bush of the area that is only used for this occasion).

The Andean Carnival

In February, the Andean carnival is born with the copla, the singing, and the "comadres" and "compadres" (friends of the comadres and compadres) gather around the mojon, always sharing with the Pachamama (Mother Earth). It includes a series of outstanding events such as the Meeting of Comadres, the highest Carnival in the world, which is held under the Viaduct La Polvorilla and the Meeting of Cultural Integration of the Andean Carnival. Everything revolves around the visits of the comparsas in the family houses and the Andean corsos where comparsas from all over the Department of Los Andes participate.

Flora and fauna

The typical Puna vegetation is a low shrub steppe. In the Puna there are no wild trees; the largest plant is the quinoa. In the lower areas there is the churqui, a small tree that climbs the region through the main access ravines, and the cardón, typical of the lower altitude zone.