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Demonstration
Nature
The Alta Montaña road and Puente del Inca
West from Mendoza on Ruta 7: Potrerillos, Uspallata and the ochre mineral arch below the Aconcagua lookout.
Full day · 10–12 hours · Mendoza
Price on request
Aconcagua, Mendoza.Photo: Mauricio V. Genta, CC BY-SA 4.0
Western Argentina
Cuyo, where the desert learned to make wine.
Three provinces against the Andes, all of them dry, each of them different. Mendoza turned meltwater into the country's vineyards, San Juan kept the empty desert and the clearest skies, San Luis holds the green sierras. Start with the province, then take the road.
Explore the provincesThe region
Three provinces, one thirst
Cuyo is the dry side of Argentina, and everything here follows the water — where it comes down off the Andes, and what people built to catch it. The three provinces answered that in three different ways.
Capital: Mendoza
Mendoza
Argentina's wine capital, an irrigated city of plane trees and acequias at the foot of the highest mountain outside Asia.
- Highlights
- Aconcagua · Valle de Uco · Luján de Cuyo · Puente del Inca · Potrerillos
- When to go
- March and April for the harvest; November to March for the high Andes.
Capital: San Juan
San Juan
Empty desert, the clearest night skies in the country and a Triassic badland where the first dinosaurs were found.
- Highlights
- Ischigualasto · Barreal · Pampa del Leoncito · Dique de Ullum · Valle de Calingasta
- When to go
- April to June and September to November; midsummer is punishing on the desert floor.
Capital: San Luis
San Luis
The gentler end of Cuyo: green sierras, river towns and a national park of red sandstone fins rising out of the scrub.
- Highlights
- Sierra de las Quijadas · Merlo · Valle del Conlara · Sierras de San Luis
- When to go
- September to December and March to May; the sierras stay mild when Mendoza bakes.
Things to do
A day out, province by province
Wine at altitude in Mendoza, the Triassic desert in San Juan, and the mountain road that joins them. These are the shapes a day in Cuyo tends to take.
DemonstrationNature
Ischigualasto: the Valle de la Luna circuit
The three-hour ranger-led convoy through San Juan's Triassic badland, where the oldest dinosaurs were found.
3–4 hours · San Juan
Price on request
DemonstrationGastronomy
High-altitude tasting in the Valle de Uco
An afternoon at two wineries against the cordillera, tasting Malbec grown between 1,100 and 1,500 metres.
5–7 hours · Mendoza
Price on request
DemonstrationAdventure
The Horcones valley walk below Aconcagua
A short, flat walk inside Aconcagua Provincial Park to the lagoon, facing the south wall of the highest peak outside Asia.
2–3 hours · Mendoza
Price on request
The guide
Before you set off
When to come, what the roads are really like and what the wine route actually involves — written for people driving themselves.
Guide
The Alta Montaña road, Mendoza to the border
Route 7 west out of Mendoza climbs 3,000 metres to the Chilean border past Potrerillos, Uspallata, Puente del Inca and the Aconcagua lookout. What to stop for, and what the day actually costs you.
Guide
Getting around Cuyo
Distances between the oases are long and mostly empty. What the roads are like, where the fuel is, and when a hire car beats the bus.
Guide
Ischigualasto, where the dinosaurs start
San Juan's Valle de la Luna holds a complete Triassic record and some of the oldest dinosaurs ever found. How the visit actually works, and what to see around it.