'We must travel slowly,' our guide warns as the four-wheel drive crunches through ice-filled ruts in the dirt road. Looking out of the window, I see Andean peaks, home to condors, on the left, and to my right, a river valley. I have just embarked on one of the best trans-Andean adventures. Over the next eight days, we will be meandering through canyons, up rugged roads to heights nearing 5,000m. There is a new highway the next valley over, but here we see the authentic Argentina,' explains the guide. Authentic indeed. Flocks of sheep wander onto the road, farmers live in small stone huts, and the colours of rock valleys light up in hues of orange and brown. Even people who live in northern Argentina and Chile never get to see this.'
While many travellers to South America look for the colourful markets of Ecuador, the body-beautiful beaches of Brazil or the chic European artistry of Buenos Aires, I am searching for an escape, not an arrival. My goal is to launch myself onto the rutted roads of Argentina and Chile's forgotten northern deserts with a trip that combines the rough wilds of frontier country with the world-renowned Hotel Explora staff as guides, chefs and drivers. The journey runs from Argentina into eastern Chile (or vice versa) and I'm travelling in a small group of just six people. Explora dubs these trips Travesias, a melding of adventure, challenge and personal enrichment. I need all three. And I am in the best hands. Some of Chile's best and brightest minds migrate to Explora as their gap-year destination. In another generation they will be ministers and CEOs, leaders of the future. For now, they are your private staff, able to sort problems, open the wine and tell a story to make the bottle memorable.
We begin our journey in Cachi in remote northern Argentina, a sleepy town where gauchos still stroll the streets, hand-folded empanadas (meat pies) are served for lunch, and leather workers stop toiling on the latest saddle to watch a football match. For two leisurely days, we explore the surrounding mountains, scenery that reminds me of the American southwest, like the great national parks of Utah and Arizona.
On our first afternoon out of Cachi, we drive to the base of a dormant volcano. The mountain is covered in tiny black rocks that roll like ball bearings as we climb. We follow a zigzag path to get ever higher. Solitary cacti as tall as lamp posts are silent sentinels, branches curving skyward as the wind whistles through a tight band of thorns. The entire hike is a reasonable two hours at a brisk pace, plus half an hour for photos and a half-hour rest stop (the altitude is 2,500m, I estimate). Three hours after we begin we are atop the peak.
