San José de Jáchal

The sleepy little town of San José de Jáchal is most famous for a handful of nineteenth-century flour mills scattered about attractive farmland immediately north of the town, in a landscape rather like that of North Africa.

From Jáchal you can head northeast for 145km on the RN-40 to Villa Unión, in La Rioja Province. You squeeze along the Cuesta de Huaco, a mountain road with magnificent views of the arid valleys to the north. From Huaco the road runs through the Río Bermejo valley, bone dry for most of the time but suddenly flooding after storms. Beware of the many deep fords (badenes) along the road; if they are full of water, wait for the level to drop before attempting to cross; even when dry they can rip tyres if taken too fast.