Experience the best of San Salvador de Jujuy

The city lies at about 1,200 metres in the valley of the Río Grande, with forested Andean foothills rising behind it. It was founded in the late sixteenth century, and its colonial core centres on the Plaza Belgrano, where the cathedral holds an eighteenth-century pulpit of carved and gilded wood and the provincial government house faces the square. A history museum bears the name of General Juan Lavalle, who was killed in the city in 1841.

North of the city the road climbs the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a long, colour-banded valley on UNESCO's World Heritage list, passing the seven-coloured hill of Purmamarca, the restored hilltop fortress at Tilcara and the village of Humahuaca. To the west the Salinas Grandes, a dazzling white salt flat, lie more than 3,000 metres up, while the hot springs of Reyes and the cloud forest of the Yungas are closer to town.

Corn and potatoes of many colours shape the local table: spicy empanadas, humitas steamed in corn husks, tamales, llama stew and quinoa. Chicha, a fermented maize drink, is poured at village festivals, and every August families make offerings of food and drink to Pachamama, Mother Earth. Winters are dry and sunny with cold nights, and most of the rain falls in summer.