Cycling Quebrada de las Conchas – Salta, Argentina

Quebrada de las Conchas is a national park in Calchaquí Valley, stretching from south of Salta to Cafayate. Over thousands of millenia, Río de las Conchas has carved out a spectacular landscape, resulting in blazingly coloured sandstone formations. Some of the more noteworthy formations are handily dotted along the highway, making for some fantastic natural viewing points.

Working off that Cafayate wine (and cheese)

Attempting to justify the amount of wine and charcuterie we’d been steadily making our way through in Cafayate, we decided to get our cardio on. Since walking it sounds absolutely hellish, we went for the bikes.

Side note: If you’re looking to spend some time in Cafayate, which I totally recommend, I wrote a little guide to Cafayate here!

We had promised ourselves that we would try to be as active as possible, so this seemed like a great way to keep our promise. So, bright and early one morning we rented bikes and caught the earliest bus to La Garganta Del Diablo, the typical beginning of the route.

We set out in high spirits, thinking we were in for a fun-filled day. Not going to lie, it was a hot, sweaty, I-think-I-might-pass-out 6 hours.

(However, it may not have been quite as long of a day if Tom’s bike chain didn’t pop off every few kilometres.)

On our scenic bus ride from Salta into Cafayate, we were already thinking about biking the route. Throughout the drive we nonchalantly discussed how it was ‘basically all flat’, and that it wouldn’t be that hard. In hind sight, we had WAY too much confidence. As it turns out, what we considered flat from the cushy comfort of our bus seats, was ridiculously NOT flat on a bike.

Biking the Quebrada de las Conchas – They see me rollin’

The first couple of kilometres after the Devil’s Throat, are all uphill. It wasn’t a little slope either, but a proper leg-burning, going to collapse incline. Cursing everything by the time we crawled to the top, I plopped down at the next viewpoint, Tres Cruces. I decided that I was done with the adventure and was chucking my bike in the bed of the next truck that drove past.

I managed to pull myself out of my tantrum after a solid break, and we hit the road again. Thankfully, after the first ego-destroying hill, the route got a whole lot easier. However, it was still EXTREMELY hot and there was zero shade. Not really that surprising, considering we were in a desert with real life tumbleweeds blowing past us.

Whining aside, it was still a pretty cool experience. One of the most physically demanding things I’ve ever done, but still cool. Biking the Quebrada de las Conchas route gave us the ability to stop wherever we wanted, make our own detours, and get off the usual beaten path.

Also, this is definitely in retrospect. At the time I swore I would never put myself through something like that again.

Luckily, our legs returned back to normal from absolute jelly fairly quickly, since we planned on doing the other most talked about thing to do in Cafayate, (besides the wine tastings), hiking the Cascadas del Rio, which I wrote about here. If it’s something you want to do as well, I’d probably recommend taking on the hike before biking the Quebrada de las Conchas! 

Want to see the Quebrada de las Conchas for yourself (but not on a bike)?

When planning a foray through the Quebrada de las Conchas, there are a couple different options to make the trip.

Car rentals are available in Salta, Cafayate does not have a rental agency.

Van tours are available from Cafayate, and leave at different times throughout the day.

An array of day tours are available from Salta, and depending on what you’re looking for these can include a visit to a winery or two as well. But, I definitely recommend spending a day or two in Cafayate, if you have the time. I spent a couple fantastic days there, and I wrote a handy backpacker’s guide to Cafayate and my experience hiking the Cascadas del Rio!

 

Details for Biking the Quebrada de las Conchas

We brought 6 litres of water with us, figuring we could buy more on the road if we needed it. Shocker, we finished our water way too early into the ride, and all the road side tiendas dotted along the road were closed.

Where To Get Bikes for the Quebrada de las Conchas

We rented ours from the tourist shop Majo Viajes in the main square in Cafayate. Some hostels have bikes they will lend to guests, but I definitely recommend renting from one of the tour shops. It’s a long bike ride and the extra whistles that the mountain bikes have are definitely worth it.

Make sure to do a thorough check and test run of the bike before taking it. I don’t think we could have known that Tom’s chain was going to suck, but at least we had no other issues.

Also, if you have data while in Argentina, get the rental place’s phone number. Luckily Tom knew how to fix a bike chain, but if he didn’t we would have been pretty screwed.

 

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Getting to the Quebrada de las Conchas

– Devil’s Throat is the typical starting point for van or bike tours of Quebrada de las Conchas. The easiest way to get there is to hop on the bus to Salta. It leaves 6-7 times throughout the day. I’m assuming the drivers are accustomed to people bringing their bikes on, since our driver didn’t seem fazed at all.

We let the driver know we wanted to get off at Devil’s Throat, and he was kind enough to let us know when we were there!

Prices Per Person to Bike the Quebrada de las Conchas (as of December 2018):

Bike Rental – 300 pesos
Flecha Bus to Devil’s Throat – 70 pesos
Bike on Bus – 25 pesos