Berny's photos with the keyword: Salta

Ruta 68, scanned slide, Minolta X700

Flood at the "Rio de las Conchas", in the background railway bridge across the tributary "Rio Alemania". - scanned slide, Minolta X700

The Concordia river is crossing the old mining deposits.

The Salta–Antofagasta railway, also named Huaytiquina, is a single track railway line that links Argentina and Chile passing through the Andes. It is a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge railway with a total length of 941 km (571 in Argentina and 330 in Chile), connecting the cities of Salta and Antofagasta on the Pacific Ocean, passing through the Puna de Atacama and Atacama Desert. The construction of the railway started in 1921, the viaduct La Polvorilla, the highest of the line, was finished on 7 November 1932. It is now the final destination of the "tren de las nubes". The viaduct was the highest and most northern point of our trip. From here we returned back south, heading all the way down to Ushuaia. See PiP's - scanned slide, Minolta X700

Old silver mine from the early 19th century above the Ruta 40. The mine was closed for the first time after an explosion, which killed 15 workers, who are buried on the cemetery of San Antonio de los Cobres. 90 years after this accident the mine opened again as "El Socavón de los Muertos", but the galleries were flooded by a water inrush and the mine closed again in 1986. Compared to 2000, today the mine is completely abandoned: meinweltbuch.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/img_1742.jpg . The Link shows the blue building. There is a railway station of the "tren de las nubes" nearby. scanned slide, Minolta X700

RN40 is with 5301 km the longest route in Argentina and one of the longest in the world alongside such routes as US Route 66, Canada's Trans-Canada Highway, and Australia's Stuart Highway. At its traditional southern end near the city of Río Gallegos, it starts at sea level. It then crosses 20 national parks, 18 major rivers, and 27 passes in the Andes. Route 40's highest point is with 4972 m (16404 ft) the pass "Abra del Acay" in Salta Province. This image (elevation about 4100 m) shows our first contact with this road, first driving west from San Antonio de los Cobres and then north to a famous viaduct of the "tren de las nubes". We intended to drive south from this viaduct across the 4972 m high pass, which is actually the highest drivable road point outside of Asia. But the weather was against us, the pass was closed and we had to drive back all the way down to Salta, using again Ruta 51. We should have asked for more information probably. Later on the journey we recognized, "closed" can also mean, they don't want bloody tourists on the road ;-) scanned slide, Minolta X700

Lost truck on the way from Salta to San Antonio de los Cobres. scanned slide - Minolta X700

Driving from about 1000 m to 4200 m elevation on Ruta 51 makes the climate and vegetation change several times. - scanned slide, Minolta X700

The Ruta 51 from Salta to San Antonio de los Cobres was quite an adventure in 2000, but is now in the meantime mostly paved. More safety - less adventure ;-) - scanned slide, Minolta X700

Railway bridge across Rio Rosario near Ruta 51 from Salta to San Antonio de los Cobres. The railway is called "Tren de las nubes" (train to the clouds) and leads up to an elevation of 4220 m at the Polvorilla viaduct. The railroad was built in 1948 (construction started in 1921!) with a length of 217 km nowerdays. The Train to the Clouds originally left from Salta, and even left from Salta for a while as a tourist attraction too. It was 573 km in its earlier days, and joined Salta and Socompa pass in Chile. But after years of repairs and a few accidents, the train now leaves from San Antonio de Los Cobres only. - scanned slide, Minolta X700

From Salta (1000 m) we drove on the Ruta Nacional 51 west into the Andes, up to an altitude of about 4200 m. The first stage lead through the flooded valley of Rio Rosario. As you can see, the river has still enough space for inundation here. - scanned slide, Minolta X700

After a flight from Buenos Aires to Salta we picked up our rental car here and startet our 7600 km long trip all the way south to Ushuaia. The car was a brand new Renault Kangoo, not just the appropriate type of car for these roads. The church has been built in 1796. - scannes slide, Minolta X700