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Divine summits

It takes a good ten hours by car to cross the Andes Cordillera fromSan Pedro de Atacama in Chile to Salta, in northern Argentina …All you have to do is to drive on the famous Ruta 40 and watch out your window as the mineral and gigantic film unfold before your eyes : white strokes of a paintbrush against a blue sky, red rocks, snow-covered peaks that reach more than 6000 metres. After the Paso de Jama border post, the route twists and turns in the immensity of the Puna, offering in the background the view of salty lakes with Azur reflections,  Dali scenery, mountains eroded by the winds and cool air. Your arrival at Salinas Grandes (salt mines) is extraordinary in more than one way. The light reflection is so strong, that it is impossible to take your sunglasses off. On this salty lake with immaculate whiteness, harvesting is still performed using traditional methods and off in a distance, workers, phantom-like figures, are busy making objects for tourists to complement their meagre salaries. We leave for our attack of the peaks on Ruta 52, in direction of the Albra Potretillas pass. On the summit, the grandiose view plunges over 32 kilometres of bends that twist in the dizzy Cuesta de Lipan. Here vegetation has been grafted on minerals showing a set of “demoiselles coiffées” (a striking set of narrowly-tapered rock columns), multi-coloured rocks, precipices… We are in the heart of Quebrada de Humahuaca, the UNESCO world heritage. We leave the Purmamarca village which gives us the impression of going back in time, to enter into the highly touristic place of Noroestre : the Calchaquiès valleys and the grandiose scenery spiked with cactuses. We end this ‘dizzy-making day’ near Salta in a stately mansion that dates back to the XIX^th century : the House of Jasmines, an ideal romantic stopover to relax after crossing the Andes.



The wine summits


The schedule for this new day starts off well :  the Estancia Colomé in the heart of Argentinean vineyards. But before achieving our objective, we have to climb up the Los Cardones National Park pass. To reach it, we take Cuesta del Obispo, one of the most spectacular passes of the Noroestre : a narrow twisting route often broken up, in a green setting, shrouded in mist. Once the Piedra del Molino pass, 3348 m in altitude, is crossed,  the road goes through an army of cactuses and winds down towards the recta Tin Tin, a 18-km straight line that goes up to Cachi. We head in the direction of Cerro Tin Tin, a red, green and gray amphitheatre, where geological strata have been sculpted in rocky formations. Lost in bliss at 2300 m in altitude, the Estancia Colomé and its 11 rooms constitute the oldest bodega of Argentina (1831). The history of its vineyards planted between 2200 m and 3000 m in altitude goes back 150 years, when Malbec and the Cabernet Sauvignon were imported around the continent. With its some 39 000 hectares of biodynamic vineyards, closely supervised by Thibault Delmotte, the French oenologist in post since four years at the bodega, the Estancia Colomé is a very special place, far from all traces of civilization and where prestige and beauty are mixed. The initiator of this Bacchusian haven, is the Swiss business man Donald Hess (the international leader in the area of high quality wine), who fell head over heels for this « ideal place » protected by a micro climate. In the ultra-modern wine cellar, not less than 75 tanks for white and red wines. Work is underway for the highest vineyard in the world : 12 hectares planted at 3002m in altitude ! Wine cellar, organic gastronomy, tennis, swimming pool, horseback riding. The only ingredient lacking in this art of life was culture. That void was filled by Donald Hess’s latest crazy whims: the creation of a contemporary art museum, the first in the world to be entirely dedicated to the ‘artist of light’ James Turrell. Oscar Wilde said that « follies are the only things one never regrets ». At Colomé, follies are divine.