Fiambalá → Santa María

Fiambalá → Santa María

Date: Saturday, April 17, 2027 · Distance: ~255 mi · Driving time: ~6h 15m (excluding stops) · Open in Google Maps

Road surfaces
Asphalt · 179 mi · 70%
Paved · 69 mi · 27%
Unpaved · 3 mi · 1%
Unknown · 3 mi · 1%
Concrete · 2 mi · 1%

The day begins in hot water and ends in one of the quieter corners of the Calchaquí Valleys. Between the termas and the camp there is the long backtrack south, a stretch of flat Catamarca scrubland, and lunch in Belén before the road north delivers the first taste of the valley country ahead.

The Termas

Camp is broken at 7:30 am — fifteen minutes before sunrise, with the cordillera still dark against a lightening sky. The 15-kilometre drive north on Ruta Provincial 34 to the Termas de Fiambalá takes only minutes, and the TR4 arrives at the complex gates just before 8:00 am as the morning shift opens. The ticket, bought the previous evening at the Secretaría de Hacienda y Finanzas in Fiambalá town — open until 9:00 pm — covers entry to the full complex for the morning turn, which runs until 1:00 pm.

The Complejo Termal sits at around 1,900 metres in a narrow granite canyon barely 50 metres wide, its walls rising nearly 100 metres on either side. Fourteen stone pools are stepped into the hillside at progressively higher temperatures — the water emerges from the rock at up to 60°C at the source and cools as it descends through each successive pool, from the small, intensely hot upper pools to the more temperate lower ones. At this hour the canyon is in shadow, the pools steam against the cold morning air, and the light arrives slowly over the canyon rim as the sun clears the cordillera. It is the most civilised start of the trip — a morning soak before the road, rather than after it.

South Through Tinogasta

After the termas, the route returns south through Fiambalá town, then continues on Ruta Nacional 60 to Tinogasta before picking up Ruta Nacional 40 northward. This backtrack — roughly an hour to Tinogasta — is the price of the Fiambalá detour, and it is a flat, uncomplicated drive through open pre-puna terrain that requires nothing but forward momentum. The road is good, the landscape is wide and spare, and the Sierra de Fiambalá recedes in the mirror. Tinogasta, a junction town of adobe and low buildings on the Río Abaucán, is a fuel stop and nothing more — fill up here before the long run north on Ruta 40.

Belén — Lunch

Belén arrives by early afternoon — the largest town in this stretch of Ruta 40 and the undisputed capital of the Catamarca textile tradition. Known as the Cuna del Poncho (the cradle of the poncho), Belén has maintained an unbroken lineage of handloom weaving in llama and sheep wool since colonial times, and the artisan market on Calle Lavalle is the place to find genuine pieces rather than imports. The main plaza is shaded and unhurried, with a handful of restaurants serving regional menú del día — locro, humita, empanadas baked in clay ovens, and the slow-braised meats of the northwest. Lunch here before continuing north.

The Museo Arqueológico Cóndor Huasi, two blocks from the plaza, holds one of the most significant pre-Columbian collections in Argentina — over 1,000 pieces spanning 10,000 years from the preceramic period through to Inca contact, including ceramics of the Condorhuasi and Aguada cultures whose abstract zoomorphic forms are unlike anything produced elsewhere in the region. It is worth a look if time allows, though the road north still has its best surprises ahead.

Fifty kilometres north of Belén, the village of Hualfín is worth a spontaneous stop if the pace allows. Pozo Verde — a narrow red canyon with a series of emerald-green mineral pools at its floor — is accessible on foot from the west side of Ruta 40 just past the football ground. The Capilla Nuestra Señora del Rosario in the village, built in 1770, is one of the oldest colonial churches in Catamarca. Neither requires a commitment; both reward a pause if the day has been kind with time.

Arrival: Santa María

Santa María de Yokavil sits at the northern end of the Catamarca stretch of Ruta 40, where the road crosses into the heart of the Calchaquí Valleys. The town takes its full name from the Valle de Yokavil — a Quechua word whose etymology, according to the Jesuit chronicler Lozano, derives from a term for the act of penetrating the mountain, which seems apt for a valley pressed between the Nevado de Aconquija to the east and the cordillera to the west. It is a quiet, agreeable town with two tree-lined plazas, a good regional restaurant scene, and a pace that makes the long day feel finished rather than interrupted.

The Museo Arqueológico Eric Boman on Plaza General Belgrano holds the valley's most important pre-Columbian collection — its centrepiece is a copper mask dated to around 1000 BC, considered one of the oldest metal objects found in the region, alongside Diaguita and Inca-era ceramics, textiles, and funerary urns. The municipal campsite is three blocks from the centre on Sarmiento 700 — hot showers, parrillas, power outlets, and a pool. Settle in, eat on the plaza, and rest. Tomorrow the road runs 80 kilometres north to Cafayate through the canyon country of the Quebrada de las Conchas.