There are two ways to reach Susques from San Antonio de los Cobres, and this is the gentler of them — a gravel run across the open puna, a stretch of pavement along the flank of the Salinas Grandes, and an hour spent on one of the great salt deserts of South America before the day settles into Susques, a staging post for tomorrow's crossing into Chile.
Onto the Puna
The 10:00 am departure from San Antonio de los Cobres leaves on the gravel road heading north out of town, fuel taken care of at the start before the services thin out entirely. The road here is remote but well-used — a mining corridor as much as a tourist route — losing altitude gradually as it crosses the open puna, the vegetation reduced to scattered tola bushes and the occasional grazing llama, with volcanic peaks standing at intervals along the horizon. After roughly 96 kilometres of gravel, the road meets Ruta Nacional 52 at a junction near the eastern edge of the Salinas Grandes, and the surface turns to pavement for the remainder of the day.