Quebrada de las Conchas
Interesting facts
- The curved, roofless walls of the Anfiteatro, over 20 metres high, carry sound so well that concerts are held there and local musicians often play inside.
- The river in the gorge has several names along its course: it starts as the Calchaquí, becomes Las Conchas here, and later flows on as the Juramento and the Salado.
- Downstream, the river is called the Juramento because Manuel Belgrano had his troops swear allegiance to the Argentine flag at one of its fords in 1813.
- Just after receiving the Santa María River near Cafayate, the river turns sharply north-east and plunges into the gorge.
- The fossil frogs found near the Morales bridge belong to the pipids, the family that includes today's tongueless clawed frogs.
- The reserve straddles two ecoregions, the dry Chaco and the Monte of sierras and basins, and spans three departments of Salta Province.
- The name of nearby Cafayate is thought to come from the extinct Cacán language and is often translated as 'grave of sorrows'.
- The valleys around Cafayate, at about 1,683 metres, receive less than 250 mm of rain a year, and their signature wine grape is Torrontés.
Why it is worth it
South of the city of Salta, the Conchas River has cut a canyon through red, ochre and pale sedimentary rock, and along it wind and water have shaped a gallery of formations that local people have long named after what they resemble: the Toad, the Friar, the Castles, the Windows. The Quebrada de las Conchas, also called the Quebrada de Cafayate, lies in the Calchaquí Valleys of north-western Argentina, where the river breaks out through the mountains that close the eastern side of the valley, close to the wine town of Cafayate.
The most striking places are two natural chambers in the cliffs. The Garganta del Diablo, the Devil's Throat, is a narrow cleft that leads into the rock, and the Anfiteatro is a towering, roofless hall of reddish sedimentary walls. Both are thought to mark the paths of former waterfalls from wetter times, when concentrated runoff wore deep channels into the stone. Geologically the canyon is young, produced by tectonic movements within roughly the last two million years, while the rocks it exposes are far older and rich in fossils: Cretaceous strata with stromatolites and dinosaur footprints, fossil frogs near the Morales bridge, and a deposit of fossil fish at La Yesera from what is considered the last incursion of the sea into the continent, around 15 million years ago. Near Cafayate, Los Médanos is a field of fine wind-blown calcareous sand.
Since 1995 the canyon has been protected as a managed nature reserve of about 25,800 hectares, created by provincial decree to preserve its geological formations and fossil sites. It is also recognised as an important bird area, and archaeological work has shown that a section of the Inca road ran only a few metres from the line of today's highway. Cafayate itself, at the southern end, is the centre of a wine-growing district, with vineyards spreading across the valley floor at the foot of the mountains.
Getting there
National Route 68, which links the city of Salta with Cafayate, runs through the reserve along the Conchas River; the reserve lies about 90 km south-west of Salta. Cafayate is about 31 km from the site. The nearest airport is Martín Miguel de Güemes International Airport (SLA) in Salta, about 120 km away.
On these lists
-25.91667, -65.71667per Wikidata