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Land Rover’s Road To The Clouds: Argentina, 2007
“I figured you out some five minutes in,” said my Land Rover instructor, Jim Swett. “As long as you’re focused on the road, you’re fine. It’s when you look elsewhere,” he said, pointing to the radio, mirror, and glove compartment, “that things go wrong.”
We were in a convoy of diesel-powered Land Rover Discovery 3’s navigating a narrowing dirt road on the Paso Abra del Acay, which, at over 16,000 feet, is the highest pass in South America negotiable by vehicle.
To give a little geographic context: we were somewhere to the west of La Poma, Argentina (population 600), in a desolate valley that looked like the surface of the moon with scrubby cactus and a sparkling river softly running through it. The edges of the valley were terra cotta baked cliffs whose sheer drop-offs would make you cross yourself twice (even if you’ve never crossed yourself before). And I was trying to change the music on my iPod (the guys hated my mix) while driving into tunnels of dust kicked up by the fleet ahead of me.
We were tracing part of an ancient Inca trail now called Ruta (route) 40, a 3100-mile road that runs the length of Argentina. It’s also the road featured in the movie Motorcycle Diaries, which traced the social revolutionist Che Guevara’s travels through South America.
Our excursion was less political, but no less intense as far as the roads (if you could call them that) were concerned. Coined “Road to the Clouds,” our journey was named after the railroad line “Train to the Clouds” that runs from Salta to Chili. The treacherous route, which has been closed for years, took 20 years to complete and claimed the lives of many of the thousands of workers who laid the track. Locals say there are plans to re-open it in the “near future.”
We navigated some of the “wildest and least traveled roads on the planet” (according to legend). Our fleet of Land Rovers spent five days driving past ruins predating the Inca civilization, vineyards and verdant valleys, deep gorges and burnt orange-colored canyons dotted with hundred year-old cacti. When we reached our final cruising altitude of over 16,000 feet, I looked out at knotty grasslands dotted with grazing sheep and llamas and felt like I’d reached the end of the earth.
The adventure started at Patios de Cafayate Hotel and Spa in the Calchaqui Valley, the wine growing center of Argentina. The spa is known for its wine therapy which consists of soaking in waters treated with Cabernet Sauvignon while drinking a glass of it. We drank a lot of Cabernet that night but after that we were warned to go slow on the booze due (literally) to the steep roads ahead.
Bob Burns, the lead instructor warned us, “This is an aggressive trip with long days and altitude is a big factor. Rule of thumb—vehicles lose 3% of power for every 1,000 feet and we will feel the loss of more than ½ of our own power.” Our trip would take us from 1500 feet to 7500 feet on the first day, over 16,000 feet the second day and back down to 12,500 feet the third. In other words, quite a jump--we were advised to drink lots of water.
The second night we camped out—if you could call it that. The only thing we had to do was pitch our own tents before a dinner of Argentinean steaks and sausages on a bonfire. It seemed everyone except me was then shortly lulled to sleep by a local musician’s guitar –the camp was alive with the sound of snoring!
In any event, we were ready to rock the next morning—our wake up music was “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses and “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham! And my co-pilots thought MY iPod mix was odd…
That day, my instructor, Lee Magee, wasn’t talking much. Or correcting me, I should say. I was certainly feeling confident. And I had to. Because this was the day that we took the windiest roads possible to the top of the Andes, where you could see Bolivia to the right and grazing llamas to the left.
At one point, a member of our group chucked her wedding ring off the cliff, making a clean break from her ex-husband. Apparently the “Llama lady” who lives in a hut and sells hats and scarves on the side of that mountain got rid of her ex as well. Legend has it that she left her husband to live alone in the middle of nowhere with her three-year-old daughter and flock of animals. And once a month or so, she takes a 10-hour walk into town for supplies. The Land Rover people handed her a bunch of supplies and food. Maybe this month “Llama lady” can take a break!
That night we stayed at a youth hostel in San Antonio de Los Cobres, a mining town that is on the edge of the Train to the Clouds. That was also the night that our medical team came in handy. Several of the participants needed a hit of oxygen for altitude sickness.
The next day was all downhill to Salta City, where we said goodbye to the Land Rovers and decompressed with fine food, fine wines and a night of dancing wildly at a couple of local discos.
Land Rover stages a handful of adventure driving trips like these each year in Utah, Colorado, Africa and Argentina. But there’s one thing they never told me: everywhere we went-- from a tiny boarding school hours from the nearest town, to a lone farmer in the field or the “Llama woman” up on the pass, the Land Rover team gave out bags of food, school supplies, bread and plenty of good will.
For us journalists, Land Rover provided high-end camping complete with candles, nice soaps and plush towels in the outdoor bathrooms. In the quaint villages in the Calchaqui Valley, we downed small cups of strong export-quality coffee and ate slices of local gourmet pizza.
These “little” luxuries were part of the trip, but finding out about Land Rover’s work giving back to the communities in which we traveled made the trip a real experience.
The Wheels We Used: Land Rover Discovery 3
Winner of 96 international awards since its launch in 2004, the Land Rover Discovery 3 turbodiesel is not currently available in North America. However, Land Rover spokespeople say they are “currently researching the diesel option for North America and hope to have a resolution for the 2011 model year.”
The Discovery 3 is the same thing as the LR3 except that it is powered by a 2.7-liter TDV6 turbodiesel that produces 190 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque.
The Discovery 3 is built to handle any off-road situation with Land Rover’s patented Terrain Response System (TRS). The driver selects one of five terrain settings via a rotary dial on the center console, and TRS selects the most appropriate settings for the vehicle’s electronic traction and suspension control systems.
Oh, and besides all of the off-road capabilities (which most people will probably never use) this vehicle is simply smashing on real roads. And, as one would expect, the interior is luxed out with leather and wood.
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