MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL IN Argentina

Riding the Quebrada de las Flechas by motorcycle is, for many riders, the most sought-after stretch of Argentina's Ruta 40 in Salta.

It's a 20km run of uneven gravel between Cafayate and Angastaco, where rock walls over 20 million years old lean almost vertical, forming narrow passages like the Corte del Ventisquero and the Corte de la Flecha.

It's the favorite section among travel YouTubers: the loose gravel demands constant traction through a lunar landscape found nowhere else.

Riding the Abra del Acay by motorcycle means tackling the highest point on all of Ruta 40 and the highest road pass in the Americas, at nearly 4,900 meters above sea level.

Locals call it the "nest of the white wind" — the road follows a pre-Hispanic route once used by Inca llama caravans carrying maize toward Cuzco, with an Inca tambo still visible along the way.

It's the ultimate trail-riding test in South America: you ride a narrow gravel ledge, climbing brutal grades where the bike loses up to 40% of its power from lack of oxygen.

Reaching Tolar Grande by motorcycle means riding 214km of gravel through one of the rawest, most isolated regions on the planet, crossing the Abra de Alto Chorrillos at 4,560 masl.

The landscape includes the Cono de Arita, an almost-perfect volcanic pyramid of salt and lava 200 meters tall, and the "ojos de mar" — hypersaline lagoons where CONICET scientists discovered living stromatolites in 2009, considered among the oldest living organisms on Earth.

There's no fuel in Tolar Grande: filling up in San Antonio de los Cobres is mandatory before crossing black volcanic deserts and endless salt flats.

Riding los 73 Malditos by motorcycle is the great global rite of passage on the way to Ushuaia — the name motorcycle travelers themselves gave this stretch of Ruta 40 in Patagonia ("the 73 cursed kilometers").

At Bajo Caracoles, a side road leads to the Cueva de las Manos, a UNESCO World Heritage site with cave paintings up to 9,000 years old.

The real challenge is the crosswind, which tops 130 km/h and forces you to ride with the bike fully leaned over just to hold a straight line.

Riding the Camino de las Altas Cumbres by motorcycle —the circuit that also loops through Los Gigantes— means crossing the Batolito de Achala, a granite massif between 350 and 500 million years old, exposed in Córdoba by the same tectonic uplift that raised the Andes.

The Altas Cumbres stretch (Provincial Route 34) was inaugurated in 1918 and climbs the Pampa de Achala to 2,000 masl, near Quebrada del Condorito National Park, home to Andean condors.

Córdoba is the rally capital of South America: this circuit combines impeccable, curvy pavement with a highly technical off-road detour through Los Gigantes, full of loose rocks and river crossings that push the suspension to its limit.

The road from El Chaltén to Lago del Desierto by motorcycle is just 37km of gravel, but several stretches offer direct views of the northeast face of Fitz Roy.

From the lake's shore, a short 2km trail leads to a panoramic lookout over the Huemul Glacier, the lake and the Fitz Roy massif.

The spot carries historical weight: it was the site of a border dispute with Chile in 1965, only resolved by international arbitration in 1994 in Argentina's favor.

Crossing the Paso de Agua Negra by motorcycle means riding one of the highest border crossings in the world, at nearly 4,780 masl between San Juan and Chile's Coquimbo region.

The pass only opens between December and April: the rest of the year it's buried under ice and snow, and it's famous for "penitentes" — pointed ice formations that never receive direct sunlight and persist season after season.

Riding up there feels like being in outer space: the sky turns dark blue from the altitude.

Crossing the Abra del Infiernillo by motorcycle (Provincial Route 307) means climbing from Acheral to 3,042 masl, the highest passable point in Tucumán, over a total of 110 km to Amaicha del Valle.

The road is famous for having 1,294 curves and draws around 123,000 tourists a year — on two wheels, without the traffic, it hits differently.

It shows a radical climate shift in just a few kilometers: you start out in the humid subtropical jungle (the Yungas), climb through the cloud ceiling, and once past the summit, the jungle gives way to a dry, high-altitude desert.

Taking Paso Córdoba by motorcycle instead of the paved Ruta de los Siete Lagos saves about 100km between Bariloche and San Martín de los Andes — just 160km of gravel in good condition through summer.

Riding the Circuito Grande by motorcycle in full covers about 245km, skirting Lakes Nahuel Huapi, Espejo, Correntoso and Traful, and crossing the Valle Encantado, a canyon of rock formations carved by the Limay river that look like medieval castles.

It's the wild, "rebellious" alternative to the paved route: a vertiginous off-road descent along a narrow track through loose rock.

La Ruta del Pehuén by motorcycle connects Villa Pehuenia with Aluminé through araucaria forests — a tree species that first appeared over 150 million years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.

These ancient forests grow on volcanic rock at the foot of the Copahue volcano and survive even when buried under ash — the same loose volcanic ash that makes this stretch technical on a bike.

It's the only place in the world where you can ride technical off-road over gray and black volcanic ash between turquoise lakes, with the pehuén's pine nut as the star of Aluminé's national festival.