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Poncho Tours

Casa
Argentina
Cerrillos
Poncho Tours

British owned tour company based in Salta, Argentina, specialising in tailor-made trips at affordable prices.
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We can arrange your holidays throughout North West Argentina, the Salares of Uyuni in southern Bolivia and the Atacama desert in Chile. British owned tour company specialising in tailor-made trips at affordable prices. We specialise in trips along the Wine Route of Argentina (Salta to Mendoza), explorations of the Inca North, and camping, hiking and mountain biking tours.

04/09/2024

This is the house that Gary built.... visiting our friends Gary (from Coventry, UK) and Malka (from Cusco, Peru) in their home territory of the Sacred Valley.

They've built a stunning new home tucked in the hills on the edge of Calca.

A warm welcome from friends we first met in Salta in 2015: Gary opened a bottle of wine (of course!) and Malka treated us to some great local food.

More to come about our visit there on my blog.

30/08/2024

Thanks to Satoshi & Shuli from the San Francisco Bay area for joining me on my first trip back in Argentina after my holidays. Together we explored the Quebrada de Humahuaca and Salinas Grandes.

18/08/2024

Home again after, phew, 86 days on the road in Peru, Poland, Italy, Germany & the UK seeing family and friends old and new.

Spring is coming soon in NW Argentina- what are you waiting for?

09/08/2024

Returning to the site of Sachsayhuaman, the Inca city on the hill which surveys the new capital of Cusco for the first time since 1999! With our friends Gary and Malka .sommelier who live in the Sacred Valley near Calca.

01/08/2024

As Snoop would say, there's a lot to unpick here.

This is an 18th century painting by an unnamed member of the cuzqueño school of mainly indigenous painters working under the guidance by Spanish priests and artists.

The Virgin Mary is suckling not just baby Jesus but San Pedro de Nolasco, a French Basque saint who dedicated the best years of his life to freeing Christian prisoners of the Moors during the Muslim occupation of what is now Andalusia.

San Pedro de Nolasco is the patron saint of Molinos in the Valles Calchaquies, the best conserved colonial town on our Classic wine route.

As you can see from this gallery, there are more conventional religious paintings from the cuzqueño school in the highly recommended Museo Regional de Cusco, Peru.

01/08/2024

As Snoop would say, there's a lot to unpick here.

This is an 18th century painting by an unnamed member of the cuzqueño school of mainly indigenous painters working under the guidance by Spanish priests and artists.

The Virgin Mary is suckling not just baby Jesus but San Pedro de Nolasco, a French Basque saint who dedicated the best years of his life to freeing Christian prisoners of the Moors during the Muslim occupation of what is now Andalusia.

He is the patron saint of Molinos in the Valles Calchaquies, the best conserved colonial town on our Classic wine route.

27/07/2024

Hiking with Poncho Tours along old Inca trails: Artem from the Ukraine with our guide Ale and Valeria & Pilar from Buenos Aires with Rodrigo .

18/07/2024

My salteña wife Alicia laughs at how I, a gr**go from the UK, chew coca, and encourage all our foreign guests to join me.

But this is a centuries-old ritual, as proved by the ceramic statue in the first photo, which dates back to the Nazca culture between 200BC and 700AD.

This is one of the artefacts in the excellent Museo de la Coca in Cusco, Peru, up the hill from the main square in the hippy-tinged San Isidro district (offering great views, as per photo 5.

Photos 3 and 4 show a painting of the Virgin Mary offering coca leaves, an example of the synthesis between indigenous folk traditions and Christianity in Latin America.

Later on, in the main square, we came across devotees mixing indigenous representations of abundance with traditional Christian images.

11/07/2024

Gaetano & Isabella from Italy joined our guide Rodrigo Bisbal for a trip through the Quebrada de Humahuaca up to the border with Bolivia, taking in highlights like the 14 Coloured Hill at Hornocal (photos 3 & 4) and Maimara's Painter's Palette (2).

They also found time for a horseride with Aldo (1).

25/06/2024

Jeremy and Mindy Flanagan and their daughters Meira & Elsa joined Poncho Tours for an action-packed three days in Jujuy province.

Llama trekking with , cooking class with celebrated chef Mercedes Costa (photo 3) and wine tasting .andino (4).

15/06/2024

Hiking the Inca trail with the Luk family from Germany: led by our guide Rodrigo Bisbal this is a little known stretch of the Camino Inca linking the mountain plateau with the Quebrada del Toro.

09/06/2024

Our guides Ale and Rodrigo hosted a group of three delightful couples from Buenos Aires, touring the Quebrada de Humahuaca and Iruya.

Thanks to Ana & Javo, Cecilia & Esteban, Fernando & Ana for choosing Poncho Tours.

04/06/2024

From our recent trip to Cusco: the main square featuring the Cathedral (photo 1) and a classic colonial-style balcony (9), the barrio of San Blas overlooking the valley (3 & 10), Santo Domingo church constructed on top of Inca and pre-Inca walls (4): there is so much more Inca construction (6) than I remember from my last visit 25 years ago!

29/05/2024

Our friends from Poland, Ale & Kasia, visited us in Salta recently and we took them to one of our favourite wineries, Burbujas de Altura in Cafayate.

25/05/2024

Exploring the Sacred Valley of Peru with our friends Gary and Malka .sommelier who live here, in Calca.

20/05/2024

Last tour of the season before Alicia & I take a break in Peru, UK and Europe- into the Quebrada de Humahuaca and mountain plateau with father and son Kendall & Ethan Gee from the USA.

15/05/2024

Autumn has well and truly arrived with a drop in temperature and a misty morning hike which reminds me of being in the UK!

With German, Laura and .h.santamaria to Potrero de Diaz nr Chicoana, a delightful hamlet tucked away off the road from the Valle de Lerma to the Valles Calchaquies.

10/05/2024

Alta Gracia is a delightful town in the hills south west of Cordoba city, with winding lanes and lakes with a feel of a Surrey village.

Famously, it's where the family of the young Che Guevara moved to help his asthma: their home has been a museum since the turn of the century (pix 2 to 6).

A stone's throw away is another "casa museo", once home to the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (pix 7 to 9).

The final photo is a detail from an intricately carved cupboard in the home of the French painter Gabriel Dubois.

02/05/2024

For me, morning is the best time for a short, easy hike (30 mins, mostly flat) to Los Estratos in the Quebrada de las Conchas, 20 mins drive north of Cafayate. Early if you can before it gets too hot! Here are Nick and Alicia from with our long-time friends Alejandro and Kasia who live in Poland. Long ago visitors may remember Ale as one of our former guides, David!

22/04/2024

Cordoba Cathedral is the oldest church in Argentina, dating from 1574, though it doesn't feel that old as construction took a couple of centuries!

Another sign at the entrance gives the date of founding as 1599, the year after Susques church, still with its adobe mud floor, a favourite stop on our trips through the Altiplano and to Chile.

The Cordoba features sumptuous decoration, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries.

17/04/2024

I don't think I will ever get tired of sharing this hike at La Yesera, nr Cafayate, with guests like and friends like Alejandro and Kasia, over here visiting from Poland... and with my wife Alicia!

11/04/2024

This is probably the biggest flock of vicuña I've ever seen in one place in 16 years of doing private tailor-made tours.

Grazing on the road to Hornocal, completely unconcerned by passing traffic, on my trip in mid-March with Ramesh from London.

Once reduced to a few hundred worldwide, this high altitude cameloid (from the same family as the llama, guanaco and alpaca) has been thriving thanks to heavier rainfall in the Altiplano and high mountains.

07/04/2024

Misty hike for the three muchachos, Oscar, Nick and Fernando .h.santamaria to the waterfall at El Alisal at the first viaduct along the old Train to the Clouds line on the railway to Antofagasta, Chile.

01/04/2024

Michelle & David Tugwell, Stephen & Tracey H***e joined Ale & Nick from for tours of the Valles Calchaquies and Quebrada de Humahuaca.

24/03/2024

Palm Sunday mass at Sta Teresita church in Cerrillos today.

Holy Week (Semana Santa) is a great time to visit the north west because of the vibrant religious parades: though if you're not already here you'll find it hard to get anywhere to stay!

For those of you are here, or planning to be (I will be in the Quebrada de Humahuaca this week before returning home for the long weekend), enjoy...

23/03/2024

Thanks to Simge from Turkey for these close-ups of the landscape during our hike up to the Garganta del Diablo in Tilcara.

The landscape here is so stunning you sometimes forget the beauty that is underfoot.

19/03/2024

Vendimia (wine harvest) with the stunning background of the Painter's Palette in Maimara.

They are producing interesting criollo varieties from small producers throughout the Quebrada de Humahuaca, and excellent Malbec from their own vineyards, planted in 2019.

They have also laid Syrah, Chardonnay and Semillon: coming soon!

There will be more about this new winery on a forthcoming blog....

16/03/2024

Highlights of the Quebrada de Humahuaca & Salinas Grandes with Nida & Simge from Turkey.

11/03/2024

The skies are stormy but Hornocal was accessible again after the road had been cut off for days by landslides. We also enjoyed a stroll round Humahuaca with Simge & Nida from Turkey.

08/03/2024

Our guest from Sheffield, UK, Jane Stevens, enjoying a wine tasting .andino in the Quebrada de Humahuaca. River in full flow after the rain!

06/03/2024

On the slow road from Mendoza to Salta via Talampaya national park (photo 5) in La Rioja (2, and 10) and the Inca site of Shinkal in Catamarca (1) Angastaco in Salta and many others along the way.

01/03/2024

That top o'the world feeling at the Ventisqueros viewpoint of the Quebrada de las Flechas nr Angastaco.

This is on the road from Cachi to Cafayate, part of our Classic wine route- or in this case the Wine & History tour from Mendoza to Salta.

25/01/2024

Hiking in Talampaya national park with our ever-informative guide Sergio. Peter and Anthony from Oz joined me while their wives Sharon & Fiona took it easy at Tres Cruces wine lodge in Villa Union. We crossed paths with a couple of mara and a guanaco.

22/01/2024

Your Wine & History tour can now begin north of Salta in the Quebrada de Humahuaca. Here with Anthony, Fiona, Peter and Sharon from Melbourne, Australia enjoying the excellent Amanecer Andino wines among the highlights of Jujuy province like Hornocal and the Cuesta de Lipan.

En route to Mendoza with

20/01/2024

Wildflowers on the hike from Iruya to San Juan village we did in mid-December. I'm afraid I don't know the names of any of them- can anyone help me out?

The last on the bushy plant is panti, which gives its name to the hill, Panti Pampa.

12/01/2024

On the road to Iruya is one of my favourite folk shrines to the "saints" of Gauchito Gil (here nursed in his final hours by San La Muerte himself), Difunta Correa and San Expedito (the latter being the only one actually recognised by the Catholic church).

Before crossing the various rivers to Iruya, stop for a moment in Iturbe, a town that grew up around the railway line which took rural workers from here to labour in the sugar fields to the south east.

Though it seems like a stronghold of the (much tarnished) militant Tupac Amaru workers co-op, its square is named after one of Argentina's better Presidents, the Radical Irigoyen.

09/01/2024

On my recent trip to San Juan village nr Iruya it was a pleasure to help 72-year-old Leonardo and his great nephew Seba with the harvest of alfalfa. Rolled up into bundles and carried across river and uphill on their backs.

29/12/2023

Christmas tasting .andino with the Pitre family from New York. Amanecer Andino is one of the few wineries set up for visitors in the ever growing wine region of the Quebrada de Humahuaca. Many thanks to Luciana for hosting us!

25/12/2023

Purmamarca church on Christmas Eve.

20/12/2023

On Day 2 of our Iruya hike we climb 500m altitude up a steep hill from the riverbed of San Juan to a magnificent viewpoint of 3,500m overlooking both valleys before descending to San Isidro for lunch. It's only 7km but takes around 6 hours. Then we followed the hillpath and riverbed back to Iruya (also 7km, but in 3 hours).

Dirección

Cerrillos
4403

Página web

http://www.ponchotours.com/

Notificaciones

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