The Ruta Nacional 9 is one of the most important highways Argentina. She leads from Buenos Aires over numerous large cities La Quiaca in the far north-west and is rich in attractions of all kinds. The important colonial cities are located on it Cordoba, San Miguel de Tucuman, Salta and San Salvador de Jujuy, but also the busy metropolis Rosario, the oldest city in Argentina Santiago del Estero as well as numerous cultural monuments and nature reserves.
The northernmost part that Quebrada de Humahuaca, was included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage at the same time. The road is also part of the PanamericanaNetwork.
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The Ruta Nacional 9 is the most important development axis in Argentina. More than 70 percent of the Argentine population live in their catchment area. If you want to get to know the Argentine cities and their culture, this route is the right place for you.
The route goes on the main connecting route between Buenos Aires and the Silver City, which was important in the colonial era Potosí - the largest city in South America at the time - as well as the capital of the Spanish colonial empire Lima back. It was fortified early, supported numerous city foundations and was under the name Camino Real del Perú known. With the advent of the railroad around 1900, it lost some of its importance in between, but one of the most important railway lines also largely followed this road. In 1943 the final street was inaugurated. Over time, the route changed in several provinces, but the basic route was never touched. The entire road has now been paved, and a considerable part is built like a motorway or as an expressway.
Today the Ruta 9 leads through the three largest cities in Argentina - Buenos Aires (13 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area), Córdoba (1.5 million) and Rosario (1.3 million) - as well as through the fifth largest city Tucumán (800,000) and the sixth largest city of Salta (500,000). In all these cities, as well as in San Salvador de Jujuy (300,000 inhabitants), there are numerous buildings to visit, with Rosario being the most modern architecturally and as the capital of the Art Nouveau-Movement applies in Argentina. Only in the oldest city in Argentina, Santiago del Estero (350,000 inhabitants), there are unfortunately only a few preserved colonial buildings.
But nature also offers a lot of variety, but not at first glance, because the first 800 km lead through the flat, green and monotonous pampa grass plain. In the northern Sierras de Cordoba begins to change. After a bit through the Chaco in Santiago del Estero the subtropical jungle becomes the from Tucumán Yungas reached. Between Salta and Jujuy, the road goes all the way into this green forest landscape, until behind Jujuy the dry Quebrada de Humahuaca, characterized by multicolored mountain ranges, is the highlight of the nature experience. The last part leads over the almost surreal, dust-dry and steppe to desert-like Puna plateau. In Tres Cruces the highest point is reached at 3,650 m.
preparation
No special preparation is necessary for the route. Only those who drive after Bolivia If you want to travel on, you should get the necessary papers, especially the Carnet de passage (hoja de ruta) in the Bolivian consulate in Buenos Aires, otherwise a forced break of up to three days at the border may result.
getting there
Buenos Aires as a starting point is easily accessible from all other cities in Argentina as the capital and also the country's international gateway via the Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport. All of the country's major rental car companies are represented here; theoretically you can start driving at the airport. There are also numerous buses from Buenos Aires along the route, and there is a train three times a week to Cordoba and one to Rosario; so that you can cover the entire way with public transport.
The Ruta 9 begins on the ring road Avenida General Paz on the border between Buenos Aires and the city Vicente López.
Here we go
Buenos Aires - Rosario
The first part of the route is expanded to the motorway and does not have any major attractions. The town San Pedro (km. 162), located roughly in the middle, has very beautiful beaches on the Río Paraná and can be used for a first break. Also San Nicolás de los Arroyos (km. 227) can be worth a stop: the 100,000-inhabitant regional metropolis is known nationwide as a place of pilgrimage and has a pretty old town from the 19th century and a beautiful river bank.
The first real attraction, however, is Rosario (km. 288). The metropolis, which was only founded in the middle of the 18th century, is now one of the most modern and cosmopolitan in Argentina. The waterfront area on the Río Paraná was restored in the 1990s, and the bridge over the Paraná to Victoria, opened in 2002, has since become another attraction of the city. Rosario is known for its cultural centers and museums, its Art Nouveau district Paseo del Siglo, the Paraná Museum for nature lovers and above all for the Argentine monument par excellence: that Monument to the Argentine flag, which exudes a bit of nationalist pathos, but is beautifully located on a hill near the shore.
Rosario - Cordoba
The Ruta 9 continues, similar to a motorway, to Córdoba (at the beginning of 2010 a 90 km long section was missing in the far east of the province of Córdoba). Small provincial towns alternate here, the most important of which are Marcos Juarez (km. 445), Bell Ville (km. 502, the place where modern football was invented) and above all Villa María (km. 558), which is a pretty river bank on the Río Ctalamochita owns, but otherwise also has few attractions.
Cordoba (km. 702) is the second largest city in Argentina and an important cultural and educational metropolis. The oldest university in Argentina was founded here in 1613 by the Jesuits, who are also responsible for many of the buildings in the baroque colonial style that are now under monument protection and are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Furthermore, the city offers a large number of museums and theaters as well as the most famous handicraft market in Argentina, the Paseo de las Artes in the old town of Güemes.
Detour to the Sierras de Córdoba
A detour to the Sierras de Cordoba, a low mountain range with peaks up to 2,800 m high. They start about 20 km west of Cordoba. Almost every kind of mountain sport can be practiced in the sierras and the rivers invite you to swim. Popular travel destinations are La Cumbre, La Falda, Santa Rosa de Calamuchita, Cosquín (with an important folklore festival in January), the "Alpine enclaves" with Central European architecture Villa General Belgrano (with the largest "Oktoberfest" in Argentina) and La Cumbrecita, the ecovillage San Marcos Sierras, the alternative esoteric and ufologist center Capilla del Monte with the Uritorco-Berg and above all Villa Carlos Paz, a booming holiday metropolis with a casino and a rich nightlife.
Cordoba - Santiago del Estero - San Miguel de Tucumán
The motorway ends after Córdoba, and the intermediate sections become more interesting, even if the character of the route remains flat despite the interspersed mountain ranges. Jesús María (km. 751) has a Jesuit restancia and a rodeo and folklore festival in January. Cerro Colorado, located in the northern Sierras de Córdoba, is a first archaeological attraction: here the most important cave paintings of central Argentina were exposed. The next big city Santiago del Estero (km. 1147), founded in 1554, may seem a bit disappointing at first glance, as one might hope for more from the oldest city in the country. It is a subtropical, very hot in summer, but also quite poor city, in which you have to look for the colonial buildings, but there are at least some beautiful parks with beaches. The health resort Termas de Río Hondo (km. 1205) offers the most important thermal springs in Argentina and also a large reservoir, which is a popular bathing destination in summer.
San Miguel de Tucuman (km. 1291) is the fifth largest city in Argentina and has almost a million inhabitants including the suburbs. The city is beautifully situated on a slope of the Sierra del Aconquija, which is overgrown with subtropical jungle. Both colonial buildings and monumental structures from the 19th century (e.g. the government palace) can be found in the center. For a long time, Tucumán was considered the city with the hottest nightlife in Argentina, until the hustle and bustle was put to an end in 2006 with strict curfew regulations. But even today there is still a lot of cultural activity.
San Miguel de Tucuman - Salta
After Tucumán, the road leads into the for the first time on a short stretch of motorway Yunga, the subtropical cloud and rainforest of northwest Argentina. El Cadillal is a beautiful, calm bathing lake that marks the transition to the rougher Chaco. However, the road remains in the green jungle terrain and leads through the medium-sized towns Rosario de la Frontera (km. 1423) and San José de Metán (km. 1460), which are dominated by agriculture.
Finally will Salta (km. 1594) reached. Salta is considered to be the best preserved colonial city in Argentina. However, laws that granted tax breaks for "neo-colonial" buildings well into the 20th century helped a lot. The old town is nevertheless extremely worth seeing with its many churches. Salta is also a metropolis of folklore, a guitar-driven folk music with gaucho flair and a big pinch of melancholy, but also lively dance rhythms like that Chacarera offers. Furthermore, it is the city of Empanada, a filled dumpling that is considered one of the most typical dishes in Argentine cuisine.
Salta - San Salvador de Jujuy
After Salta, the Ruta 9 winds its way into one of its most attractive parts of the landscape: the Cornisa, a winding mountain road that leads directly through the subtropical jungle. Behind the top of the pass there are two reservoirs with good bathing and water sports facilities, both of which are still in the jungle: Las Maderas and La Ciénaga. If you want to spend the night near the lakes, you can do so in the city El Carmen (km. 1666), which otherwise has few sights, do.
Note: If you are in a hurry, you can avoid the winding section by taking route 34 and then route 66. Some of these roads have four lanes.
San Salvador de Jujuy has one of the most scenic locations of all Argentine cities: the city is located at a river mouth in a very narrow valley lined with mountains covered with subtropical vegetation. In the center, buildings from the colonial era alternate with those from the 19th century, but most of them are modern today. There are numerous beautiful excursion destinations in the area: from the small street village San Antonio about the thermal baths of Reyes, the small, green-blue mountain lakes of Yala to the wildly romantic Tiraxi in a river valley right in the jungle.
San Salvador de Jujuy - La Quiaca
Probably the highlight of the Ruta 9 is this Quebrada de Humahuaca, a narrow mountain valley that begins behind San Salvador de Jujuy and is still in a very pristine state. The small towns in this valley look as if time had stood still in the 19th century, and their buildings are well preserved. Numerous churches and chapels in the simple colonial style have survived the centuries and are cherished and looked after to this day. The valley is also very scenic: initially shaped by the subtropical jungle, the terrain changes behind Volcán to a barren highland vegetation, framed by multicolored mountains, but made so fertile by irrigation that numerous small farms have survived.
At Purmamarca It is worth making a short detour (2 km) to admire the Siebenfarbenberg, one of the symbols of Argentina. The still very original villages Tumbaya (km. 1737) and Maimará show what the entire valley landscape may have looked like before the tourism boom (which began around 1980). In Tilcara (km. 1772), the most popular holiday resort in the Quebrada, a 15-day folklore festival takes place in January. The instruments here are different from those in the lowlands and lead over to the Andean music of Bolivia and Peru. Humahuaca (km. 1814), the largest city in the Quebrada, is known for what is probably the best preserved old town in Argentina and for the carnival in February, which has now become a tourist spectacle. If you are in the Quebrada at this time, you should definitely book all accommodation in advance.
Behind Humahuaca the landscape changes and you step into the plateau of the Puna one, a dry steppe with reddish colored earth. The one located in a narrow ravine Iruya (50 km east of Route 9) is so spectacularly located that today tourism is limited by a bus that deliberately only runs a few days a week. In contrast, there is little going on in Tres Cruces at an altitude of more than 3,600 meters in the midst of surreal, round mountain ranges. Abra Pampa (km. 1904) is suitable for a break, but otherwise little worth seeing.
In La Quiaca The Ruta finally ends at the border with Bolivia (km. 1976 to 1979). The city itself is not really worth seeing as it is a typical border town. It even looks like a dormitory, as the shopping center is in the Bolivian Villazón is located. Possible detours go to the old small towns Santa Catalina and Yavi.
security
The entire route is very busy. There is no need to fear criminals, but hitchhiking in the outskirts of the city should be avoided. However, the overload of the Ruta is problematic on some routes, especially between Córdoba and Tucumán and on the undeveloped routes in Salta. The accident rate is high there, so you should be particularly careful.
trips
In Bolivia the route runs over the Ruta 14 further. The travel destinations are on this road, which is currently (finally!) Being paved Tupiza and Potosí. From there you can go to Sucre, Oruro and La Paz travel on. There are also buses on this route; there is also a train from Villazón to Oruro.
