Sierras of Cordoba Region Guide
Why Plan a Trip to Sierras of Cordoba the Smart Way
The Sierras of Córdoba are Argentina’s inland holiday country — low granite ranges, rivers, and a string of small towns that the rest of the country has been coming to for a century and a half, and which foreign visitors almost entirely miss.
The city of Córdoba itself is the second largest in Argentina and the oldest university town: its Jesuit Block, with a university founded in 1613, is UNESCO-listed along with five working estancias out in the countryside that supplied it.
In the hills, Alta Gracia has a Jesuit estancia and the house where Che Guevara spent his childhood, and the Camino de las Altas Cumbres climbs over two thousand metres through condor country to Mina Clavero.
And there is Cerro Colorado, where thousands of prehistoric paintings cover sandstone overhangs.
Cities and Areas
How to Experience Sierras of Cordoba
The city
Córdoba’s Jesuit Block — church, university, college and residence, all seventeenth-century and still in use — is UNESCO-listed, and the university is the oldest in Argentina and among the oldest in the Americas. The city is young, student-heavy and has the best nightlife outside Buenos Aires.
The Jesuit estancias
Five working farms in the countryside that financed the university: Alta Gracia, Jesus Maria, Santa Catalina, Caroya and La Candelaria. Santa Catalina is the most beautiful and is still privately owned and lived in.
The high road
The Camino de las Altas Cumbres climbs from the Punilla valley over the Pampa de Achala at above 2,000 metres — bare granite, wind and condors — and drops into the Traslasierra. Quebrada del Condorito national park is the place to watch Andean condors, which nest on the gorge walls and rise past the viewpoints on the thermals.
The hill towns
La Cumbre for paragliding and walking, Villa General Belgrano for its German-Swiss character and beer, Cosquin for folk music, and Mina Clavero and Nono in the Traslasierra.
Rock art
Cerro Colorado, with thousands of figures painted on sandstone overhangs over more than a thousand years.
Where to Find Authentic Cultural and Historical Character
The sierras are where Argentina holidays inland, and the region has a distinct and slightly self-mocking character of its own.
The Córdoba accent
Immediately recognisable anywhere in Argentina: a characteristic stretched, sing-song intonation with the stress falling oddly, which Argentines imitate constantly and which cordobeses are entirely happy about. The province also has a reputation for a particular kind of deadpan humour, and produces a disproportionate share of the country’s comedians.
The Jesuit inheritance
The order made Córdoba the intellectual centre of the southern part of the continent, founding the university in 1613 and running an integrated network of estancias to pay for it. The buildings survive largely intact and the university has never stopped operating.
Cuarteto
The region’s own music, and it exists nowhere else: a fast, bouncing two-beat rhythm driven by piano, accordion and bass, invented in Córdoba in the 1940s, danced in enormous halls, and firmly working-class. It is genuinely unlike anything in the rest of Argentine music.
Immigrant villages
German, Swiss and Italian settlement in the Calamuchita valley produced Villa General Belgrano, with its beer festival and alpine architecture.
Guevara
Ernesto Guevara spent his childhood at Alta Gracia, sent to the dry hill air for his asthma.
Travel Profile
- Cities and Areas 1
Responsible Travel Tips
The native forest is nearly gone. The bosque serrano and the chaco woodland that covered these hills have been reduced by well over ninety per cent through clearing, grazing and fire, and Córdoba province has one of the worst deforestation records in Argentina. The remaining fragments are in reserves, and the reforestation groups working here are worth supporting.
Fire is the immediate threat. Grass and scrub fires burn tens of thousands of hectares in the sierras most years, most of them started by people. Open fires are prohibited in the dry season, and the prohibition is absolute.
Water: the rivers are the reason people come, and they are also the water supply for a large city. Do not use soap in them, and take rubbish out.
Condors at Quebrada del Condorito nest on ledges; stay at the viewpoints and do not fly drones there.
Go midweek or off-season — the towns are overwhelmed in January.
When to Visit Sierras of Cordoba
March to May and September to November are the best months: warm days, cool nights, the rivers still running and the towns quiet.
January and February are the Argentine summer holidays, when the sierras fill completely — Villa Carlos Paz and the river towns are packed, prices double and the roads congest. It has its own atmosphere and it is not restful.
Summer is also when the rivers are at their best for swimming and when afternoon storms are heaviest.
June to August is cool and very dry, with cold nights, clear skies and excellent walking, and the high sierra can see frost and occasional snow.
Cosquin’s folk festival in late January and the rock festival that follows are the region’s biggest events, and Oktoberfest at Villa General Belgrano in October is the largest German-style beer festival in South America.
Travel Cost Levels in Sierras of Cordoba
What a day costs, by how you travel
Relative cost across the region
Lowest — the Traslasierra valley, the northern sierra and the small towns away from the main valley
Average — Córdoba city, La Cumbre, Villa General Belgrano
Highest — Villa Carlos Paz and the Punilla valley in January, when the whole country arrives
This is domestic holiday country and is priced for Argentines, which makes it very good value for a foreign visitor outside the summer peak.