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When to go
to northern Argentina by motorcycle
There isn't one good month and eleven bad ones. There are two separate problems, rain down low and frost up high, and they almost never happen at the same time. Below are ten years of figures so you can choose on data instead of a hunch.
and OCT
These are the months when the rain has stopped down low and it isn't freezing at night up high yet. Salta gets 51 mm in May against 308 in January, and in San Antonio de los Cobres the average low is -5.5 °C in July: the two don't sort themselves out in the same month, but you can dodge both.
The two problems
of the year
One happens down low, in the valley and on the cliff road, and it's water. The other happens up high, in the Puna, and it's cold. They're two different scales, so they get two charts rather than one with two axes.
Rainfall in Salta
Millimetres per month, average from 2016 to 2025
Overnight low in the Puna
San Antonio de los Cobres, 3,775 m. Average daily low
Depending on where
you're headed
The altitude of the destination matters more than the month. A valley route works almost all year; crossing the Puna in July is another matter.
May to October. In summer it rains twenty days a month in Salta, almost always in the afternoon. The rest of the year this is the easiest of the six routes.
April to October. The Quebrada de las Conchas closes with flash floods when it rains hard: in the wet season it's worth asking before you set off.
April to November. It's one of the driest areas: one rainy day a month between May and August. Winter nights are cold, but the road is fine.
March to November. The Cuesta del Obispo is the stretch that gets difficult in the wet: mountain gravel and tight curves.
March to November. Three days and a hundred and forty-four kilometres of gravel. In the rain, gravel is a different animal.
March, April, May, September, October, and November. Up here cold rules, not water: at 3,775 m it freezes every night from April to October.
Month by month,
place by place
The five places that make the difference on the routes, from the 1,187 m of our base to the 3,775 m of San Antonio.
| Place | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average high, in degrees | ||||||||||||
| Salta1,187 m | 26.1° | 25° | 23.3° | 20.6° | 17.4° | 16.3° | 17° | 20.2° | 23.2° | 24.7° | 25.6° | 25.7° |
| Cachi2,280 m | 24.8° | 24.2° | 24.2° | 23.8° | 21.6° | 19.9° | 20.7° | 21.5° | 23.9° | 25.8° | 26.5° | 25.8° |
| Humahuaca2,939 m | 22.5° | 22.6° | 22.8° | 22.7° | 20.6° | 18.5° | 19.2° | 20.1° | 23° | 24.7° | 24.7° | 23.9° |
| San Antonio de los Cobres3,775 m | 18.8° | 18.3° | 18.6° | 17.2° | 13.7° | 11.1° | 12° | 13° | 16.3° | 18.8° | 20.2° | 20.1° |
| Cafayate1,683 m | 26.9° | 26.5° | 25.4° | 23.4° | 20.7° | 19.2° | 19.8° | 21.7° | 23.9° | 25.5° | 26.9° | 27° |
| Average low, in degrees | ||||||||||||
| Salta1,187 m | 16.5° | 16° | 14.8° | 12.4° | 8.1° | 4.5° | 4.5° | 5.3° | 8.6° | 11.6° | 14° | 15.5° |
| Cachi2,280 m | 13.6° | 13.2° | 12.1° | 10.5° | 8.1° | 6.4° | 6.7° | 6.4° | 8° | 9.8° | 11.8° | 13° |
| Humahuaca2,939 m | 10.5° | 10.2° | 9.6° | 8° | 5.8° | 4° | 4.4° | 4.1° | 6° | 7.8° | 9.3° | 10.5° |
| San Antonio de los Cobres3,775 m | 4.8° | 4.2° | 2.6° | -1.2° | -3.5° | -5.3° | -5.5° | -4.8° | -3.2° | -1° | 1.7° | 4° |
| Cafayate1,683 m | 16.9° | 16.6° | 15.2° | 13.1° | 10.2° | 8.3° | 8.4° | 9° | 10.8° | 12.8° | 15.1° | 16.3° |
| Rainfall, in millimetres | ||||||||||||
| Salta1,187 m | 308 | 264 | 230 | 144 | 51 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 25 | 85 | 149 | 254 |
| Cachi2,280 m | 115 | 89 | 42 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 61 |
| Humahuaca2,939 m | 112 | 84 | 51 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 23 | 42 | 74 |
| San Antonio de los Cobres3,775 m | 79 | 68 | 34 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 53 |
| Cafayate1,683 m | 145 | 117 | 107 | 90 | 45 | 29 | 16 | 39 | 51 | 82 | 90 | 126 |
Source: Open-Meteo (ERA5 reanalysis), 01/01/2016 to 31/12/2025. These are ten-year averages: useful for choosing a month, not for knowing what Tuesday will be like.
Tell us your dates
and we'll tell you which route
If your dates are already booked, the month decides what works and what to leave for another time. We can settle that in two messages.