THE VALLEY

Located at the foot of the highest peak in Cordoba, the Champaquí Mountain sitting at 2790 metres above sea level, the Traslasierra Valley is in a north-south position, flanked to the east by the Sierra Grande, which drops abruptly downwards, and the Sierras of Altautina and Pocho to the west.

Traslasierra Valley offers an exceptional environment characterised by its benign climate, its pure air, its diaphanous sky, and its 300 sunshiny days a year. Traslasierra offers visitors a majestic setting, part wild and part carpeted with leafy vegetation, enriched by the presence of rivers, streams and the large dam of La Viña, all on a stage of monumental proportions proper of the Sierra Grande. Moreover, the entire Traslasierra Valley has exuberant flora similar to that of the northwest, plus the chilca, the romerillo, the tabaquillo, and aromatic and medicinal herbs such as the poleo and the peperina.

The main watercourses are the Mina Clavero River, of cold waters, and the Panaholma River, of temperate waters. Both come together to give birth to the Los Sauces River with its characteristic ample sand beaches, which flows into the Engineer Medina Allende or La Viña Dam.

Three dams, an imposing mountain chain with the highest summits in the Province, volcanoes, a magnificent valley, palm trees, woodland, rivers, and localities with an adequate level of equipment, conform the package Traslasierra has to offer tourists.

Tourists visiting Traslasierra can basically enjoy both the tranquillity of the resorts and the thrill of adventure tourism. Its traditions and products are also worth knowing, with its black ceramics, sweets and alfajores, all wrapped up with the kindest and most amiable hospitality, standing out.
This region links two areas through the Road of the High Summits (Altas Cumbres). One of these is the North-western Area on the upper side, and the other the Traslasierra Area, which occupies the lower sector.

North-western Area
The action of man has left valuable testimonies such as the chapels of San Marcos Sierras, Salsacate and Las Palmas from the XVIII century, and that of La Higuera from the XIX century. This area also houses pre-Hispanic pictographic remains at Charquina, and testimonies of mining activity at La Bismutina.

Technology in the XX century contributed to stretch the tourist offer in the area with the construction of two dams and their respective reservoirs, which are Cruz del Eje and Pichanas Dams, both providing excellent conditions for the practice of fishing and aquatic sports. The Cruz del Eje Dam is notable for the length of its wall, which has the City of Cruz del Eje sitting on its northern end, on one the most important olive groves in the country, seat of the National Olive Festival, which takes place yearly. The Pichanas Dam is located 22 kilometres west of the Town of Soto, and it is an excellent spot for fishing and aquatic sports as well.

The natural forest of the zone with species such as aromos, chañares, breas, mistoles, and garabatos, have allowed the development of the honey industry whose main producer is San Marcos Sierras, which is also a notorious ambit of non-traditional culture where the Honey Festival is celebrated every year in February. Besides this activity, San Marcos is well known within the country and abroad due to its traditional culture, it is a settlement founded in the colonial era, and the quality of its environment.

The Town of Soto, La Higuera and San Carlos Minas succeed one after the other along the road to the south, surrounded by the local vegetation amongst which the palm trees stand out, giving the place a particular character.

Traslasierra Area
This region can be accessed both coming from the Northwest and from the Road of the High Summits and the Pampas of Achala, ascending up to 2100 metres with one of the most spectacular settings in the entire Province. Anciently inhabited by the Comechingones Indians, it is currently inhabited by people of Spanish and half-blooded origins.

Quebrada del Condorito National Park and Pampas of Achala Provincial Reserve constitute an outstanding part of the natural patrimony of the area. Besides, it has important patches of native vegetation with cultivation areas of potatoes, vineyards, aromatic plants and orchards of various fruit trees. This Valley flanked by the Sierra Grande, which in turn is dominated by the presence of the Champaquí Mountain, is an ideal place for mountaineering.

The most outstanding places are Mina Clavero, a true tourist centre in the area, the Town of Cura Brochero, Nono, which is known for its river of beautiful beaches and for its Rocsen Multifaceted Museum. Then come Las Rabonas, Los Hornillos, Las Rosas, Las Tapias and then the Town of Dolores, and further south San Javier, Luyaba, La Paz and Loma Bola.

The area is crisscrossed by innumerable streams coming down from the sierra ranges, conforming the Mina Clavero, Rugapampa, Panaholma and Nono Rivers, which create sandy Los Sauces River that finally flows into La Viña Dam, an outstanding 102-metre high dike, the biggest in the country, built between 1939 and 1944. Aquatic sports can be easily practiced at the reservoir, and you can find beaches of clear waters and sandy banks where to enjoy a day in open air on all of its rivers.

Other attractive and b characteristics in this area are the social and cultural aspects, where the black ceramics, and the production of sweets and fine regional wines, stand out.

WEATHER
The best month in Cruz del Eje is March, the warmest of them all although summer practically extends throughout the year.

ACCESS
This area can be accessed coming along the Road of the High Summits (Altas Cumbres), an outstanding engineering road project that goes across the Pampas of Achala, near Quebrada de Condorito National Park and Pampas de Achala National Reserve, which constitute a highlight regarding the natural patrimony of the area. The access itself has become an additional tourist attraction for you get an unparalleled panoramic vista of the entire valley when it ascends at 2000 metres above sea level. It can be accessed coming along the road linking it with the North-western Area, from Taninga towards the south.

ATTRACTIONS

CONDORITO NATIONAL PARK
It is a 50000-hectare piece of land surrounded by the 150000 hectares of Pampas de Achala National Park. This huge extension hosts a varied number of native flora and fauna, and it allows all those pulling over at the side of the road to contemplate it, feeling the low soaring of the condors that give their name to the Park amidst a setting of infinite silence. Condorito National Park is situated south of the mentioned Road of the High Summits, 100 kilometres away from the City of Cordoba.

CRUZ DEL EJE
The City of Cruz de Eje is situated in the northernmost end of the region of Traslasierra. It has an important dam, bearing the same name, that takes in the waters of the Candelaria, Pinto and San Marcos Rivers in a pretty extensive reservoir. The huge 1090-hectare mirror is suitable for the practice of sports disciplines such as scuba diving and aquatic skiing.

CRUZ DEL EJE DAM
It was built between 1940 and 1943 and has length of 3080 metres on the top with a height of 40 metres and a dam-up surface of 1327 hectares. It offers superb conditions for sport fishing and aquatic sports.

MINA CLAVERO
The most important tourist centre in the valley is the City of Mina Clavero, which has become a gathering point in recent years, not only for family tourism but also for the youth coming from all over the country to spend their vacations in this locality. The waters of the homonymous river are famous for the therapeutic properties attributed to them.

MINA CLAVERO RIVER
The fame of its waters go back 100 years when they were carried on the back of mules up to Cordoba and its holidaymakers would move to the region due to its therapeutic properties.

TOCO - TOCO
It was an old hamlet that is currently a barrio neighbourhood within the City of Cruz del Eje where one can still appreciate centenarian houses.

PICHANAS DAM
It was built between 1966 and 1978 in order to control the irrigation of the land and the outflows of the rivers as well. It has a dam-up surface of 440 hectares and a wall 53.30 metres high. It is suitable for aquatic sports and fishing.

JESUITICAL HACIENDA OF LA CANDELARIA
The zone northwest of Traslasierra not only possesses a vast natural patrimony but there are exceptionally valuable cultural testimonies, amongst which the Jesuitical Hacienda of La Candelaria, recently declared Cultural Patrimony of Humanity along with other Jesuitical Haciendas, juts out. The Hacienda is pierced in a strategic mountainous region that became a refuge against the indigenous attacks. It is a most important milestone within the tourist patrimony of the zone.

LOS GIGANTES MOUNTAIN
It is most sought by mountaineers at its 2374 metres of altitude, and due to its geomorphology it is suitable for all kinds of scaling modes, save on ice.

POCHO SYSTEM
The so-called Pocho System has one of the most singular settings in the Province due to the presence of caranda palm, caranday, (Copernicia alba) trees that grow isolated or forming locks on the plateau and the lower slopes. It is integrated by the Pampas of Pocho, the homonymous lake of salty waters, and a series of currently inactive volcanoes rising at a maximum height of 1740 metres towards the northeast. It is located west of Provincial Route Nº 15.

THE TUNNELS - CHANCANÍ SLOPE
A place you cannot miss in this circuit is the place called The Tunnels, located along Provincial Route Nº 28 in a sector parallel to the deep Ravine of the Marmalade. The road descends through five tunnels built in 1930 offering an spectacular vista over the plains of La Rioja. Here you can find Chancaní National Park and Forest Reserve, which holds an extensive forest of white fern-leaf acacias in this sector.

CHAPEL OF POCHO
It was built in 1766 and shows features similar to those at La Rioja and Catamarca. It has a square belfry, a wooden altarpiece and it keeps two old images, one of which is a precious Christ carved on wood.

TOWN OF CURA BROCHERO
It keeps testimonies of the work of the Gaucho priest Jose Gabriel Brochero (1840 - 1914) such as the house of exercises, currently a museum, the church, the aqueduct, and the inlet and the dam wall. The Panaholma River of ample sand banks and temperate waters runs by. The homonymous chapel from the XVIII century is situated a little bit to the north.

PAMPAS OF ACHALA
It is an ancient 3450 million-year old formation with a very fragile sedimentary layer and a weather of well-marked thermal disparities. The old road of hanging bridges, which can still be traversed, has been replaced by an ample road of gentle slopes that makes of this trip a fascinating ride. The new Condorito National Park is on these pampas.

ROCSEN MUSEUM
It is a private museum whose name means "Holy Rock" and it houses more than 5000 objects of archaeological, entomological, anthropological, ethnological and historical value. It is located a few minutes away from Mina Clavero and can be visited throughout the year offering an amusing and educational tour thanks to the disposition of its showcases.

CHAMPAQUÍ MOUNTAIN
It is the highest peak in Cordoba rising at 2790 metres above sea level, and it belongs to the mountain chain of the Sierra of Comechingones.

ENGINEER ANTONIO MEDINA ALLENDE DAM (LA VIÑA DAM)
Built between 1939 and 1944, the Engineer Antonio Medina Allende is the highest in the country with a wall 107 metres high. It is commonly known by its original name of La Viña Dam and its lake, with a surface of 1050 hectares, is a magnet for fishing and aquatic sports lovers.

SAN JAVIER VALLEY
Its excellent fields are dedicated to diverse cultivations and to an important and old vine production. It is also visited for its wee-appreciated autochthonous pottery and for its homemade sweets and dry fruits.