The viewpoint
The Catamarca valley.
Claudio Elias — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Roblespepe — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Roblespepe — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Octavio Campos — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Octavio Campos — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Cuesta del Portezuelo is a winding mountain road across the Sierra de Ancasti east of Catamarca city, begun in 1933 and opened in 1939 to designs by the engineer Roberto Kurtz. It runs less than twenty kilometres but has more than three hundred bends, many sharp and back to back, climbing from about five hundred metres near the village of El Portezuelo to around 1,680 metres. Near the top a famous viewpoint lays the whole Catamarca valley at your feet: the city, fields, roads and distant mountains, with the road itself coiling down the slope. At the summit stands a monument to a well-known folk zamba that describes this view, written by the composer Polo Giménez. The road is free and one of the province's most visited sights, close to the capital. Sunset is loveliest, when the city lights up in the valley; drive the bends slowly.
The Catamarca valley.
On the slope.
City lights.
Across the Sierra de Ancasti, east of San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca
More than three hundred in under twenty kilometres.