Buenos Aires, Argentina (4 nights). Arrival in Buenos Aires, met by the Argentine guide and transferred to the hotel. (D)

Buenos Aires. A guided tour of the capital. In the morning, Plaza de Mayo and the buildings around it: the Cabildo museum, a survivor of the colonial era, the Casa Colorada, the presidential palace and the metropolitan cathedral. Then the San Telmo quarter, its colonial houses and patios, its antique dealers and flea markets, and the birthplace of tango. A visit to the Zanjón de Granados, whose tunnels were discovered by chance under San Telmo. Finally La Boca, the sailors' quarter, with its multicoloured houses and its open-air display of painters and sculptors. Dinner and a show with tango dancers. (B, L, D)

Buenos Aires. In the morning, the Recoleta quarter and its European architecture. Through the cemetery, bordered by the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, where some of the vaults are listed as historic monuments, and past Eva Perón's tomb. A stop at the El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookshop, set in a former theatre. Free afternoon. (B)

Buenos Aires and an estancia. Departure to visit an estancia, the traditional Argentine ranch. An asado lunch, meat grilled over a wood fire, with a show of Argentine folk music and dance and a demonstration of the gauchos' horsemanship. (B, L)

Buenos Aires and El Calafate (3 nights). Transfer to the airport and flight to El Calafate, the gateway to Los Glaciares National Park. Met and transferred to the hotel. (B, D)

El Calafate: the Upsala and Spegazzini glaciers. Boarding at Punta Bandera for a sail on Lake Argentino to the Upsala glacier, then on to the Spegazzini glacier, among the icebergs drifting on the still water. (B, L)

El Calafate: the Perito Moreno glacier. A full day at the Perito Moreno glacier, in Los Glaciares National Park. The glacier is sixty metres high and fifteen kilometres long, and its front face, more than four kilometres wide, feeds Lake Argentino. Regularly, blocks weighing tens of tonnes break off with a deafening crack and plunge into the icy water. It can be watched from less than a hundred metres away, from wooden walkways built along the shore. (B, L)

El Calafate and Puerto Iguazú (2 nights). Transfer to the airport and flight to Puerto Iguazú, a quiet little town in subtropical vegetation. Evening arrival. (B)

The Iguazú falls. A visit to the Iguazú falls, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1984. Over nearly three kilometres, 275 falls pour millions of cubic metres of water from heights reaching seventy metres. The park also shows the subtropical jungle and rainforest, with more than four hundred recorded bird species including the toucan, the symbol of Iguazú, as well as orchids and butterflies. (B, L)

Puerto Iguazú, Salta and Cafayate. Transfer to the airport and flight to Salta, then the road to Cafayate. Along the way, the brightly coloured sandstone formations carved by wind and water, and the villages of Coronel Moldes, El Carril, La Merced and Cerrillos, surrounded by tobacco plantations. Cafayate is a wine village set at the foot of the Andes at sixteen hundred metres, with colonial charm. In the afternoon, the vine and wine museum, followed by a tasting in a bodega. (B, L)

Cafayate and Cachi. Departure for Cachi, a traditional village known for growing chillies. Through the Quebrada de las Flechas, one of the finest stretches of Route 40, which owes its name to mountain slopes tilted like arrows. Along the way, the villages of Angastaco, Molinos and Seclantás, the latter known for its poncho looms. (B, L)

Cachi and Salta. Los Cardones National Park by way of the Recta de Tin Tin, an ancient Inca road. On over the Piedra del Molino pass, the highest point of the trip at three thousand three hundred and eighty-four metres, then the Cuesta del Obispo and its view over the Enchanted Valley, its small houses and its fruit and maize fields. Arrival in Salta and a walking tour of the town, its religious and colonial architecture and its food. A visit to the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology, which preserves and studies the discovery of the children of Llullaillaco. (B, L)

Salta, Tilcara and Purmamarca (2 nights). Departure for the village of Tilcara for the Pucará, an ancient indigenous fortress, and the archaeological museum. Arrival in Purmamarca, famous for its hill of seven colours, a mineral rainbow. (B, D)

Purmamarca, Humahuaca and the Hornocal. An excursion to the village of Humahuaca, at two thousand nine hundred and forty metres, founded by the region's indigenous people in 1594, which has kept its colonial houses and cobbled streets. Back towards Purmamarca by the road that crosses the Tropic of Capricorn, marked by a small obelisk. Then the Serranía del Hornocal and its rock formations five hundred million years old, the hill of fourteen colours. (B, L, D)

Purmamarca, Paso de Jama and San Pedro de Atacama, Chile (3 nights). Departure by the Andean road into Chile. The route crosses the Cuesta de Lipán to reach the Salinas Grandes, one of the most visited sites in the Puna de Jujuy, where the white landscape merges with the blue of the sky and where table salt is extracted. Access to the extraction pools depends on the weather and the state of the road. A stop at the village of Susques, at three thousand nine hundred metres, and a visit to its thatched chapel. Crossing the Chilean border at Paso de Jama, then arrival at San Pedro de Atacama along the desert. (B, L, D)

San Pedro de Atacama, Toconao and the Quebrada de Jerez. In the morning, San Pedro de Atacama, its crafts, its local farming and its landscapes. Departure for Toconao, at two thousand four hundred and seventy-five metres, where artisans work volcanic stone, pumice above all. The road continues to the Quebrada de Jerez, an oasis in the middle of the desert, then to the Chaxa lagoon, at the heart of the Salar de Atacama. Through the Los Flamencos national reserve, where three varieties of flamingo are reflected in the clear water. The day ends in the Valley of the Moon, so named for its likeness to a lunar landscape, at sunset. (B, L)

San Pedro de Atacama: the El Tatio geysers. An early start for the El Tatio geysers, at more than four thousand metres. At daybreak the fumaroles reach their peak and rise as high as six metres. Picnic breakfast away from the geothermal field. On the way back, Machuca, a shepherds' village perched above four thousand metres, then the Puritama hot springs and their seven natural pools at thirty-three degrees, in a ravine covered in vegetation. Back to San Pedro de Atacama. (B, L)

San Pedro de Atacama, Calama and Santiago (3 nights). Transfer to Calama airport and flight to Santiago, the Chilean capital. Met by your guide, then the rest of the day free. (B, D)

Santiago. A guided tour of the city: the La Moneda presidential palace, Plaza de Armas, the cathedral, O'Higgins avenue, also known as the Alameda, the church of Saint Francis seen from outside, and Cerro Santa Lucía. A funicular ride up San Cristóbal hill, with a view over the city and the Andes, then the Bellavista artists' quarter, with La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's house inspired by a ship. A stop at the Los Dominicos craft village. (B, L)

Santiago and Valparaíso. In the morning, a visit to Valparaíso, a picturesque port founded in the sixteenth century whose historic centre was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2003. The city clings to its hills by narrow streets, long stairways and the many funiculars built between the late nineteenth and the twentieth century. A funicular up to the Paseo Yugoslavo, on Cerro Alegre, one of the best known lookouts. Then a stop at a vineyard for a Chilean wine tasting. Farewell dinner. (B, L, D)

Santiago: return. Free morning. In the late afternoon, transfer to the airport and connecting return flights. (B)

Arrival in Montreal.