Villa Carlos Paz, Lago San Roque & Punilla Valley Guide (Cosquín, La Cumbre & Capilla del Monte)

Stretching for a hundred kilometres north-west of Córdoba along Ruta Nacional 38 between the forested wall of the Sierras Chicas on the east and the high plateau of the Sierras Grandes on the west, the Valle de Punilla is the closest and most diverse mountain corridor to the provincial capital. Linked to the city both by thirty-minute highway buses and by the slow, scenic Tren de las Sierras, the valley moves from lively lakeside resort life in the south to tranquil English stone estates and dramatic red-sandstone canyons in the north.

1. Villa Carlos Paz, Lago San Roque & the 1944 "Embudo" Dam (36 km West)

• Lago San Roque & the Glory-Hole Spillway (El Embudo): Approaching via the winding Camino de las Cien Curvas along the Río Suquía gorge brings you to the concrete wall of the 1944 San Roque Dam (which replaced the original 1890 dam designed by Carlos Cassaffousth and Juan Bialet Massé, then the largest reservoir in the world) and its famous funnel-shaped bell-mouth spillway known as El Embudo.
• Villa Carlos Paz Promenade, Aerosilla & Cerro de la Cruz: On the southern shore of the lake sits Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina's premier inland summer theatre and family resort town. Walk the waterfront Costanera and modern suspension pedestrian bridge, pause by the 7-metre-tall 1958 Cuckoo Clock (Reloj Cucú) crafted by German aeronautical engineers, ride the 1955 Aerosilla chairlift, or hike the 2.2-kilometre trail up Cerro de la Cruz (1,000 metres) for sunset views over Lake San Roque toward the Altas Cumbres.

2. North Up the Punilla Valley: Cosquín, La Cumbre & Capilla del Monte

• Cosquín (Argentina's Capital of Folklore): Twenty-five kilometres north of Carlos Paz along the Río Cosquín sits Cosquín, where every evening during the last nine nights of January ("las nueve lunas coscoinas") since 1961, the country's greatest folk singers, guitarists, and dancers take the Atahualpa Yupanqui stage on Plaza Próspero Molina; from the edge of town you can also ride the chairlift up Cerro Pan de Azúcar (1,260m).
• La Cumbre & Cruz Chica (English Country Houses & El Paraíso): At 1,141 metres elevation, the highest point of the Punilla railway line, La Cumbre was shaped at the turn of the twentieth century by British railway engineers who built stone manors, golf links, and rose gardens. In adjacent Cruz Chica, tour El Paraíso, the Spanish-Colonial house designed by León Dourge where novelist Manuel Mujica Lainez lived and wrote from 1969 to 1984, and look out from the hang-gliding launch ramp of Cuchi Corral.
• Capilla del Monte & Cerro Uritorco (1,979m): At the northern end of the valley rises the 1,979-metre sacred Comechingón peak of Cerro Uritorco, flanked by the wind-carved red sandstone towers of Los Terrones and the rock formations of Ongamira; check official trail opening hours at the Cerro Uritorco base reserve before attempting the steep six-to-seven-hour round-trip summit hike.