LOS CARDONES NATIONAL PARK

At less than 100 kms from Salta, the route winds among cacti and hippeastrum flowers, a road that anticipates the coarse simplicity of the Los Cardones National Park, in the Southwest of the Province of Salta, in the middle of the Calchaquíes Valleys.

The Park was created in December 1996 and covers 64,117 hectares. The terrain it embraces is typical of the highlands and dry gorges between 2,700 and 5,000 m.a.s.l. where shrubbery vegetation and giant cacti, the characteristic specie of the Park, is abundant.

The different altitudes found in the Park allow for a greater environmental variety, which in turn permits the existence of an important diversity of animal species for a desert region like this.

There are three types of environments: the Highlands or Sierra, with pronounced ups and downs in all the ridges and mountains. The "piedemontes" or mountain foot and slopes, presenting smoothly inclined surfaces, some safe from the rains, but also other surfaces submitted to fluvial erosion and sedimentation. And the lower zones of the relief. the environment of the depressions, where fine material brought by water is continuously being deposited.

The mountains stand out for the variety of their colours, its tones ranging from red tones to different tones of green and black. They can be observed on the eastern side of the Tin-Tin Mountain, notable for its large deposits of limestone, which containing many fossil remains of gastropods, algae, fish and even dinosaurs.

Over there, in an ample sector of the Park, upright cactus stand guard on the roads of the ancient Empire of the Incas and on the unique Enchanted Valley, that keeps the secrets of its wealthy past.

The Parque de los Cardones has a world importance due to the physic characteristics of its regions, which makes it comparable with the Saguaro Natural Monument and the Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, both in the United States.

HISTORY
Because of its strategic position in the Lerma and Calchaquí Valleys, the territory of the Park has many vestiges of pre-Hispanic dwellings. The oldest traces are arrow points, stone chips and rock paintings inside caves that depict both human and animal figures.

The latest are fortifications and Inca roads right across the Park that show the influence of the Inca Empire. This vial net served as a link between the centres of economic exploitation, goods production and socio-political control of the territory of Argentina by the Incas.

FAUNA - ANIMAL WILDLIFE
Owners of the deserted magical inmensity of Los Cardones, across the enormous territory roam the guanacos (Lama guanicoe), zorros colorados or red foxes (Ducicyon culpaeus), zorros grises or grey foxes (Ducicyon griseus), chinchillones (Lagidium viscacia), pumas (Felix con color), pericotes andinos or Andean mice (Auliscomis sublimis) and the small quirquinchos chicos (Chatophactus vellerosus).

The Cardones Giant Cactus shelters species in danger of extinction like the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) and the guemul (Hippocamelus antinensis).

Among the birds only,we can list the condor, the rhea, the so called keu or quiula, the Andean seagull, the Andean woodpecker, the royal woodpecker, the cactus woodpecker, the bare eyed small dove, the golden dove, the black-winged dove, the Andean hummingbird, the common hummingbird, the black breasted hummingbird, the giant hummingbird, the red tailed hummingbird, the so called cacholote pardo, the so called gallito copetón, the black thrush, parrots, the big headed plover, the common diuca, the so called cortarrama and assorted kinds of storks and ibis, nightjars, woodcocks, flamingos, ducks, linnets and more.

FLORA - PLANTS
Throughout the whole extension of the Los Cardones Park a diversity of flora can be seen, distributed among four well-differentiated areas:

Puna: Between 3,500 and 4,500 m.a.s.l. Freezing low temperatures at night, and enigmatic condors ruling on the mountain crests, distinguish this almost totally dry climate part of the Reserve. The plant species native to this habitat are the tola (Parastrephia sp.), tolilla (Fabiana densa), añagua (Adesmia sp.), rica-rica (Acantholippia hastulata), cortadera (Cortadeira especiosa), muña-muña (Satureja parvifolia) and some gramineous plants.

Pre-Puna: The highlands descend from 3,500 m.a.s.l. to some 2,200 m.a.s.l, this is the kingdom of the churqui (Prosopis ferox) forming small groves in the lowlands of the Park, known as "El Churcal", together with tolas, tolillas, chijuas (Baccharis boliviensis) and añaguas, spread across Cachipampa, Cajoncillo and the straight road of the Tin Tin.

Monte occidental. Western Mountain: There are lots of cacti (Trichocereus pasacana), the jarillas (Larrea divaricata) and the yellow flowered arum (Hippeastrum tintinensis) that grow only during rainy seasons. They stand forming groups on the mountainsides of Tin Tin and in the Cajoncillo Ravine. In more open and deserted places grow the typical breas (Cercidium praecox) and retamas or brooms (Bulnesia retama), bushes that here reach less than a metre high, with their green stems and yellow flowers. The jarilla (Larrea divaricata) is very important in this ecosystem, because the cacti sprout and grow underneath the protecting shadow of this plant until they reach an adequate size.

Pastizal alto andino de neblina - Cloudy Andean High Grasslands: Shows a yearly rain rate below 200 millimetres; in this zone the gramineous plants, the leguminous plants and some species of fungi predominate.