Belen (Argentina)

Belén is a town of 11,000 people in the province of Catamarca. Catamarca is part of Argentine NOA (Argentine Northwest) with the provinces of Salta, Jujuy and Tucumán, but is a much less touristy destination in comparison with its neighbours.

To get to this little Argentine town, you'll need to take the famous Route 40. Beware of nausea and other headaches, if you are sensitive while riding in a car. In fact, you'll have to go through about 6 miles of dizzying curves to get to Belen, nestled at the bottom of the bowl that forms the Salar de Pipanaco.

I had the opportunity to go through Belen to get to Antofagasta De La Sierra. With its stone buildings and colonial-style monuments, Belen is a typical town of the Argentine Northwest but there's not really anything there to justify a stop during a trip to Argentina. A word of advice: pass this one by! As a side note, there’s an Argentine village only 9 miles away called Londres, Spanish for London!