Argentina's Route 40 runs along the Andes and gets incredibly high in some spots. One point sits at almost 5,000 meters above sea level! You literally drive straight up to it. You're just a hair's breadth away from hitting that exact altitude mark, but if you walk a bit, you can actually get there. The problem is, after just 200 meters of walking, you're hit with brutal shortness of breath. It's like you've been smoking a pack of cigarettes every single day of your life and then suddenly sprinted a couple kilometers. I wasn't planning any serious hikes, but even this little walk was tough. Even the car starts performing noticeably worse at that altitude.

I spent the night in the town of San Antonio de los Cobres at 3,800 meters. That's noticeably lower than 5,000 meters, but even there, after a fifteen-minute walk before dinner, breathing was difficult. And don't even get me started on the night—I was sleeping loudly and desperately sucking in air the whole time because there just wasn't enough oxygen. By morning it got a bit easier, my body started adjusting, but you'd need to stay way longer to fully acclimatize.

Most of the route is gravel of pretty rough quality. Sometimes I could manage 80-90 km/h, but other times I had to ford rivers, like in the last photo. And that's not even the widest crossing. Still, even a basic rental Fiat Cronos could handle it.