Destination: Argentina : High Roller : One of Latin America’s classier trains is also its most spectacular

Like a slithering python with too much food in its belly, the Train to the Clouds (El Tren a las Nubes) picked a slow, serpentine path through a wild of hills flecked with ochre hues. Up and up it climbed through a bleak but beautiful purgatory blistered by harsh sun and bitter winds.

Only indigenous people have been able to tame this land in the remote high country of northern Argentina, enticing vegetation out of stone, erecting villages in eerie places and somehow feeling at home among tall cacti that stand like sentinels guarding the stark landscape.

It is this wilderness, together with the engineering that triumphed over it, that entices travelers from all over the world to this high-flying train.

The ascent into the high reaches of the Andes begins soon after dawn, enclosing the valley city of colonial Salta, two hours by air north of Buenos Aires. Embedded in the rich Lerma Valley, Salta is the ebullient, agriculture-oriented gateway to the stunning valleys and highlands of Argentina’s northwest.

During the driest months, from April to November, when the Train to the Clouds makes its spectacular excursions into Andean terrain northwest of Salta, the small, unpretentious railway station catering exclusively to this train is briefly transformed into a bustling center of international tourism.

One hour before departure the station is deserted. Half an hour later it boils with a flurry of passengers who converge in taxis, buses and cars from hotels and pensions all over the city. Minutes later, travelers from Europe and North and South America eagerly congregate on the narrow platform where the train lies in wait.

Once on board, we are feted by multilingual hostesses and champagne-toting waiters, serenaded by meandering Andean minstrels and the Train to the Clouds becomes a kind of cabaret-on-wheels.

Take, for example, the ebullient Canadian seated opposite me during my trip last August. At first she mesmerized our carriage with her comic antics, but as we climbed into the thin mountain air she began to fade. Eventually--gasping for oxygen and teetering off in the direction of the medical car--she buckled and crashed across seats occupied by two exquisitely attired young women from Buenos Aires.

Those of us unaffected by altitude sickness rolled the crumpled woman into the aisle, where we endeavored to revive her.

Fortunately, our carriage hostess had already contacted the medical car for assistance and the train doctor, who looked more like a sleek tango dancer than a medical man, came swinging down the corridor toward us.

Just a couple of blasts from the doctor’s oxygen bottle was all she needed. Her lungs rejoiced. Color crept back into her face. And when she soaked up the doctor’s dark and handsome image, it was love at first sight.

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Dramatically unlike the rocking and rolling ordinary trains that traverse the high country from Argentina to Ecuador, the Train to the Clouds is regarded by railway aficionados as the most luxurious train operating in South America.

Privately run, it ushers passengers from 3,900-foot-high Salta up onto the austere Argentine altiplano. Our destination is the 13,800-foot high La Polvorilla viaduct, a stunning work of engineering that spans a deep canyon on the roof of Argentina.

Hauled by diesel locomotives pulling eight old-style carriages, the train offers plush seats, wide viewing windows, a well-stocked bar, dining car, international phone, post office and a running commentary in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Although the Train to the Clouds may be the classiest train in South America, it does not match the luxury of the famous Orient Express or the sumptuous elegance of South Africa’s Blue Train. Both of these renowned trains provide lavish cabins, exquisite dining cars and lush sleeping accommodations. The Train to the Clouds is purely a day vehicle that pants onto the dizzy altiplano and back again.

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In all, this breathtaking excursion takes 15 hours and costs $95, including breakfast, lunch and dinner. And lunch, the main meal, is a modest three-course affair that does not try to rival the fine dining menus of Salta’s best hotels. For this blame the altitude, not the chef, explained a hostess. Because of the height at which the train travels, doctors recommend that passengers eat lightly and keep alcohol consumption to a minimum.

The Salta-La Polvorilla span is considered the most spectacular run along the estimated 620-mile-long trans-Andean track that terminates at the Pacific port of Antofagasta in Chile. The sector running from Salta to the Chilean frontier was engineered by Pennsylvanian engineer Richard Fontaine Maury earlier this century. Construction took 27 years, with work beginning in 1921 and finishing in 1948 during the reign of Argentine strongman Juan Peron.

As the train makes its 130-mile ascent from Salta to the La Polvorilla viaduct, it navigates 29 bridges and 13 viaducts; penetrates 21 tunnels and traverses two loops and two zigzags. All together there are 20 stations. One--Ingeniero Maury--is named after the engineer. Highest point on the entire line is at Abra Chorillos, about nine miles past La Polvorilla, where it soars to a heady 14,700 feet.

Travelers keen to pass beyond this point must hop one of the unreliable goods trains running from Salta to the Chilean border post of Socompa, which is another 200 miles across a towering wintry wasteland.

It is not surprising that with so many statistics to contemplate, so much to see, that on-board excitement runs high as soon as the train winds out of Salta and enters the eroded, parched valleys that gradually stiffen into formidable railroad challenges.

Where we encounter meandering watercourses, nature celebrates in intense colors, such as the multihued Toro Canyon less than 30 miles from Salta. After running parallel with the river, the train rattles across a viaduct spanning the Toro River before laboring into the first innovative zigzag.

Later at Tastil--about 60 miles from Salta at a height of 8,900 feet above sea level--the train passes near the pre-Columbian ruins of Santa Rosa de Tastil before panting through two 260-degree loops to reach 11,500 feet at the tiny station of Diego de Almagro. At this point a number of passengers begin to change color. Some say they wished they’d gone on a cruise instead.

When the train reaches the largest settlement on the journey, the small mining town of San Antonio de los Cobres, it was quickly surrounded by vendors selling handicrafts and food.

Since the arrival of the train is a gala occasion for San Antonio, the vendors were not inclined to wave goodbye. When we departed, they followed in vehicles, chasing us--for a bit--across the plain toward La Polvorilla, which at 13,800 feet is the highest point of our excursion.

Suddenly we were there.

The train curled around a gentle curve and the viaduct swung into view, arching out spectacularly across a canyon. Regarded by railway devotees as the highlight of this railway, it spans 740 feet and stands more than 200 feet above the dry river bed below. As much a work of art as it is a feat of engineering, La Polvorilla was Maury’s Andean Eiffel Tower.

So that passengers can savor Maury’s sculpture, the train slowly crosses the viaduct, halts, then returns to the other side where it stops for about an hour.

When it halted, the first passengers to get off the train were the railway aficionados, who leapt off in anticipation. The rest of us, conscious of not overexerting our lungs, slowly disembarked.

Between snorts of oxygen, shooting feet of film and bartering with the peasants for llama rugs, socks and sweaters, most passengers managed to cluster onto the bridge for photo sessions.

By the time we all climbed back on board everyone was heady from the hectic bargaining, the rarefied air and the vistas of the luminous panoramas.

Back in my carriage, the pretty Canadian woman, who was now sporting a llama hat and colorful poncho, declared that she was so impressed with the rail doctor’s patient recovery skills that she would travel back to Salta in the medical car with him.

We never saw her again.

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GUIDEBOOK: On the Train to the Clouds

Getting there: From LAX, United and American offer service to Salta that requires two changes of planes. Lowest advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at about $1,600. Or from LAX, American, Aerolineas Argentinas, Varig and United offer service to Buenos Aires. Lowest advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at about $1,175. Austral flies nonstop from Buenos Aires to Salta. Round-trip fares start at about $240.

Train to the Clouds: Tren a las Nubes runs weekly, often on Saturdays, from April to November, with increasing regularity during the peak months of July and August. Because the train books up, it is wise to make reservations several months in advance. The private company that books it is Movitren, Caseros 441, Salta, Argentina; from the United States, telephone 011-54-87-31-4984; fax 011-54-87-31-1264.

Or contact the tourist office of Salta: Officina de Turismo, Buenos Aires y San Martin, 4400 Salta, Argentina; tel/fax 011-54-87-31-1848. (No English is spoken.)

Where to stay: Hotel Salta is a four-star hotel on the main square. All tourist agencies and souvenir stores are nearby. The hotel has an attractive facade and can certainly be described as comfortable, although not lavish by North American standards. Hotel Salta, Buenos Aires 1, Salta, Argentina; rates start at $85-$100 per room per night; tel. 011-54-87-310-740.

Hotel Portezuelo is on a hill overlooking Salta. A taxi is necessary to get there. It has fine views and a good dining room and is popular with U.S. tourists. Hotel Portezuelo, Avenida Turistica No.1, Salta, Argentina; rates start at $88-$114 per room per night; tel. 011-54-87-310-104.

For more information: Argentine Government Tourism Office, 5055 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 210, Los Angeles 90036; tel. (213) 930-0681; fax (213) 934-9076.

Argentina Government Tourist Information, 12 W. 56th St., New York, N.Y. 10019; tel. (212) 603-0443.

-- D.T.