10th November marks the international day for responsible tourism. Helen Morgan investigates how much this phenomenon has taken off in Argentina.

If you’re not enticed by this Saturday’s annual 65km pilgrimage, hop on the bus to Lujan, the religious capital of Argentina and home to the virgin who is the country’s patron saint.

Argentina is celebrating its own Oktoberfest in Villa General Belgrano, Córdoba. A festival about beer, lederhosen and other customs from across the Atlantic.

There are hundreds of hotels to choose from in Mar del Plata, but at just one the majority stay for free and others have to pay the exorbitant charge of $45 – for an entire week’s stay.

Although less visited than many of Argentina’s regions, northwest boot-shaped Jujuy province combines beautiful scenery with cultures from two different worlds.

After hitting the Argentine beaches during the summer, I was left craving an un-crowded, less full-on scene; preferably with good surf breaks and less focus on the body beautiful. I needed a remote stretch of sand to collapse on in an un-self-conscious heap and wile away a weekend reading, dreaming and feeling the last hits of the summer sun on my skin.

After camping for three weeks out of six during her extensive trip around Argentina and Chile, Vicky Gashe realised the advantages of packing a tent and experiencing life away from the ‘gringo trail’ and universal English of hostels. Many nights led her to drink mate, eat asados and sing folk music around campfires whilst practising her Spanish. Her definitive guide to camping will help those who wish to follow in her footsteps.

In the imagination of writer Jules Verne, Fray Bentos was responsible for serving breakfast to the first travellers on the moon. For Jorge Luis Borges, it was the Uruguayan home town for the fictional Ireneo Funes, a teenager with impeccable memory. To the troops and Europeans of the World War I and II eras the name conjured up the image of food – tinned corned beef, OXO bouillon cubes and more than 200 other products which would emerge from “the kitchen of the world” until 1979.

“Small tours, all kinds of activities, and the groups will be around eight people. Group size is limited so we have to book you ahead of time…” The words of the tour agent in Bonito surfaced in my mind as I plodded along on a packhorse behind a group of at least 14 horses with no other vision of wildlife than the horse’s ass in front of me. I considered myself lucky, however, as the group the day before had consisted of nearly 19 people.

Ask anybody about wine and tourism in Argentina and they will likely name Mendoza. But the province of Salta is going head to head with its southern sister, and its excellent wines and growing tourism infrastructure are putting it on ever more equal footing. Things are still more rustic than in Mendoza, but this is something that arguably adds to the desert provinces’ charms.