Yatasto relay, National historic monument and former relay station in Salta, Argentina

Yatasto relay is a colonial estate building near San José de Metán, Salta. Its ground floor has four adjoining rooms, including a kitchen with a wood-fired stove, opening onto a gallery with an eave supported by straight wooden columns. An upper room reached by a wooden staircase has a window with a projecting balcony overlooking the valley. The gable roofs are covered with red half-cylinder tiles.

Built between the late 17th and early 18th centuries beside the Yatasto river, the estate served travellers on the Camino Real between Buenos Aires and Upper Peru. Vicente Toledo y Pimentel inherited and restored it in 1784, then supplied 1,300 horses and 100 cows to the Army of the North under Juan Ramón Balcarce. Command passed here from Pueyrredón to Belgrano in 1812 and from Belgrano to San Martín in January 1814, though historians Alfredo Gargaro and Julio Arturo Benencia place that meeting at Algarrobos, 70 km north.

The relay served as a meeting point where travelers and merchants paused to exchange horses and share news during their journeys across the region. Today, the simple furnishings and objects scattered through the rooms tell stories of the ordinary people who passed through this place.

The station sits near a main highway and is accessible by turning onto a local road south of the city. The final approach involves a short drive on unpaved ground, so visiting during dry weather and with time to spare is recommended.

The upper room's window opens onto a small cantilevered balcony facing the valley, reached by a wooden staircase. The building's gable roofs are covered in red half-cylinder tiles, and much of the adobe walling was whitewashed with lime. The original stone foundations survive, alongside stone remnants of older rooms and a small church.