The 10-strong team, who aimed to tour six South American nations and break the motor cycling and all-terrain vehicle altitude records, had planned to leave Argentina on Tuesday, but a group of Argentines in the northern province of Jujuy blocked the highways linking the country to Bolivia and Chile in a demonstration demanding the return of traditional lands.

"We tried to get through, but we were threatened and we preferred not to insist, because tempers were getting heated," expedition member Jose Ignacio Fragio told media. The protest stranded at least 1,500 vehicles.

"We are now going to head for Salta province to try to cross into Chile, where we have planned to climb the Ojos del Salado Volcano," said Fragio, referring to the 6,880-meter-high mountain in northern Chile.

The climb would break two records, which currently stand at 5,500 meters, according to the Spaniard.

The expedition team, which left Buenos Aires on July 15, has planned a 10,000 km journey through Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, ending in Buenos Aires 47 days later.