Days 49 - 51 Cafayate

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Cafayate

The bus journey south to Cafayate was another really spectacular one, going along the valley bottom, up into the mountains and then dropping down again on the other side. It was really dry, arid terrain with some amazing formations in the rocks. The sort of territory you see in cowboy films. It was only a five hour drive to Cafayate which is the second largest wine producing region in Argentina. They specialise in a white wine called Torrontes but also make large quantities of Malbec. It is a small town of about 10,000 people, again surrounded by mountains. At this time of year it has a very dry and hot climate and we were delighted to have booked a hostel with a pool.

We visited 5 wine producers and had tastings with them all. The problem with the tastings is that you rarely get to drink the wine at its best as the good ones need to mature for longer in the bottle. They are usually keen to show you the process / grapes etc as well and so you spend a long time looking around for little wine drunk! Helen was very interested in all the wine and delighted to get a nice glass of cold white after 6 weeks without it which I think may be the longest she has ever gone. The bodegas were very informative and varied from large to small. They are all concentrated very close to the town so it was easy to walk between them.

The Dakar rally was passing through this part of Argentina so there were quite a few people on bikes who had come to try and spectate. We were lucky enough to see some of it in the distance when we were en route from Cafayate to Mendoza.

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