Cafayate, the great outdoors

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As I already mentioned, the bus-trip to Cafayate was the most impressive so far. We crossed the Calchaquí mountains that ranged from a jungle to a desert and Cafayate is beautifully set within the Calchaquí Valley and surrounded by vineyards. From our hostel rooftop terrace we had a nice view of all the mountains around us. The city itself is quite small and touristy but very cute and intriguing. There were lots of arts and craft stores and we strolled through the stands and checked out the variety of things they offered: jewelery, ceramics, clothes, maté tea cups, pastries, goat cheese, all kinds of stuff.

Cafayate is famous for two things: nature and wine. On our first day, we booked a guided tour through the Quebrada, which is the very colorful valley around Cafayate. The stones are rich of minerals and turned red, purple or green because of oxidisation. The driver dropped us of at different landmarks within the valley and we got a great overall view of the different stone formations and colors of the mountains.

Another natural sight that was recommended by the travelguide was the waterfall of the Rio Colorado which was said to be 5 km outside of town. We rented two mountain bikes and started our journey. The 5 km trip turned out to be uphill all the way and a gravelroad, it was super warm and there was hardly any shade on the way, so the whole bikeride was pretty exhausting. We left our bikes at a little kiosk/home and followed the stream of the Rio Colorado uphill on foot. There were no marked tracks but rather a maze of goat trails and we ended up climbing some rocks along the stream, it was quite adventurous. Unfortunately, we never saw any waterfall, we apparently did not climb high enough and there was too little water in the river. I did not really enjoy the whole thing, too exhausting, too warm, too unsatisfying but Grim, the nature boy he is, liked it though also suffering from the heat.

There are 14 wineries in and around Cafayate which all offer tastings. We picked the only organic vineyard, the Bodega Nanni, for a little visit (www.bodegananni.com). We got a short tour of the winery and could taste four of their wines: Two white Torrontés wines which are made from the most famous grape of the region because it only grows in the Calchaquí Valley, a rosé and a red tannat wine. The Torrontés wine was the most exicting and we got a bottle for dinner. We also bought two local red wines: Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon (also from the Bodega Nanni). A great place for oenophiles like us!

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Comments

[Johanna och Tor]

Ohohooo, looks soo nice!! Glad you two are living life and having fun in the sun!! Us we are just stumbling around in the cold mud back home... Big Hugs!!