Advertisement
Team Rufus
That's Mor, Jane, Alyson, Me and Ran from left to right.(Holly Writing)
So.. we were only going to stay in Salta for a couple of days. How come we were still there after a week?
well, as Jane and I were crossing the central plaza of Salta one sunny evening, we were approached by an American girl who asked whether we had any plans over the next few days... instantly suspicious that she was trying to sell us something, we were guarded until she convinced us that really what we wanted to do was go on a 5 day road trip with herself and two Israeli guys. We thought about it, went out for a drink with them, and then said that yes, thank you, that would be lovely.
So it was that Team Rufus was born; Alyson, Ran, Mor, Jane and myself piled into a hire car the next morning and set off for the sunny climes of Cafayete. It's a small town south of Salta, and it was a very pretty drive through mountains etc to get there. We then stayed in 'Hostal Shalom' in cafatye. when we were looking for hostals, Ran and Mor went in to check it out while we stayed in the
car. They were asked whether they were Jewish, so said yes. Therefore we could stay there. So why, then, was there a huge crucifix and message in Spanish saying 'Jesus is God'?! So random!
the next day we headed out of Cafayate to climb to a look out point on the outskirts of the town. We ate breakfast as mist rolled over vineyards and we could hear waterfalls behind us. On our way down we were met by a concerned local who had seen the Rufus Mobil at the bottom of the hill and thought we'd fallen off the mound/died so come up to check on us! how nice is that?! (If not a little wierd. we'd only been gone an hour).
From Cafayate we drove north to Cachi, stopping by some lunar landscape to eat lunch and drink some of Argentina's finest wine. It was great just sitting in the sun and throwing stones into the stream sliding by.
Cachi is a cute town, full of white houses and dusty streets. we checked it out properly the next day, and visited a small but interesting museum about the inca history of the area before driving out
to another lookout point which was by a cemetery. Driving back down, we found the best thing ever - a deserted (we hoped) runway!! What an excellent place to eat breakfast. Jane and I also got the chance to drive, the idea being that we crazy wrong-side-of-the-road brits would find it hard to crash into on coming traffic on a run way. It felt like we were on Top Gear. Awesome.
after breakfast we ran around like crazy children on the runway, always keeping an ear out for incoming planes. when we got tired of playing triple jump, cartwheeling etc, we all piled into the car and spent the majority of the rest of the day hunting for some old ruins that never materialised. We saw chili peppers drying on the side of the hills though, which made for some good photographs.
We spent the evening in Jujuy, a town north of Salta. It's quite big, but we didnt really see much of it because early the next day we headed out into the moutains, and through them until we found some Salt Flats. Salt Flats are wierd freaks of nature: they used to be lakes (and some
The Pokey Man Cometh
Mor gives Alyson a hard time on the Salt Flats are still flooded in december) but the sun dried out the land, leaving vast expanses of pure white solid salt. You need sunglasses out there because it's so bright!
We had a lot of fun playing with perspective photos out on the Salar (salt plains) because the horizon just goes on for ever and ever. check out facebook for photos!
After the Salt flats we drove to Tres Reynes to visit the natural Thermal Spas there. If only we'd bought our swimmers! as it was, we were the only ones there and they didnt mind us swimming in our tshirts. it was a really nice temperature and perfect end to the day.
the next day we found a placid lake and ate our final breakfast beside it. then it was time to head back to Salta to return the car and call an end to the best road trip ever.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.135s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.108s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
