The Wettest and Driest of Argentina

South America » Argentina
November 22nd 2005

Published: November 22nd 2005

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Carl and Nicola No Fixed Abode

Traditional Argentinean Food

Humitos and Tamales. These are found more in the North.

Iguaçu and the Journey to Salta

Exiting in Brazil in a bus adorned in Argentinean flags we passed through immigration and on into the town of Puerto Iguaçu, where the driver kindly stopped so we could buy tickets for our onward journey to Salta. Being so used to the Portuguese not being able to speak Spanish I walked into the ticket office and asked, “ Abla espanol?” (Do you speak Spanish), Carl and the lady I had addressed found this astonishing and after a brief pause to digest the stupidity of my question burst out laughing. Of course she spoke Spanish, Argentina is a Spanish speaking country! Well we eventually managed to buy some tickets on a bus that left that evening to Salta, Semi Cama (Reclining with foot rests) as seats in the Cama (Flat Bed) section were not available.

After purchasing our tickets and waiting for one of the girls in the party to finish surfing the web we continued on to the National Park containing the Falls. While there we hooked up with Thomas, a Dutch guy from our bus, and took turns taking pictures for each other as we set about covering all the

Wet in Iguaçu

Nicola walking along one of the catwalks on the Argentinean side of the Iguaçu Falls.

walkways in the 5 hours until our crazy bus driver returned. The Argentinean side of Iguaçu allows you to get a lot closer to the falls. There is an upper route which allows you to walk over many of the falls giving a really good impression of their power and a lower route which allows you to get up close and really wet. For the lower route our underwater camera housing came in useful as for all intents and purposes we were underwater.

Many photos later we reached the Devil’s throat, the highest drop of the falls and by far the most powerful. You have to walk for what seems miles over the very wide Rio Iguaçu to a set of platforms staring right down the throat. Photographs cannot capture the strength and power of the falls in this area, the volume of water pouring over the ledge was staggering, creating a deafening roar and a mist that obscured the river at the bottom from view. Awestruck and amazed by this natural wonder, we returned to the park centre to escape the sun and get an ice cream before we had to depart.

In preparation for our 27-hour

Los dos in Argentinean Iguaçu

One of the benefits of having another companion is that we can get photos of the both of us.

bus journey we decided to have a good meal and a bottle of wine in the sleepy little town of Puerto Iguaçu. It was a good meal with lots of meat and left us sleepy and full on the bus. The 27 hours went surprisingly quickly and we arrived in Salta in the middle of the night. After a couple of hours sleep we went to investigate the town and try and organise a kayaking trip for Carl’s Birthday. Unfortunately the main kayaking river is closed on Tuesdays so there were no tours available.

Carl was quite disappointed and so we sat down to have a coffee, it was one of the best coffees we have had while travelling. Spirits revived we headed off to an Internet café to see what else we could do. The connection was too slow for research so on the spur of the moment we decided to go south to Cafayate as Carl had seen some nice postcards of the area and we knew that it was an important wine area. We had 30 minutes until the bus left, so we hurried back to the hostel to pick up our bags and made it

Argentinean Iguaçu

The water was very high for this time of year, so we got to see the falls in full glory but lots of water is not so good for photos as there is a lot of spray and mist.

to the bus station with little time to spare.

Cafayate

The first half of the journey was pretty ordinary but as we got nearer to Cafayate we entered the most amazing landscape. There were fantastic wind eroded rock formations in numerous different colours and around each bend in the journey we were treated to another astounding vista. The shapes and formations that had been eroded were like something out of a computer generated science fiction movie. We were both desperate to get out to take photos but being on a public bus this was not an option unless we wanted to get off in the middle of nowhere with no sure way of continuing. Every now and then the bus stopped to drop off and pick up people in the most desolate and isolated areas where there was no sign of human life. We wondered where the people we dropped off or picked up went to or came from.

When we pulled into the outskirts of Cafayate it looked really rural and I worried that we might not be able to find accommodation. Thankfully things improved and on route in we passed a pretty Hospedaje with

Argentinean Bird

Carl spent a lot of time trying to get this bird to pose properly. Unfortunately I do not know its name.

an enticing looking swimming pool (It was very hot). At the bus station we were accosted by a hostel representative (El Balcon Hostel) who took us and a hippie couple to see her hostel in a pickup truck. The hippies took the last matrimonial room so we had to find somewhere else. The driver of the pick up offered to show us some other hostels. After showing us every single place in the village (he was determined that we should find the right place) we returned to our chosen one to find that the room had been given away and we were forced to upgrade. It was a little more expensive and had no pool, but it was really really nice and as it was Carl’s birthday we decided to splash-out. In thanks for his help we decided to use his tour agency as it was clear he did not expect a tip and was just being helpful. During our stay we were quite taken by Cafayate and found the people very friendly and helpful.

That night, after organising a wine tasting tour for the morning and a trip to see the magnificent parts of the canyon in the

Argentinean Iguaçu

We took so many photos, we had to share more than one as there were many amazing vistas.

afternoon, we decided to try a bottle of the local Argentinean wine. At the wine shop Carl got the low down of the local whites in Spanish from the proprietor and we chose one to drink. We sat on the pavement outside his shop on the Plaza and he served us our chosen wine with some local cheese. It was a lovely warm evening and the sunset gave a warm glow to the square. Each time a bicycle or motorbike passed by one of the local dogs would set off in hot pursuit, it was quite funny to watch them taking turns.

Before dinner I left Carl in a tourist shop while I went on a desperate search for birthday presents, not having one spare minute to get him anything before. I managed to find a good bottle of wine and a bottle opener (we did not have one on Carl’s the Leather man and had left the Swiss Army Knife in SA) and when purchasing the bottle opener spied something that looked like Hot Sauce (Carl loves his spicy food and South American food often needs spicing up). When Carl opened it he appreciated the gesture but was

Devil´s Throat

Nicola standing right over the deepest part of the falls.

convinced it was Marinade rather than sauce. I am happy to say even if it was marinade it went down well as a hot sauce later on during our trip.

As we were so comfortable I allowed myself to be convinced into another bottle of wine, as we needed to taste the local wine and this was the occasion for red as we were having steak. One and a half bottles was as much as we could manage so we corked it and took the remains home for another day.

Carl’s Birthday

We rose just in time for the end of breakfast, which was very good by South American Standards, and included freshly squeezed orange juice, good coffee, Ham and cheese a variety of breads condensed milk and jam and to top it off croissants. After a leisurely morning opening presents we ambled along to the wine tour.

We climbed into our mini bus long with 3 other guys who all spoke Spanish (it turned out one was Argentinean, once was Israeli and the other Spanish) and a white, black and brown terrier who belonged to the hostel. Thinking that we would be going to some

Cathedral in Salta

During our very brief stay in Salta we managed to see some beautiful buildings.

of the vineyards further outside the town limits we were surprised to pull into a farm called Vasija Secreta right on the edge of the town a couple of minutes later. We got a tour of the winery in Spanish of which we understood about 60%. I think our knowledge of wine terminology helped a lot! The tasting much to our disgust was done from plastic cups as they had run out of clean tasting glasses. The wine was okay but nothing special.

Our second bodega visit , Domingo Hermanos, started with a tour in rapid Spanish which we missed most of until the Argentinean guy from our group realised we were having difficultly keeping up and explained the main jist of it. After the tasting we went outside to find that our driver was not yet there to collect us. We waited for quite a while and then eventually gave up and walked back to the agency as we were not very far (2 blocks from the plaza). We found out after a couple of phone calls that the driver had a fight with one of the owners of the tour agency and had quit and left us

Trees of Cafayate

at the farm without telling anyone.

After a brief search they found the bus and another driver took us to the cheese farm, our final destination for the morning’s tour, which unfortunately was closed for lunch as we had taken so long. Instead we went to another much bigger bodega where we watched them bottling wine on there very modern looking production line. This farm Etchart was where Carl’s bottle of birthday wine was from, we got to taste a couple of the wines a Chardonnay and Torrentes blend (We found this a little insipid), a plain Torrentes (tasted a little like Chardonnay), and a Cabernet Sauvignon (probably the best of the bunch).

By the end of our tasting there was little time for lunch before our Canyon tour and we grabbed some ice cream instead. Our second driver from the morning Pedro and Elogia (The Dog) accompanied us on our afternoon’s excursion. We drove to the start of the Canyon and stopped at an area of large spectacularly eroded red rocks sticking out of the desert sand. The wind was incredibly strong and we could see how the formations could be formed very quickly by wind erosion

Wine of Cafayate

Our favourite wine shop on the Cafayate plaza, the owner served us a cold bottle of white on his pavement where he had a table, 2 chairs and an ice-bucket.

alone. After that we visited an area with many different coloured layers of rock compacted together, some majestic orange and red pinnacles, a place called the amphitheatre where both our guide and Nicola tested the acoustics with a song and a place called the devils throat where Carl tried climbing up for a sunset shot. It was a magical place and we could have spent much longer looking at all the different formations and colours in the landscape.

Our last stop was a climb up to the top of a small hill to see the sunset. We were quite late as the sun sets behind the mountains and thought we had missed it but the colours kept improving and clouds near the mountains started glowing against the darkened sky. Elogia was exhausted by the trip and happily curled up on the backseat to sleep on the way home. This dog apparently goes on the tour everyday, she really enjoys her dog life.

Dinner was in a fancy looking restaurant, which was empty when we arrived, but when we left it was packed (we found out later that they only think about eating around 9pm in Argentina). We were

Northern Argentinean Wine

We visited 3 wine farms in the North near Cafayate.

both tired and the fantastically tasty meal was marred by the very slow service.

Chilling in Cafayate

Next day we chilled and managed to get our friends at the El Bacon hostel (Not our hotel) to do our Laundry as the only Laundry in the town was closed. When we picked up the laundry later that night, it turned out Carl has left some Reals (from Brazil) in his pocket which they returned to us. Everyone we ran into later that night asked us if we had got our Reals, it seemed to be the talk of the town.

For dinner Carl had decided to try the local speciality Cabrito (Baby Goat). We decided to give business to one of the restaurants further out from the square as it was completely deserted. It took a while to convince the guy that we wanted to try the Cabrito. He said it would take much longer to prepare but we said we were prepared to wait. Carl true to his word ordered the goat, I on the other hand was craving a Milanesea (Vienna Schnitzel). When the food finally arrived, Carl’s first taste confirmed that goat is indeed disgusting

Wine Production Line

The last farm we visited in Cafayate had a fantastic mechanised bottling and packaging system, which we watched for ages.

and should be avoided. Even the sauce was tainted with the strong taste of the goat meat. Carl lost his appetite and only had a small bit of my Milanesea. After the fuss we kicked up about getting the goat we decided not to leave the virtually untouched plate so when the waiter was not looking Carl loaded all the meat into a sick bag I had saved from the bus. We gave the meat to a handsome Pointer that we had admired patrolling his territory in front of the restaurant.

Back to Salta and to Bolivia

Next day we decided to drag ourselves away from our new favourite place, Cafayate, and make our way to Bolivia. The bus arrived in Salta around midday so we dropped our bags at left and went to the Main plaza for a big meaty lunch and then on for coffee at the restaurant we had tried the first time in Salta as we knew it had good coffee.

After lunch we continued on to Tilcara in the middle of the Quebrada Humahuaca, a landscape similar to that near Cafayate but nowhere near as spectacular. After a night in an overpriced

Quebra de Cafayate 1

We spent the afternoon in this area jsut an hour´s drive from the town. It was a magical place and we could have spent much longer looking at all the different formations and colours in the landscape.

hospedaje we caught another bus on the border with Bolivia.

Leaving Argentina is not an easy thing we really liked it there and we resolved to return as soon as possible. We will have visited Argentina 3 times by the end of our trip so we are collecting lots of Argentina stamps in our passports. More to come in separate blogs.

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