Cachi


Advertisement
Argentina's flag
South America » Argentina » Salta » Cachi
June 14th 2008
Published: June 15th 2008
Edit Blog Post

Today I got up before the sun to be driven on a circuit through the Andean Northwest. The destination was billed as the colonial town of Cachi, but really the drive was the majority of the excursion. We drove through El Parque Nacional de los Cordones on a road that took us well above tree line. We stopped in the forementioned Cachi for two hours of wandering and lunch, and then headed back to Salta through Valle Encantado (Enchanted Valley).

When the day started, I really didn't feel like I was that far from home. For large portions early on in the Journey, I could have sworn I was on Mt. Lemmon Highway in Tucson. Which I need to defend as being one of the most beautiful places I know, but, you know, not that far away from home. But as we got further from town, I started noticing more differences.

As I mentioned before, this corner of Argentina is much more like one would imagine South America to be then any of the places I've visited before. The population is largely indiginous, in fact this part of the country was a part of the Incan Empire before the arrival of the Conquistadores. Every once in a while, we'd have to slow down as we passed old men in full woven garb on horseback, or random cows or llamas wandering the roadway. I tried to photograph them, but even my super-duper new nikon lens with vibration reduction didn't quite get the shots I would have liked.

This region is very dry, and has similar vegetation to Arizona. We passed fields and fields of Saguaros, although some of them had needles that were more wooly in appearance. There were also some small, random churches in some of these fields.

We climbed to and the cactuses dissapeared, leaving us in a large grassland. We descended into the Valley to spend some time in Cachi.

Cachi itself is a picturesque little pueblo tucked into the mountains. The town plaza is filled with palm trees, and the surrounding mountain peaks are snow capped. The architecture is Spanish Collonial.

We had about half an hour to walk around (which was PLENTY for a town extending one block in each direction from the plaza) before settling down for a lunch of local cuisine. I have to be much more careful when ordering here, as this region, not unlike our own desert regions, tends to favor dishes with peppers. I wound up having Sorrentinos, which are kind of like raviolis, filled with cheese from a type of animal I had not heard of (the picture looked kind of like a llama) and in a sauce that was green and tasted like a slightly creamy and not as salty kosher pickle. It was actually really good. Dessert was a crepe folded over locally made Dulce de Leche.

I don't know what they put into the lunch, but despite not having any alcohol, myself and both other tourists with me fell asleep on the ride home. Might have had something to do with how early we left. Our guia was complaining about the timing. We arrived back in Salta before 4 pm. We could have easily left two hours later and had daylight the entire way. I didn't really mind, as watching the sunrise on the mountains was one of my favorite parts of the day.

Well, tomorrow I get to wake up early again, this time to go visit Cafayate. Part of the day exploring a multi-hued canyon, the other part wine tasting. Hmm, I'm thinking it'll be a good one.






Additional photos below
Photos: 21, Displayed: 21


Advertisement



Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0568s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb