Cafayate One Last Time!

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December 4th 2007

Published: December 7th 2007

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Hostal Ruta 40

School’s out for the summer! To celebrate the end of the teaching year we decided to go on a trip up to Cafayate, then continue on to Tafi del Valle. Unfortunately the beginning of December also heralds the beginning of the rainy season, and we were pleased to have our raincoats and umbrella with us!

Cafayate is located on the infamous Ruta 40 which runs almost 5000 km from La Quiaca in the North to Rio Gallegos in the South. As this was the last we were going to see of this road which has dominated so many of our travels, we decided to stay in the Hostel Ruta 40. It proved a good choice and we met fellow travellers from Denmark (who told us that Finland is not considered part of Scandanavia! We are ALWAYS learning!), Switzerland and Germany.

Whilst in Cafayate we decided not to revisit old haunts and instead walked out on Sunday morning to the Finca De Las Nubes. Despite information from the “Tourist Information” suggesting it would be open, we discovered it to be closed. That was after a 5km uphill walk! Still, the countryside was beautiful and very different to our previous visits. It gets

Pretty Flowers

A bit of rain brings the best out of nature

green very quickly once the rains begin!!

We stumbled across a small farm but nobody was around to say hola. Instead it was just us and the sheep! There were also thousands of tiny frogs hopping around on the sandy roads. They were cleverly disguised and hard to see when stationary, and at about one and a half centimetres in size, quite a strange sight.

The weather wasn’t great during our stay and so we called into a small bar to have a beer and toast Lanus Football Club! We watched them secure the 2007 Apertura Championship which will have our friend Maxi in Buenos Aires feeling very happy!

Also disappointing was the news that the ruins of Quilmes are currently closed. This was our main reason for being in Cafayate this time. Apparently there is a dispute between the local indigenous population and the tourism authorities about rights of access and protection schemes. Anyway, the man who makes the Cabernet and Torrontes ice-creams told me we were not really missing much!

So that was Cafayate. How strange that we didn’t visit any of the bodegas. Still, been there, done that!

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