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Published: July 11th 2010
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Rock formations in the Quebrada de las Conchas
We drove through the Quebrada de las Conchas, a Provincial Natural Reserve, on our way to Cayafate from Salta. It is an UNESCO site and is known for its unique rock formations. (Some dear friends of ours once showed us a video of them drinking wine and watching a sunset in Greece. Based on that experience, I expect that this entry might be more interesting to us than you. Please enjoy our pictures, and read the text some night when you are struggling to sleep. )
We set out mid-morning on Jan. 21st for the town of Cafayate in a popular wine producing region called the Valles CalchaquĆes. We caught a collective taxi ride from the Parque San Martin in Salta with two older ladies. The drive took us 180 km along the small, relaxed Ruta 68. There was a mix of scenery along the way. The ladies and our diver liked the views of the red-hued rock formations in the Quebrada de las Conchas along the way, but I had seen enough of those in Bolivia. I favored the quainter scenery - the grasslands, forests, and small towns. On the other hand, Eva loved the layered rocks was still excited to see the geologic wonders of the Quebrada, and only wished that we could have stopped at a few spots along the way to take more detailed pictures. However, her desire
to get there as soon as possible (for wine tasting) and to not inconvenience the rest of the people in the car resulted in already too many photos taken through the car window. We were now south of the equatorial zone where we had been traveling for the past few months, and we were experiencing a bright summer day in the southern hemisphere. It was like driving in the Cascades back home in mid-July, and the familiarity, after months of the strange and unfamiliar, was welcome.
We arrived in Cafayate early afternoon and checked into the Hostal del Valle, a cute family-owned hotel that was centrally located, a bit pricey, but quite charming. We came for one main purpose: to get our drink on. We'd hardly touched wine during the past few months - the main thing to drink in Central and South America were light pilsners (for George). We had some catching up to do. We set out from our hotel around 2pm and visited three bodegas or wine cellars right in town. The area is known for Malbecs on the red side, and Torrontes on the white. Torrontes is the specialty grape of the area. The locals
boast they have better Torrontes here than anywhere else in the world, including Chile, and the larger, better known wine area around Mendoza further south. I found the ones I tasted to be quite fruity with a touch of minerals. I thought they were pretty distinct, although maybe it had just been too long since I'd had white wine. They ranged in sweetness from semi-sweet to dessert-sweet (for the late harvest). I thought the drier ones would pair well with fish, if only they ate fish in Argentina! We bought a bottle of the late harvest sweet Torrontes, and took it back to our hotel. We went to the top floor dining/sitting area, which had great views of the town and surrounding countryside, enjoyed our bottle of Torrontes with some goat cheese and mango, and had one of the better conversations we've had on the whole trip. I won't share it because its husband and wife stuff. Later in the evening, we wandered through the central park. Being Thursday night in Cafayate, there were several performances going on, including a guy with a dog puppet, live music, and some
tango dancers.
The next morning, we were up early to continue wine drinking. Our plan was to bike to several of the nearby estancies or vineyards just outside of town. I don't know what it says about our marriage, but we just could not get a handle on riding a tandem bike. To this day we both blame the other. Anyhow, we were probably better off with the two mountain bikes we took on the bumpy, sometimes unpaved roads. We only made it to two estancias that were open and serving that morning. The first was Bodega Etchart, which is large and old enough to ship to the US and other locations. There were tour bus numbers of people there, and a Spanish-speaking tour was just beginning. Eva was interested but I wanted to beg off. I don't like crowds. Fortunately they sized us up pretty quick, and put us on a small 'special' tour for the old, disabled, and English-speaking. There only 3 people on the special tour, us and an elderly lady who had trouble with stairs.
Our somewhat bilingual guide led us to the
edge of the vineyard, and then through the winery processing floors. Why do you never see more than a few people working in these places?. We returned inside to watch a Spanish video about how the owner's grandfather would not settle for second best. Then the payoff: wine for three, four glassfuls each! The main tour group would be coming a bit later. Thirty strong, they would all be jostling around the counter the three of us had enjoyed all to ourselves. Sometimes its good to be English-speaking or elderly!
Alas, we had no luck avoiding the crowds at the Salvador Figueroa estancia. There was nothing for it but to fight your way to the front of the line for your complimentary pour. Nor was there any redress if your neighbor got a better pour than you. Tired and tipsy, we headed back to town. Unlike some, we don't enjoy drunk biking, but at some point in everyone's life its unavoidable.
Coming back to town, we had some great grilled chicken and salads for lunch. Everyone raves about the meat in Argentina, but after Andean Peru and Bolivia, we really enjoyed the fresh salads we found throughout Argentina.
Although the Northern Andes boasted hundreds of varieties of potato, other vegetables, particularly greens, are lacking, and were usually only served in soups. We had more or less enough wine by then, although we enjoyed some excellent wine-infused sorbet at Helados Miranda. We took a siesta in the afternoon, and avoided exertion, or drinking, or anything else the rest of the day.
We took it pretty easy on Sunday. There was supposed to be a festival at one of the parks starting in the afternoon. We kept checking back but not much was going on, and it looked like the real action would not start until that night. We spent a little time wandering the markets for non-wine products. We bought some torrontes grapes, and a sweet liquid ('grape honey') extracted from the torrontes. We ate some more wine-infused sorbets. Twice. At 6 pm we caught our bus back to Salta.
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