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Published: July 19th 2011
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Joff: We woke early and headed to Anta car hire to collect our Ford Ka "Hilda" we decided that it should have a Spanish name and as it was ridiculously small it had to be a girl. Having been through all the checks paid our cash and fitted 1 bag into the boot we left the sanctuary of the garage and headed out into the busy streets of Salta. In spite of being early everyone and his dog seemed to be out shopping or for a drive so I was sweating before we came to the first real junction. In spite of the chaos we made it out of town and towards Cachi. When we had been told that the scenery would be spectucular and that we would have to drive at 30kmph as the roads were "unpaved" we laughed and thought that it would just be a bit bumpy and we would race through at normal speed! As we continued on and left the tarmac we realised that unmade may have been a better description!! In spite of the roads and I use the word "road" in the loosest sense ... the scenery was breathtaking and as we wound our
way up to 3600 meters the views were incredible. It seemed that we were driving as fast as possible but as usual the locals in their battered and ancient cars were haring round blind bends in clouds of dust on the wrong side of the road!! Fortunatley there were actually very few cars on the road which added to the feeling of being literally in the middle of nowhere!
The road, the car and stopping all the while to take photos meant that the journey took considerably longer than we had been told but we still arrived in Cachi in time for a late lunch and a glass or two of the local white torrentes. In the heat and the sunshine it was divine and having learnt just to order 1 main and share we finished lunch with enough energy in the tank to make a hike up yet another hill to the graveyard! At the top of the hill the wind was howling and the temperature was considerably colder than it had been in the town. Not being of a religious or goulish nature we took a photo from outside the cemetary. It was at this point that
we realised that there was actually a path sloping down the other side which may have been significantly easier than the sheer shingle face we had ascended! We walked back to town and headed to the hostel for a bit of a siesta before watching the Argies being knocked out of the Copa De Americas whilst doing our Spanish homework! We had been routing for Argentina and unfortunately Teves missed a pentalty to send Uraguay into the semi finals! We went to bed early as we wanted to get an early start the following day.
As expected we woke early, had a coffee and hit the road. It was a slight oversight on our part that we didnĀ“t ask how to get out of town and so we spent 45minutes and several unfathomable spanish conversations trying to figure out the road to Cafayete! Considering all of the road are dirt tracks it makes me laugh that the final local I asked pointed at and anonomous track and said that one of course! Natually on turning the corner there was a massive sign confirming the fact! The road to Cafayete made the day before look like childs play and this
combined with no signs or sat nav lead to a couple of "off pist" journeys! That said some of the scenery was incerdible and I am sure that a Ford Ka has never and probably will never visit these places again! I will be sending a GPS note to Mr Guiness to see if we can make it into his book! Just google remote F*^king Ka!
Having overcome the route and our directions and our ridiculous Ka we fianlly arrived in Cafayete! We found a hostel called the Angel Hostel just off the main square and in spite of being covered in dust headed out for a well deserved cold beer at probably the poshest bar in town! I love it! Two dusty bums with the jet set of Cafayete! Having finally refreshed oursleves suitably we headed on for an early dinner and hit the hay! We were knackered!!
We woke early and headed out to take a look at the town. The town is famous for wine and is surrounded by vineyards with the backdrop of the mountains which makes it incredibly beautiful. We wandered about for a while and then decided to get on our way!
At least the road was paved here and one can drive without creating a dust cloud which covers everything and can be seen for miles. We had been advised that this would be the most amazing part of our trip which we initially found hard to belive! That said the further we drove out of town the more incredible the landscape got. It seemed like a cross between New Zealand and Mars!! I can vouch that the limited speeds which one is permitted to do on these roads are well advised as everyone seemed to swerve all over the road as they gaupe at the sights! I was guilty of this myself but we still managed to enjoy the scenery and avoid colisions with cars or rocks! When we rented the car the woman had said, "now let me be clear. This insurance covers you for two types of crash. A crash and a roll". Having driven the last part of our road trip I can see why they say this and having seen a couple of cars in ditches etc I can see why this is possibly relevant! We reached the chaos of town and dropped off a particularly
dusty, dented and slightly scratched "new Ford Ka" which the man accepted back probably just happy to see it in one piece!! We headed out to kill some time, write the blog and eat before the midnight bus to Bolivia and the next chapter!!!
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