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Published: July 14th 2008
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So, of into the sun again, this time south into the Calchaqui Valley for some hairy roads and more spectacular scenery. The first few miles out of Salta were fairly flat but soon we got into more interesting views and as we began to climb the road narrowed. We stopped for a brief coffee at an isolated cafe at the bottom of the Cuesto del Obispo, the long winding road that goes up into the mountains. The views were wonderful but slightly spoilt by the broken down truck containing 2 children who wanted 1970s middle of the road classics played at full blast while they waited for their mother to return with the tow truck.
And that's where the road really got interesting. The tarmac soon ran out and the first ford we came to looked pretty daunting and we began to wonder what we had done but Hugh went for it and it turned out to be the worst one though only just. The road was incredible - windy and rough. Luckily there were hardly any other cars about and we had stunning views back down the valley. We finally reached a point near the top where a few
local people were camped out with various crafty bits for sale. It's amazing, you can be in the remotest place and somebody will have spotted a business opportunity and arrived with their goods to sell. We stopped the car to take some pictures and while H was sorting things in the car I wandered towards the edge with my camera. I was a little surprised to hear the car start up and move off and turned to see H edging the car along past the mule which we had seen up on the road. Turned out it had arrived at the drivers door and had started licking the window and the wing mirror, refusing the let H open the door. Moving the car was the only way he could get out! When we finally went to leave he followed the car back up to the road again before eventually giving up.
At the highest point of 3348m we had another brief stop then continued on our way across the plateau where the scenery changed dramatically. We entered the Parque Nacional de los Cardones - the cactus national park - desert like scenery with parading cactuses backed by snow topped
mountains. Through the park there was one very straight but up and down road which gave the optical illusion that we were going downhill when actually we were going up - very weird. From there we headed on into Cachi, a very small town in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains and found ourselves a small guesthouse just off the main square. After lunch we clambered up to a couple of miradors for views of the valley but I've run out of adjectives so just believe that it was lovely....
The following day we were back on the unsealed roads to head for Cafayate, centre of the local wine producing region. The road wound it's way across the plateau for a few miles before entering the Quebrada de las Flechas or Arrows Gorge which is full of spiky sandy rocks stretching for miles (I promise, the photos do not do this justice). So, yes, more exquisite scenery taking us down, finally, into the town of Cafayate. While a little bigger than Cachi, it's still a small sleepy town though there was evidence of a few more tourists. We took a room in a lovely small guesthouse not far
from the main square with views of the distant mountains and popped out to the local heladeria to sample the ice cream - wine flavoured! We had one of each, red (malbec) and white (torrontés), and they were really pretty good, although nothing will ever beat good chocolate ice cream of course!
The following morning we headed up the valley a little to a small vineyard, Finca Las Nubes, which is a family business, only been in existence for a few years. We had a short tour of the fields and explanation of the process. This area is most famous for its Torrontés white wines but they do also make a Malbec there. The whole business only has around 5 permanent staff and most of the wine is sold locally but the wine was lovely and the views....ok, I can't keep going on about the views! We have already decided we must go back one March for their harvest - they have a one day big party and invite anybody who wants to join in to go along with scissors and basket to collect the grapes. After the hard work there's food, drink and partying until the early hours
- what a great idea.
Late morning we dropped the car back at the hotel and walked out to a much bigger winery on the edge of town (Bodega Esteca) which is more than 100 years old and uses both more traditional and much more modern methods to produce wine to export all over the world. For those interested they use the brand name Michel Torino for export and they sell to Sainsburys in the UK. The man doing the tour was very interesting in himself - he was born in Argentina but all of his family had come over from Norway just before he was born. He had been General Manager at the plant for some years but had recently left to buy his own small finca and had already planted his first vines. It'll be another couple of years before he starts making his own wine. After a much more detailed explanation there was more tasting and, or course, a bit of buying (it's all going in H's backpack!) before we wandered back into town for a very tasty lunch before catching the local siesta habit.
The next day was our last with the car and,
wanting to make the most of it, we headed south again, at last on sealed roads, toward Tucuman Province. We stopped of at Quilmes, another reconstructed pre-Columbian fort set into the hillside with yet more great views then headed a little further south starting to climb towards the top of another high pass. Sadly time ran out on us and we had to abandon the quest for the top (or H's quest....) and turn around. We popped back into Cafayate for lunch as we were passing and set off back to Salta, this time along the more direct and paved road. This soon headed into sandy dunes and burnt red rocks, blasted into shape by the wind. The Quebrada de Cafayate cuts down towards Salta passing amazing rock formations, many now helpfully named in case you can't imagine what the tourist board think that they are but mostly quite stunning nontheless. The 60 or so kilometres through this took a long time with photo stops and wanderings and so the last 100km were a bit of a rush to get back. Not helped by the fact that there was suddenly other traffic on the roads - something we had not
been used to at all. We stopped just outside Salta to get the completely filthy car washed and ended up with a very cheap but expert job, unfortunately taking longer than we'd hoped. We also hit rush hour traffic getting into Salta and couldn't find a petrol station and suddenly it was all a mad rush. Instead of a leisurely dinner before getting our overnight bus we had a mad dash to get enough cash to pay for the car and just time to grab a snack at the bus station. However, this gave us one big surprise as we bumped into one of the guys who had been volunteering at El Nahual with us in Guatemala who was coming from Bolivia and travelling down to Buenos Aires for his final flight home. We only had about 10 minutes to catch up with him but it was lovely to hear some news about the place.
And then there was another overnight bus but that's for next time...
Really, really hope the rain's stopped....
Lots of love
S + H xx
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Jan
non-member comment
Goats
How come the goats are all keeping to their side of the road? They look very orderly.