Valle Calchaqui - to CACHI :)

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Enjoyed MY POOL in the morning, chatted to the owners Maria Angelica and Rodolfo, and at 11am I went off, with Melissa and Josh. New friends, both hotel owners and travel companions.

We first went uphill, before leaving Cafayate. I wanted to visit the Cafayate Wine Resort, a not-cheap hotel. It is beautifully located, rooms and amenities are great. But it lacked life. I am happy I did not get a room there for just myself, too lonely.

Went a bit further towards the mountains, to find the ...Nubes vineyard of the Mouliers. Beautiful little place, same great view, lively, you can visit the little bodega and do a winetasting. We just bought some wine and wandered around. Next to it is a nuns school for children.

And off we went.

First stop in San Carlos, where I was told by several people to find a beautiful hostal run by swiss. Well... tastes are different. It was a cosy little place. If you get stuck in San Carlos. Another place I am happy I did not go to alone (I had thought about it).

From there, after a refill of gas (Benzin) at the towns exit - out on the world famous RUTA 40.

To describe all the different wow-amazing-unglaublich-incredible-stunning-grossartig expessions and views is impossible. My photo album will do it, once I get to finish it. 350 pics that day.

The mountains have the most incredible formations and colours. And all this changing and varying throuout the whole long day. I read it takes 2,5 hours to Cachi. It took us 8 hours, and we did not make any longer stops. But many short ones.

I felt like a dwarf on top of a topographical map. No idea how far we could see - hundreds of kilometers sometimes, I would say. Crystal clear, with several geological zones, colours, mountain ranges to any side, differing. I need a geologist to explain some things on my photos to me.

We even found a paprika drying field, I was totally happy about it. The colours of the beige of the earth and adobe houses, together with the deep deep red of the vegetables make a great picture.

Stopped at a few churches, and in one place some kids came running towards us, playing with a bike tire, asking us whether we had bikes (the one who did not see our car at first). They did not beg for money - there was nothing to buy in the place. We gave them cookies, then thought about rather give them apples for the future. Or our cheese-meat platter, which I was happy we did not, since it was our lunch later, when we were delayed.

All in all the timing turned out to be exactly perfect, but I was worried in between and there were some tricks to it.

It was about 158km we had to cover. We planned 7 hours, and after 3 hours we had just covered 50km. But then later the landscape was wider and not so good for photo stops anymore, so we gained terrain.

I wanted to skip Molinos anyway, and we did so. Sorry for my travel companions. In Seclantas I would have liked to stop. But there was something else I really wanted to see:

Brealito. I was recommended the lake/lagune. So off the track we went, 12km it sayed on the street sign. After 3 I felt that Alfredo, when mentioning it, had not taken in mind that I do not have a 4WD car. We managed 2 difficult stretches, until I said stop. I turned the car around at an actually narrow space, but right in front of a 30% curve we may not have made back. We had made 10km by car, so 2km missing only. No problem we said, got out of the car and went on walking downhill for the rest of the way.

Problem was also the time. It was around 6pm and I was afraid it will get dark before we get back to the main gravel road again.

Then Melissa screamed out loud, she was being bitten by little tiny animals. Not me. But Josh too, and yes, I also had some sitting on me, but they were not bothering me at all. Thought I... Until the evening.

When on our way back up to the car I stopped the second car that had passed by, both ambulance cars, with the driving having his mouth full of coca and bica - quite disgusting to look at - telling me something important, when I asked how long it still was to the lagoon. It was 2km to the village Brealito, downhill. But from there it was still another 8km uphill to the lagoon! Hossa! Great I asked.

We rushed back to the car, where happy about our walk in the nature, got rid of the little bichos and left.

Passed through some more little towns and watched an incredible sunset, or lets say, incredible colours all over the valley.

Touched base in Cachi right when darkness came over the Valle Calchaquí here.

I dropped them at their hostal and went to my beautiful hotel, right in town. Got a lovely room with a fantastic view only to be guessed for the next morning.

I was dead. 8 hours driving, heat, sitting in a car, sleepless night before. After a shower we met at the main square and I was back to life. What a beautiful town by night. The large street lights on the walls of the strictly white painted adobe buildings had a cosy yellow light that turned everything into an amazingly peaceful place.

A few tourists around, some locals strolling along, sitting in the park, moving, driving, kids, lots of friendly dogs passing by.
Chilly fresh air, no wind, stars above us.

What a day!

I am so happy I shared this day with my new travel companions. The Salta-Cafayate was great alone, but this one in a less busy area (2 cars only took over, no single tour van on our way, only about 5 cars crossing our way in total) having company was more fun. Not to talk about our adventure trip towards Brealito, I would not have gotten that far alone.

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