Wine and Cactusses in Salta february 19 - 21 2011

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Salta

´When God distributed talents
and breathed his grace slowly on the plants,
it is said that he made the last,
the happiest of gifts,
and the last of all was our mother Araucaria´,
writes the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral.

Also the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wrote an ode on this special tree, the Monkey Puzzle Tree. (It would puzzle a monkey to climb that, someone once remarked). It is a living fossil and endemic for some regions in the Andes of Argentina and Chili. On the main square of Salta we find two Araucaria´s (Araucaria araucana).
Near the sqare stands a cathedral, neobaroque and in sugarsweet colours. Together with the other buildings it allows a typical South American atmosphere to this city in the far North of Argentina. Salta is nice. It took 19 hours to come here by bus (Andesmar) from Mendoza.


Around Salta
Together with two French people we have to push the car before it starts. Finally after a delay of at least one hour and a half we can kick off for an all day excursion to Parque Nacional Los Cardones. The Andes is overwhelming. Red is the dominant colour. But in between we see all kinds of colours. Blue signposts zinc or copper in the folded layers. Erosion has caused dramatic rock formations. They stimulate the imagination. Some rockformations have names, like the Obelisc, Los Castillos, El Sapo (the Toad), El Garganta de Diablo (Devil´s Throat). One rockformation is even called ´The Titanic´. We see how some layers disappear in the ground like a ship in the sea. With some phantasy you can see Leonardo di Caprio on the prow. In the Amfiteatro classic concerts take place. It has exactly the right acoustic. Everwhere on the barren rocks are cactusses. Facunda, our driver and guide, tells us the names: Cardon, Cactus, Penca. It is dry, only 100 mm rain in a year. Most of it falls in summer, the season we are in now. That is why we have to cross several rivers.

In Cafayate we have lunch. Here are the vineyards. One of them we visit. We see big cactusses in the vineyards. How is this possible? Grapes need water. ´It is because the grape here is special´ explains Pablo, who works at the Vasija Secreta vineyard. ´It is the Torrontes grape. It can withstand an arid environment and a high altitude. Here it is about 1700 meter high.´ We taste the white Torrontes wine. It has a special taste indeed. I taste roses, which is not an usual flavour for a wine. ´We do not cut the cactusses´, Pablo continues. ´It is forbidden by law. Once a cactus dies in a natural way, it enriches the soil with its minerals. In the past it was allowed to use cactus wood. The doors and the ceiling of the cathedral in Salta are made of cactuswood. It can withstand the dry circumstances here very well.´ Then Pablo takes us inside to show us a little chart, which was used to transport grapes. It is completely made of cactus wood.

Further we go. Along the rocks we see parrots and high in the air huge condors are making their circles. Finally we reach Quilmes, a ruined town of Indians. It is full of gigantic cactusses. The Quilmes people survived the Inca´s, but could not outlast the Spaniards. The last were deported to Buenos Aires in 1667, we read in the Lonely Planet. The Quilmes people are still pugnacious. At the entrance we get a broschure, which is more a manifest. The Quilmes people want their grounds back and to continue their traditions.

We are on the Ruta 40 again. We were on this famous Ruta before, when we travelled from Tierra del Fuego to the North. It is the Ruta Che Guevara used to travel. Now we are heading to San Pedro in Chili. It is a beautiful road. We drive across a saltlake, than the barren Altiplano at a height of about 5000 meter. From green to desert. It is a wounderfull drive. The last impressions of Argentina. We travelled here one month and a half. Argentina is a phantastic country!

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