Road trip

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Greetings from Cafayate, in the northern province of Salta. I am very sorry i have no photos to upload for you today. Today i took over 100 spectacular photos but alas the computer at our hotel has a floppy disk drive and no usb port. maybe next time i can go back and add.

this morning we checked out of our dogdy youth hostel room and got our rental car. we hit the road south taking a route completely unknown to us. we had an amazing road trip today. it was awesome. the scenery here is breathtaking. we drove though the mountains most of the day. i literally took 100 pictures. the mountains changed colours as we went along and there were escarpments with deep red colour, light red, white and would you believe green sandy rock. amazing. along the route we got to see colonial architecture and argentinian farms. there were chickens and cows roaming the roads everywhere. also there are lots of dogs here. i didnt mention before that there are stray dogs all over the country in every city, and aparantly in every farming community. no worries. so far they are all docile stray dogs. okay back to the scenary. it was arid in parts, almost desert and then right next to the desert and the cactus was an area of lush green growth. i thought it couldnt get any more stunnings and then we would round a corner and there was a stream.

our first little side trip was down a very secluded road to the 2nd largest dam in latin america. the dam itself was nothing spectacular but the route there was. we stopped many times to take photos, let malalya run around and at one point we took a self guided tour of an abandoned building. once we reached the dam, the road came to an end and we had to turn back around.

as we continued our trip, we got to stop at some type of gorge....if that is the right word. it was called el diablo and was a very cool hole-cave in the mountain. this is why pictures would be nice right now.

this is Jesus country for sure. all along the route you can see very large jesus´ on a crucifix, and many many small brick boxes with a glass door. inside the glass door is a mini jesus and a cross on top. what´s wierd is that they are along the road in the middle of nowhere.

we arrived in cafayate late and had to make a b line for a restaurant for malaya. we found a fabulous place with an outdoor patio. this is where it starts to get hilarious. my understanding of spanish is a bit better than mark´s since i understand french and it is at times similar to spanish. there is something we have seen on many menus´, a heading called salsa. under the heading i saw a picture of pasta so i thought that salsa meant pasta and i ordered the mushroom and white wine sauce pasta. the waiter looked at me funny and said ´solo´¨ i said si thinking he was asking me if i want an individual portion. then he walked away. he came back a few minutes later and said salsa is sauce. it was too funny. i ordered pasta sauce. no worries though. i ordered my pasta and my sauce as did mark. malaya had an empanda with chicken which she very much enjoyed. i had a glass of wine and malaya tried very hard to grab it from me. at one point she spilled it on her hand then licked her fingers. she didnt like it. dinner was so good. the best we have had yet. the three of us ate and drank alcohol for 20 canadian.

we then walked accross the street to a hotel where we are at now. it is so cheap here for a room. its about 40 canadian for the night.

tomorrow we will stay in and around town most of the day touring the wine vinyards in the area. i am going to get cut by noon. cant wait for that. with any luck i will enjoy some nice wine and cheese or wine and chocolate pairings.

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Comments

[Maureen]

Wonderful
Andrea - this is a wonderful travelogue..........Love the dinner story - but hey, wine and cheese AND chocolate - now THAT'S worth a visit..............

[Team Condron]

i never told you about the trouble we had getting the car today. the guy at the rental agency this morning was in a very very bad mood. he was giving mark attitude and throwing papers around. mark forgot his passport so he had to walk back to the dump we slept at, then walk back to the rental agency. the car is new but it screaches loudly when you start it. i thought the air conditioning was broken for hours until mark figured it out finally. the car seat is....okay. it is not in as snug as it should be, the straps are twisted and there is no clip across the chest. I have to say we are better than the locals who put kids in the back on their laps or next to them with not even so much as a seat belt on.