A whole lot of Cacti

Hello,

We left off prior to heading out for the day in Cafayate.  Since we had had time to write a blog that mornng, it was by far the most relaxed day of the trip to date.  The first thing upon leaving the hostel Rusty K, was to go have lunch down at the square.  All the towns here are set up in the spanish style, of being situated around a central square which typically includes the church and a good number of resturants with patio seating.  Sara and Peter enjoyed some coffee, while we all ate empanatas.  After lunch, which in typical Argentinian style for all meals can take a while, since no waiter is ever in a rush, which while taking some time to get use to, isn't such a bad thing, we inquired about renting bikes for a trip to a number of wineries.  The hostel was out of usable bikes, so we decided to walk.  This was after we found and enjoyed a Torrintio sorbet.  Tyson had read in the Rough Guides that there was an artisian who made lovely boxes aprox. 2km south of town, and since a number of wineries where in that direction we headed out of town.  Just after leaving the town behind we picked up a very friendly stray dog who joined us on the walk.  He loved to chase rocks, bird, etc.  He dilgently walked with us all the way out and back.  The first couple wineries we passed were closed, since it was a Sunday.  Tyson wanted to keep walking in search of this box maker, but we were definetly more than a couple of kilometers outside of town, and saw nothing but vinyards for as far as the eye could see.  So we headed back a little disappointed.  No wine, no boxes.

Back in town we stopped but didn't visit the wine museum.  The museum had english speaking tourist information which pointed us to both the box maker and the three wineries that were open on a Sunday.  Two blocks from the wine museum, well within town was the box maker's house, however the door was locked, but the workshop window was open, repeated "hola" were not answered, so we headed to two of the wineries that were also within the city limits.  We enjoyed several glasses at each.  Nino made organic wines, which tasted alright, while the second winery, El Transito was more to our liking.  While they both produced a variety of wines, they both excelled at Torrintio, which is a white, slightly sweet, somewhat dry wine, whose grape is only grown in this very high region.  We'll have to go south for the reds.

After the wineries we stopped off at a sweets store, and enjoyed a number of things that included dulche de leche, we walked back to the box maker, who was home this time.  We also picked up our stray dog again, who joined us in the shop.  The boxes were very nice with increcate silver inlay and clever hidden opening mechanisms, however the price matched the quality, and we don't have many practical uses for little boxes, so we passed up the opportunity.

We continued our relaxing day by resting before heading to dinner.  This was the first and so far only day that Peter was not starving and ready to eat at 7pm.  (In Argentina, you should not show up at a resturant before 9pm).  We had finally looked up the name for well done, which while not pink remained tender and juicy. 

The next day we arose early to start our trip with Emae our Argentinian Irish tour guide/driver/informational resource.  After another typical breakfast of tea or coffee, bread, and a cup of orange juice, with the bonus of frosted flakes, we piled in the car and headed north.

5 minutes out of town we stopped and lit our candel for Gauchito Gil and then continued on.  15 minutes passed that, the pavement ran out and we started the long dirt road section.  After driving through a number of small villages which where centered around tributaries and the main river we started to get into some interested scenary.  While the valley floor was green, the hills were barren, and as we drove north the hills became more and more spectacular.  The ground was a sedimentary but not all that compacted, as it would break apart in your hand.  As we drove the angle of the sediment layers shifted until they were perpendicular to the ground.  Slight the rock was so easily eroded, this made for dramatic formations.  We couldn't seem to let Emae drive more than 5 minutes before hollering to pull over and take another look.  Sara found this boring after awhile and would enjoy the same view from the air conditioned car, as the temperature outside was a dry mid thirties.  These rock formations continued for a couple hours before we reached a small  picturesch town whose name escapes me.  Our next stop was the town of Molinos, which had been the center of power for the region of Salta in the past, but now was little more than a dusty stop by the side of the road.  The church was worth a couple of photos, as was the old manor (now expensive hotel), but really it was an good excuse to stretch the legs.  From there it was only another 50 km or so to Cachi, so it took us about 2 hours (and we didn't stop much).

We stopped in Cachi for lunch.  To be quite honest, the food in Cachi was not that good.  Sara just had the empanatas, while Tyson who was hungrier thought he would be safe with ravillio, because previoulsy it had been served vegetarian.  Well this ended up being not so tasty pollo ravillio.  I felt a little quessy afterwards, but no harm came of it, so I guess no foul.  The church had an beautiful confessional made out of cacti, which we had been starting to see on the side of the road. 

Back on the now paved road we headed up into the national park that was set up to protect the cacti.  We climbed and climbed passed thousands of cacti, some with no arms, some with many arms, some with etc. etc.  Not being from a dessert area they were quite interesting.  We also kept a keen eye out for wild lama, but all we saw were some wild asses (donkeys).  Just as we reached the mountain pass at approx. 3500m the clouds rolled in.  We had difficulty seeing more than 5 feet in front of the car, which made the decent down the 20 plus switchbacks in the road a little nerve racking.  As well it obviously ruined all our potential views.

After our carful decent, the clouds were not so thick in the valley floor and we raced back to Salta, where we arrived some 11 hours since starting our journey that morning.  The whole day feeling like a bit of a wirlwind. 

Once we arrived in Salta we all had a shower and then went for a nice meal where they give you free champane with dinner.  I (Sara) was pretty tired and a bit headachy from the altitude of the andes.. but managed to eat four cheese pasta and bruchetta. While Tyson had a steak dinner. I have loss count at the amount of steak we have eaten. The next day we slept in and made our way to breakfast. Marilyn was happy because they had herbal tea (most of the time it is black tea). Tyson had told me that there was a cafe that served one of the best coffees in Salta so we headed there after breakfast so Peter and I could try it. The cafe was called "Van Gogh" and it did serve up a delcious cafe con leche (basically a latte). Very smooth, I rated it a 9/10. After we drank our coffee we headed to the museum where you can see Inca children that were mummified, Tyson had been looking forward to visiting this muesum for quite some time and as we got there we found out that the museum was closed till the 10 of November. Tyson was sad and disappointed. We then walked around Salta for a while, looking at other museums , one that had a wierd exhibit of Latin hairstyles. We sat in the sqauare for a bit people watching, but it was pretty hot out so we deciced to go under some shade at a restaurant to eat some lunch. Lunch for Tyson and I consisted of empandas and fries and a large beer, while Peter and Marilyn had empanadas and a pizza. Marilyn and Peter then went back to the hotel to wait for the taxi to take us to the airport while Tyson and I did a little shopping and looking at the shops.

I can tell you that flying for 1.5 hours to Iguazu , was much , much, much  better than taking a 20hr bus. Unfortuently we still do have two more long bus trips coming up but none are as long as 22 hrs. We arrived to our hotel which is a lovely little place that has a swimming pool and air conditioning (thank goodness as it is plus 34 here and jungle hot!). Marilyn and Peter were full from the airplane food (I am not sure how that is possible as all they gave us were crackers, some chocolates and a juice box) but Tyson and I went for dinner and enjoyed a cold glass of white wine as we sweated just sitting at the table.

The next morning we headed to Iguazu Falls. Now I can't really explain to you the beauty of these falls nor will pictures suffice! You really have to go see them for yourselves as it is truly one of the most spectacualr thing I have ever seen in my life. Ranks right up there with Galapagos Islands. I mean really just sheer beauty! We arrived right when the park opened with all the other hundered and some tourists and got on the first tain that took us to Garganta del Diablo which is the powerhouse of the falls it was spectacular and we watched the falls for a good 30 minutes or so just enough time to get off pace with all the tours happening around us so that we had some of the falls to ourselves. That was the theme of the day "how to avoid all the tour groups" I think we did pretty well. We managed to do almost all of the trails except the nature walk. Oh before I forget.. in the morning for breakfast they had fruit loops as one of the cereals you could choose to eat and I had a big bowl of them in hopes of having luck seeing Toucan Sam in the jungle... well guess what we saw TWO of them. Well I (Sara) only saw one of them and Tyson saw another one but he was beautiful! So tomorrow when we go again i am going to eat another bowl of fruit loops in hopes of seeing one closer. Back to the falls. Peter said that these falls beat our Niagra and Victoria falls by a long shot. I am happy we got to see them as it was so peaceful and calming and just really amazing. Google them to take a look for yourselves you will be in AWE! We spent 6.5 hours there walking around in the plus 35 degree weather looking for shade, and guzzling water, and enjoying the water spray off the falls to cool us down. When we got back to our hotel we were all pretty exhausted! Tyson found us some gatorade to drink and we all went for a quick swim and a siesta before dinner.

After dinner, we managed to buy our bus tickets to Mendoza and Bariloche.The bus to Bariloche did not have a lot of options as there was only one bus running that day , but we will make it work. Tomorrow we are up early again to go to the Brazilain side of the falls and then back to the Argentinan side to get one last impressive view of the Garganta del Diablo before catching our flight back to Buenos Airies.

See you then!

Sara & Tyson