Our first taste of Argentina couldn't have been better and no I'm not just referring to the vino, although it is rather tasty! Salta is a lovely little city full of elegant old colonial buildings and with a really nice feel to it. After a couple of days just checking out the city we managed to get talking to a local (Javier) who was happy to take us out on a little road trip exploring some of the surrounding area and doing some trekking. Leaving Salta we broke down about 10 minutes out of town which wasn't the best start but once we were up and going again we headed for the village of Cachi, stopping first on the way for a small trek in the green hills of Parque Nacional Los Cardones. It was like being in Wales, rolling green hills, small rivers running everywhere, hundreds of sheep and plenty of cloud! Having managed to find the car in the cloud and even start it first time we then drove out of the valley over a pass and bizarrely into arid desert. We arrived in Cachi that afternoon which is a beautiful little old village with lots of character and charm. The following day we left Cachi on Ruta 40 (a famous road in Argentina that runs near enough the whole length of the country, around 6000km) stopping to visit a vineyard on route which we needed to wade through a thigh-deep, fast flowing river to get to. Went for a trek and tasted some of their grapes in both the raw and pressed variety, we then met the owner and his family which was cool and they gave us a sprite bottle full of- possibly the worst desert wine they made – yumm!! Trekked again in the afternoon amongst some mad sandstone formations before arriving in Cafayate and being serenaded in a restaurant by a rather larger than life local and his guitar! The next morning we headed to some canyons in the Quebrada de Cafayate to do some more trekking through the formations and out the other side ending up at the top of a cliff. The red sand and rocks disappeared steeply below us for about 600m – “Just stick to the red soft sand and…” didn’t catch the rest as Javier ran off the sheer edge! It only took us a few seconds to realise that Javier was completely bonkers and that we had absolutely no idea where the car was so we quickly followed – it was great fun but very messy as sand gets everywhere! Once we’d caught our breath again we found the road, caught a lift from a local guy back to the car and drove to the very strange Indian fortress of Quilmes. A small ruined city built into the hill side in an amazing location and the last strong hold of Indian’s who had withstood the Inca’s before finally being conquered by the Spanish. From here we drove over another pass returning to the greenery and cloud! Found a hostel in the town of Tafi de Valle (was expecting to hear Welsh accents!) and said our goodbyes to Javier before leaving the following day for Tucaman and a night bus to Mendoza.
Wanderlust for Life
Adventure travel around the world