Patios De Cafayate Hotel & Winespa

... picking up our clean laundry (very exciting) and stopping at an artesinal alfajor shop with an overwhelming variety of flavours we headed towards Tucuman, where we were catching an overnight bus to Cordoba.

On the way we stopped at Quilmes, the ruins of a large pre-Inca settlement. The inhabitants didn't survive the Spanish, with the final inhabitants forced to move to a suburb of Buenos Aires. The ruins are mostly stone ...

... m 32!!!!!!!)

Carla and Seb, this was perhaps one of the funniest wedding presents we've had!!! The next morning we all had brekkie before being assigned a horse. Lets just call mine *****!! Off we trotted into the mountain ranges to some spectacular views...beautiful...that is if your horse wasn't called ***** and went wherever it wanted to. It seemed like mine was the leader of the pack and every time I wanted to move to get a photo it would a) not ...

... this was happening to us! They took us to a mechanic and we were like - `woah, we arent paying any money to a mechanic! this is a hire car! ´ So the police lady very kindly rang the car company and explained to them what had happened. We agreed to leave it with the mechanic for an hour so he could give a diagnosis and then decide what to do from there.

When we returned, he told us that the battery was totally dead, as we expected. What was funny to note was ...

... go to the bus stop and wait. And wait. And wait some more. And we knew this bus was not the most timely, so we waited...... and then realized the two other backpackers were getting into the back of a pickup truck. So the truck pulls up, and we get in the back. It takes about 20 minutes in the back of this pickup truck winding up these hair pin turns to reach our destination....... the broken down bus...... Yes, it was broken down again and there is a young man sitting ...

... company, possible on bikes. It was 17km up hill. Our thigh muscles died about two thirds of the way up and we walked the remainder. Beside this dirt track the river tumbles down the mountain over rocky banks with the odd eagle or hawk perched on a cactus. We found a shady spot along these banks and made our lunch. Going back down to the town was an insult to the memory of our heroic ascent. It took about twenty minutes. We ...

... it so I could get the stand down, after an hour the young blokes had some nuts & bolts & hacksaw and the suspension was re-attached to the bike and I was on my way but only at about 40kms as it was a make shift bolt and I didn't want to **** myself twice in two days. Finally got into Cafayate and had a quick look around since I lost time on the way, it is mainly wine country with up market accommadation and nice resturants.

... magnificent, with incredible layers of colour in the mountains, different species of cactus and grasses, and amazing rock formations carved out over aeons by the river and the seasonal rains. We stopped for photos several times but there was no way we could capture what we were seeing, it was like a different planet. Then as we entered the area around Cafayate the town, the scene changed again to vineyards and willow trees. All this less than 180km ...

... ab** allei) ei ueb**nachtig 25 peso rund 8 franka mit fruastueck. Grad wo i ako bin han i denn koenna amana usflug teilne int landschaft ussakfahra das isch bis jetzt eini vu da beidruckendsta landschafta xsi wo i jemols xse han wia inara marlboro w**big alles kitschig wia kmola sooo extrem schoen. Am noechsta tag han i denn an usflug kmacht so wass**faell in da b**ga go aluaga isch meh od** we***** a wand**ig xsi noch** bin i mit go wiedegustiara ...

... more akin to plastic. They had mixed their cheese with different types of herbs, so we bought a wheel of basil cheese, chucked it in the bag and headed off to visit a local winery, to complete the lunch line-up !! The road out to the vineyard that we selected was also quite scenic, so we enjoyed the 10 minute ride, until we got to the gates and realised that it was closed for siesta !!! DOH ...

... legroom had lasted approximately 35 seconds before they both fully reclined without looking around to see if the person behind them was a midget or a giant. Good job it wasn't a Mother with a child on her lap or they really could have caused some damage.

It was now incredibly uncomfortable for me, I literally had nowhere to put my long legs. It was either arrange them to the sides of the seat in front, which had wire everywhere which really dug into my knees, or I ...