Rockin´ in the rental car

Trip Start Oct 16, 2008
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Trip End Apr 16, 2009


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Where I stayed
El Portal de las Viñas
(Cafayate hotels)

Flag of Argentina  , Northern Argentina,
Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Salta Eight is what Andy has called the two popular routes out of Salta, one loop to the south and one to the north which, when put together on the map, look a bit like the number eight.  He gave us all his recommendations for doing it on public transport (with one stretch requiring hitching a ride), but after further discussion he decided it was crying out for a rental car if it was within our budget.  It turns out that if we paid for three of us to do a one-day tour (15 hours in a jeep) of the northern loop, it would cost more than renting a little buzz box for four days.  We were assured by the rental company that the roads we planned to go on were in parts not paved but perfectly navigable and we would be okay if we drove carefully  We picked up the car at 11am, figured out the carseat (which with its age might have been more dangerous than going without but at least Patrick could see out the window from it), and headed out of town to the south.  Our destination for the day was Cafayate, the centre of Salta's wine region.

The road out of Salta was pretty boring for the first hour, just a few tobacco farms and non-descript little towns.  After a while the scenery started to get a little more interesting and we were soon following a river and entering a canyon.  It wasn't long before interesting changed to absolutely spectacular.  The Quebrada de Cafayate was 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 from Salta.

When we finally reached Cafayate (at 4pm) we had a quick picnic lunch in the square and jumped back in the car to head further south to the ruins at Quilmes, in Tucuman province.  It seemed to take forever to get the 50km down the road, or perhaps it was just that we were worried we would get there after closing.  The road quality increased SUBSTANTIALLY as we entered Tucuman province, it seems they have a little more to spend on remote highways.  We came to the ruins and paid our entrance, which came with a wee guided tour in Spanish.  I was surprised how much we were able to understand, as talking about pre-Inca civilisations, construction materials for their homes, and the battles they fought to ward of invaders didn't really come up much in our Spanish lessons.  We learned that Quilmes at its peak had about 5000 residents, and they managed to hold off the Incas and several attempts by the Spanish before finally succumbing and being booted out and sent to Buenos Aires.  The site itself was enormous, partially reconstructed, seemingly clinging to the mountainside, and surrounded by a wall that stretched farther than the eye could see.  The best part though was the cacti; there were literally thousands of them, some of them fully grown and over 90 years old with woodpecker holes in them and just about ready to explode into bloom.

Gobsmacked, we drove back to Cafayate and found some very nice and cheap digs at a little hospedaje run by an ex-school teacher with some pretty fancy hair.  To get to our room we followed a path under the grape vines to the back of the yard where we had our own little terrace with table and chairs, shaded by an apricot tree in full fruit.  Nice.  We had some cold beer on the terrace with another guest, the well-travelled Helga from Austria, and eventually dragged ourselves round the corner to a restaurant on the main square for a very decent meal, also with Helga.  It was the first time Patrick had met someone called Helga after seeing her namesake on American Gladiators, so he was well impressed.  During dinner a massive thunderstorm rolled in and it rained so hard the roof of the restaurant started to leak.  We got totally soaked on the way home and had to take off our shoes to wade through the flash-flooded streets.  What an awesome day.
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