Snakes, sips and spewing
Trip Start
Aug 03, 2006
1
40
75
Trip End
Dec 13, 2006
Cafayate,
Argentina
Thursday, October 12, 2006
We spent a total of 3 full days in the lovely town of Cafayate and were not disappointed. It is small and quiet and the surroundings are amazing.
We spent the first day soaking up the scenery. We walked up to the lookout point 2km away to see the town; it is practically engulfed by vineyards. They are all around leading right up to the mountains, it makes for a lovely sight. We trundled back to town for lunch where Steve had the back of his chair kicked by a little boy. When he decided to reprimand him on this, the little boy tried to take the suncream sticking out of his pocket. As soon as a nearby dog started barking though, he scurried over and cowered behind Steve for protection. It was both an "awww!" and "you little sod" moment at the same time.
Then we did our own walking tour of the area's vineyards. We visited two bodegas and tried the area's Torontés and Malbec wines. We left it until late in the day hoping to avoid the mid-day heat but it was still hot and the wineries were closing so we didn't walk to them all. Probably a good thing, too much wine in that heat and we would have never made it back.
The second day we attempted to walk to a waterfall mentioned in the Lonely Planet.
01 - Get your hands out of my pockets!
The lady at tourist info gave us a map but suggested we take a guide. We looked at the very cryptic map (turn left at the 3rd tree, pass the little pool with bubbles...) and figured we could do it on our own (once Steve figured out a few of the Spanish words in the directions he was unsure of). So with map in hand we set out. It wasn't long before we felt like nothing seemed to match the map we had. We were walking through a dried up river bed; no babbling brooks or trees to count in sight. As we were walking all Tara could think about was all of the good hiding places for snakes. All these big hot rocks for them to hide under and slither between. She was beginning to obssess about it so suggested to Steve that we walk up on the river bank instead. Just as Tara hopped over the edge she was greeted by a giant black and yellow snake. It reared up, hissed at her and jumped (no, not slithered - JUMPED!!) into a nearby bush. Steve was behind her and thought it was a fox in the bush. THAT IS HOW BIG IT WAS!!! Tara then proceeded to freak out and started blubbering incoherently, "I don't want to walk in the river! I just want to go home!" Steve managed to calm her down and very bravely led the way as the snake bait for the next bit of the hike. That was until we met Gustavo. He then became our guide and as part of that role, our snake bait. By the way he thought that the black and yellow she saw on the snake were the markings of the South American death snake (or something to that effect anyway).
We had successfully managed after 2 hours to find the beginning of the trail (!), so when we were approached by Gustavo we thought it best to swallow our pride and take him up on his offer if we wanted to ever see these waterfalls.
02 - The vineyards at Cafayate
We were a little worried that he may lead us to the waterfalls, steal all of our stuff while we were swimming and leave us abandoned in the wild, but after a few minutes which involved lots of talk of how to pronounce Tara's name and Steve writing down a brief history of the American War of Independence for him, we knew we were probably going to be OK so followed happily over giant rocks, under trees, across rivers and to 3 beautiful waterfalls. We would NEVER have been able to find this on our own!!! Having said that, on the way up we did see another backpacker who'd managed to do almost the whole thing on his own, so it is possible.It was great when we arrived at the final big waterfall. We ate lunch there and then headed back down. We both really enjoyed the hike, it was different from the ones we have done so far. There was no real path to speak of, just boulders, and bushes and the river all in a steep cactus-lined valley. It was like we were on some adventure, bushwhacking our way through the wild! The last bit back on the dirt road (we avoided the dried riverbed this time) was painful however. After 30km and 8hrs of walking we were ready to be done and back at our hostel.
After a long and eventful day we figured we had earned another big steak dinner but this time we finished it off with wine flavoured ice cream. Surprisingly tasty! We also bought bus tickets out of Cafayate for 6am the next day but didn't make it because Steve threw up in the middle of the night - not taking on enough water again we think. Naughty boy! So we had a bonus day in town which we filled with a visit to the wine museum (crap) and the cheese factory (just about to close). The nice lady at the bus station even let us change our unused tickets free of charge to leave the next day, which would be unheard of in the UK!
DAILY FACTS
- Stayed at: Hostal del Valle, San Martín 243, Cafayate. Tel: (03868) 421039. We stayed here for 2 in a very nice room, but there was a hostel which wasn't bad just across the road for half the price, so we moved. Breakfast was included in the room price but was a bit rubbish - just bits of cake and dry toast with tea / coffee. Recommended.
- Stayed at: Hostal del Angel, San Martín 162, Cafayate. Tel: (03868) 422212. Nice enough place with same central location as the other one. Has a back garden for sunbathing. Recommended.
- Trip organised by: Us! Don't do it! If you are going to go to the waterfalls, get a guide!
