April, 2005
April 6 -7, 2005
After escaping Salta alive, and spending an hour trying to figure out how to get the autopista out of town (the only entrance was closed for construction and there were no signs indicating a detour route) we were on our way to Cafayete.
Cafayete is essentially the Napa Valley of Argentina, but at about 4,000 feet. The drive South from Salta took about two hours and was gorgeous! The best way to describe it is a collection of desertscapes and rivers that vary from high desert California type of ecosystems (but replace the Yucca Trees with 20 foot tall Cacti), to variations on the painted desert in Arizona. For good measure we also drove through some sand dunes. The drive was very familiar if you know Eastern California or parts of the American Southwest, but just unique enough to feel like we were really seeing something special.
Cafayete itself was also pretty cool. It is a very sleepy town with a central plaza and a half dozen wineries, or Bodegas. On the plaza we had a very nice lunch, though the local stray dogs would not stop staring at us from a distance of about 6 feet. After lunch we walked the 4 Ks through several Bodegas to Etchart, which was recomended as one of the better experiences. We ended up meeting a really nice employee there who pretty much dropped us in on a tasting tour, and showed us a little about the operation. It was pretty cool watching all the bottles be filled and corked and then labeled. Plus, they had a Torrontes (sort of a Chardonnay) Ruthie really liked so we got a bottle, as well as a bottle of their Malbec, which was also good. Both for like 5$. Yes, we waited until we reached Cachi to drink them!
The 3 hour drive to cachi was even better in a way because most of it was on a dirt road. 4x4 ing in a Chevy Nothing was a little nerve wracking a first, but once we realized the car was probably going to hold up, it became pretty fun.
While the scenery was great from Salta to Cafayate, it was even more stunning on the way to Cachi. Again, there was a lot of desertscape similar to the first leg, but this section also took us through at least two hours of canyons that varied between multicolored to a very white sand color. Huge sedimentary rock formations varied with grazing land, and fields of drying red peppers, which looked a lot better in person than they do in the pictures, but the pics are still decent. We also came across the occasional mud homes, nestelled in the canyons which are still occupied by the local farmers and their families who always seemed so escstatic to see us drive by, especially the children who would waive wildly. The sun went down about a half hour before we hit Cachi, so we got a gorgeous sunset behind the painted mountains.
As for Cachi itself, we arrived in the dark, and pretty much ate on the main plaza, and went to bed in our hotel, both which were nice, and left the next morning. However, the town was very charming, and looked like it might have been a nice place to stay for longer.
