Drive to Cafayate and La Estancia

So, we're in Cafayate.  The trip here was absolutely amazing.  We rented a car in Salta and took off around noon.  We filled up the tank and headed out in a light drizzle.  Not too far out of Salta, we began coming to some very flooded areas, with several inches of water across the roads and all the ditches and yards full of water.  This being the rainy season and all, we didn't think too much of it.  Later on however, we discovered that we were somewhat lucky to have made it to Cafayate, the only road from Salta sometimes gets closed this time of year if there are heavy rains, and we saw signs of some significant, very recent, flooding at some of the reinforced parts of the road designed to let small creeks flow over the road without destroying it.

The drive is beautiful, starting out in lush farmland, passing through small villages, and the scenery slowly changing to more arid farmland, although still very productive and green.  You start seeing Cacti when you begin climbing, a very gradual climb, about half way through the drive.  The green starts fading to a lighter shade of green, with more bare ground and shrubs and cacti taking over.  The mountains are beautiful.  When you enter the mountains, and all along the drive, until about 20 km away from Cafayate, the mountain scenery just gets better and better.  It's difficult to imagine it could get better so we took lots of pictures along the way because we didn't want to miss photographing the beautiful and dramatic scenes around every bend in the road.  The geology of the pass is what contributes to the intense beauty.  Unlike the desert southwest in the United States (or at least the places I've been), the colors of the mountains change incredibly quickly.  The rocks go from white and gray, to orange and yellow, to deep red, to orange and gray, and finally ends in brilliant white as you approach the dunes at the edge of the Calchaqui Valley.  The Calchaqui valley is also stunningly beautiful.  Wide expanse of green valley, with mountains around 340 degrees or so of the horizon.  The mountains on the east and west are large, with an amazing diversity of colors and the valley continues north and south as far as the eye can see.  As you approach Cafayate, you smell the blossoming desert plants and, once you pass the dunes, the cacti give way to vineyards...as beautiful as anything I've seen in Sonoma valley and without the traffic (and high prices).  You drive over a small bridge once you turn onto Route 40 and you're in Cafayate.  It is a small town (I think the population is around 15,000, but it looks as though it's climbing quickly - new construction, expansion, and renovations are taking place everywhere!), with a lively scene in the streets (mostly locals, although lots of backpackers), small shops everywhere, and a superb little plaza in the center of town.  It is beautiful, clean (the people here really seem to take pride in their town and yards...more so than even Salta and LOTS more than in Buenos Aires), and safe.  The people are friendly, children are safe walking the streets alone, and you really get a feeling of relaxed happiness among everyone you see (at least I did).

Continuing through the central plaza along Route 40, you come to the edge of town quite quickly, past the 2 large camp grounds...which, while not a speck of grass in sight, appear clean and very alive with activity, and you cross another bridge.  You are immediately surrounded by beautiful vineyards on both sides off the road and very soon come to the rather impressive entrance to La Estancia de Cafayate.  We kept driving because we were an hour and 10 minutes ahead of schedule and Terri wasn't going to be available to meet us until, at the earliest 5:00 pm.  We continued driving south on Route 40, past vineyard after vineyard and stretching as far as we could see.  It is really amazing.  We turned around, headed back to La Estancia de Cafayate, and drove up to the entrance house.  We waited 5 minutes for Terri to arrive and followed her in through the property.  The entrance is beautiful, fields of lavender on both sides of the road, planted with olive trees gives way to vineyards and fields of alfalfa.  The road then enters a wooded area, meandering through for much longer than I had expected.  The property really is huge, more than 1200 acres total.  In the middle of the wooded area, there was a clearing and a road going to the right with a big sign announcing the future location of the Grace Cafayate hotel and villas, and spa...and all surrounded by acres of grape vines.  Exiting the wooded area, you come to the first of the neighborhoods that are under construction - the last of the utilities being laid under ground and a few places where house construction has begun.  We were shown to the house we were renting - a beautiful little 2 bedroom house, with tile roof, outdoor seating areas and parrilla (stone wood-fired grill), small pool, and 1 room guest house.  The house is beautifully built and furnished.  We'll post some pictures soon.  In fact, I'll have to continue the description of La Estancia de Cafayate later, as the battery on the netbook is about to die (I'm writing this from the front porch of the reception house overlooking the first of 2 large ponds!) and we are about to take a walk.