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. 

Salta to Cafayate - Photos

Pictures from the end of Salta and our drive to Cafayate.  We'll update with explanations of the photos and name them later...off to have fun.


http://picasaweb.google.com/111394179126051529043/SaltaToCafayateFavs?authkey=Gv1sRgCPuGraCp4sOC6gE&feat=directlink

End of Salta

It has been a wonderful few days, which is why we haven't written.  We're gonna try to catch up.

Monday was our last day in Salta la Linda and deserves some attention.  Dave told me that I should write that night because it would get away from us but I was more in the mood to read...I'll try to do it justice now.  Monday morning we took a gondola up the east side of the city to the top of San Bernardo.  We thought it was going to be pretty low key with a cafe and a look out spot, but it turned out to be quite the park including some serious water features. Although none of the benches were in the perfect spots, the views were spectacular and the waterfalls astounding.  It was a great view of the city and a cooler, breezier climate. Afterwards we successfully took the bus to the mercado artesanal on the west side of town.  As soon as the bus began moving, I got the feeling that I was on the night bus from Harry Potter...jerking around slamming breaks, nearly hitting other vehicles jostling us in our seats, but we made it safe and sound. The market was definitely the best shopping we had seen. A wide varitey of knitting, ceramics and baskets to name some of the things.  Down a block from the artisanal market we found a spot to get empanadas.  It was kind of a restaurant, probably the converted garage of a couple's home.  The man took orders and (I think) the woman was in the "back" cooking some of the best empanadas we've had.  They had no water so we shared some Quilmes which is practically the same, and enjoyed the beginning of some spy movie with Angelina Jolie and spanish subtitles.  After returning home by cab ($2.50USD) we enjoyed the tradition of siesta.  For dinner we went to a restaurant recommended by Florencia (THANKS!)  It is called Paladar Negro and specializes in pasta. It was among the best pasta I ever had, even in Italy.  The service was friendly despite a language barrier and I would go back any time!  Seriously, if you are ever in Salta, eat at Paladar Negro.

Merry Christmas!

So, the artillery barrage started about 4 hours ago now, and is still going strong. 

The Saltenos really started pouring it on at about 11:45 pm.  At midnight, and for 20 minutes after, the barrage was constant, and in every direction - 360 degrees! 

There is no escape, no sleep, no rest tonight.  The sky is lit up as far as you can see, and now the haze of smoke has engulfed the entire city of Salta.  The barrage balloons started at midnight and continue to light up the sky...being launched from every block in the city in random order, lit by small flames inside paper or fabric balloons, flying off into the night.  Except for a few, hit by shrapnel, which burn up in the sky as they descend toward the ground, failed attempts to escape the onslaught.  And even now, at 12:45 am, explosions continue to rock the building from all sides.

Christmas in Salta is AWESOME! 

Sarah

Sarah and our two nights out with her were fantastic but have been neglected so far.  This is mostly because both times we got back to late for blogging because we had such a great time.  We went to dinner with Sarah, a former Masshole who now lives in BsAs (and studied here with Pep), on our second night here.  This is when we wandered around, took pictures of the big metal flower and learned of blood sausage.  It was awesome to hear so much about Argentina from a resident, and interesting to talk about the US; what she hears here and what Argentines think of us.

We met again on our last night in town.  Sarah happens to work a few short blocks from where we were staying in Palermo so she walked over after work.  We shared some wine there (La Linda Malbec, and Pescado Torrontes - a surprisingly delicious $2.50 wine!) and discussed a number of other things including Dulce de Leche, Mate, and "Argentina according to Amy Pepin." When it reached a respectable hour for dinner (around 9) we made our way down the street to Club Eros for dinner.  This was a Fodor's find that was a total gem (make sure you google Club Eros, BsAs...Sarah thought we were into rather unorthodox ideas of a good time when she googled Club Eros without the Buenos Aires in the search string).  My theory is that this restaurant came to exist because they fed parents during their kids soccer practice.  This is because the restaurant is literally on the side of a gym and indoor soccer club.  Dave and I were too intimidated to go with only a little functional Spanish and it seems this was probably typical of tourists because everyone else there seemed to be local. Luckily, Sarah is fluent so we dragged her along with us.  We ordered three steaks, a plate of fries (really yummy fries!), a basic salad and a bottle of wine. The steaks were awesome, at about 6USD a piece, they were deliciously tender and flavorful despite being cooked medium well. For dessert we had this strange but delicious queso y dulce de batata which is cheese and a sweet potato jelly.  I know this sounds strange but trust me, it was great!

We were sad to say goodbye to Sarah, but trust that our paths will cross again someday.  If you're reading this Sarah, thanks again!

Window Shopping

One thing I love about shopping in Argentina is the importance of window shopping...serious true window shopping.   As you walk down the crowded pedestrian only shopping streets here, most stores have people standing in front of them seriously evaluating the selection.  If a store doesnt have a good display no one will ever shop there and most people who actually make it in to the store want to buy something.  This is great as a tourist because you can easily evaluate the city and the different shops, including prices, without having to fumble through spanish or worry about pushy sales people. It is also makes it easier to control spending and keep dreaming.

Dinner in Salta

So, we made it to Salta today.  After checking out of our apartment in Palermo in Buenos Aires at 10 am, we got a taxi and headed to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery.  We arrived at 10:50 (for a 12:25 flight) and then waited in an EPIC 3 hour line!  Yes, some of you smarter folks are wondering how we got to Salta if we waited in a 3 hour line, starting at 10:50, for a 12:25 flight.  So, after waiting in the line until about 12:15, finally, the staff at LAN decided to call out for anyone still in line for Salta, and seemed genuinely shocked that there were probably 40 people in the check-in line for a flight that was supposed to leave in 10 minutes.  I will say, in Argentina, they don't treat you like a terrorist just because you want to fly, and they do everything they can to make sure you get where you want to go.  Anyway, after realizing that half the plane was still not checked in, they organized an "express-lane" for people flying to Salta...and actually started doing their jobs (they had been rather nonchalant prior to that).  It also appears as though the printed "flight time" is actually the boarding time.  So, we ended up leaving an hour late, but that's okay, because we still made it, our bags were on the plane to the right place, and we were allowed to bring our 2 liter bottle of water through security without any problems...and no, the plane DIDN'T blow up...amazing!  After a short 2 hour flight, we were on approach to Salta, and let me tell you, it is beautiful, mountains on all sides, everything green, and farmland in all directions.  We landed safely, got our bags (which took 30 minutes or so...people here aren't really in a big rush most of the time), and met up with Florencia from La Estancia de Cafayate, who had been waiting for us with a taxi for an hour or so...  (one of the perks of buying land at La Estancia de Cafayate!...it apparently saved us at least 30 minutes waiting for a taxi).  Thank goodness for Florencia too, because the address I had written down for the apartment turned out to be wrong...there wasn't a 2222 Alsina...the road ended at about 2150!  Florencia got on her phone to the LEC concierge desk and had them look up a phone number and soon enough we were on our way to the correct address right next to downtown Salta (turns out the apartment rental company had the wrong address on their website...).  We checked in to our beautiful apartment, complete with complimentary loaves of bread, and a swimming pool and went out to explore.  Salta really is a fantastic city.  It's much smaller than Buenos Aires, is cleaner, more quiet, and has far less shady characters walking around.  It's still a city, and today, 2 days before Christmas, it was a mob-scene of Argentine's doing last-minute shopping.  And it has everything anyone could want.  The parks, the old colonial buildings, and surroundings (mountains on all sides) are beautiful.

We went to the supermarket (which was absolutely mobbed with women getting supplies for Christmas dinner parties with family, which apparently involved swimming in various kinds of soda...every single person there had at least a dozen 3-liter soda bottles!), and stocked our fridge for a home-cooked Christmas dinner of steak, blood sausage, vegetables, and pasta - plus 2 bottles of good wine, juice, etc...all for less than $50!  After that we headed to dinner less than 1 block away on THE place to be at night in Salta, Balcarce St...  We ate at La Lenita, a parilla, and were quite happy.  An appetizer of roasted goat provolone with oregano and smoked ham, sweetbreads, a delicious short rib steak, cheesy baked potato and a bottle of Norton Clasico red wine...all for less than $35!

We could definitely see ourselves here...this could be the kind of place where I raise my goats in the mountains around Cafayate, while Rose works in the hospitals in Cafayate and Salta.  Just saying/dreaming...but seriously, why doesn't everyone live here?