We didn't do very much on Monday - we had hopes of going to the museum, but it was closed. The museum would defy all attempts to visit it. We did do a pile of planning and sorting stuff out, as well as tromping up the local hill. On Tuesday, we jumped in a hire car and took off on a road trip.
We drove the southern tourist loop from Salta - down to Cafayate, up a smaller road to Cachi, then though Los Cardones national park back to Salta. The lady in the tourist information office assured us we could do this in two days, sadly, this was not the case.
The road down to Cafayate was kinda boring until we got into the desert in Quebrada de Cafayate. Once again, weird and wonderful rock formations drawn by the wind and water. It was a lovely fast drive, although the Salta traffic is insane.
Cafayate is a lovely place. Its the second town in Argentina for wine, and if you are looking for a place to drink wine, go there rather than Mendoza. The local wine even comes in ice cream form! We wandered around for a while, drank some of the local wine, ate empanadas while drinking more wine from a jug, and peeked at the local museum - tons of pottery recovered from local archaeological digs. The best find in the local wine is torrontes - its a lovely white that people say is hard to get outside Argentina and in our opinion beats Sauvignon blanc hands down. We were a bit pushed for time, so we couldn't stay a day, much as we wanted to.
The drive to Cachi was mostly on dirt roads. We set out zooming along on tarmac, through vineyards, looking at wonderful mountains with the sun blazing down. We overtook a local in his junker. One of the things that got me when I moved to Ireland is that one sees more cars with dented paneling etc than one does in the UK. Argentina lowers the standards a lot more :-). There are plenty of cars from the 60s, 70s and 80s on the road and some are about 50% rust on the outside, so who knows what state the axles, suspension etc are in. We promptly hit the dirt road, and crawled along at 30 kilometres a hour. The local promptly overtook us, going much the same speed as he was going on tarmac. We laughed.
The scenery on the drive is Fantastic. Look at the pictures!
We saw parrots, woodpeckers, a small American Kestrel and a few Crested Caracaras among other birds.
We got a flat about 20 kilometers from Cachi. The car had been shaking about so much we didn't hear it go, but a passerby tooted to let us know. Two people who had never changed a tyre before (myself and Laura, if there is any confusion) jumped out, jacked the car up, and promptly failed to loosen the nuts. No amount of stomping, standing, and brute force would move the nuts. In the meantime, the car was heating up - by the end I couldn't hold my camera and the steering wheel was being held with fingertips. We asked a local for help in poor Spanish - he did the same stomping routine. He asked a friend, who had a extender for the wrench. The extra metre of leverage did the trick. Science! The nuts had probably expanded in the heat.
Since we were now without a spare tyre, had hundreds of kilometers on dirt roads to go, and it was getting late, we stopped in Cachi. Phoned up Hertz, who said they would deliver a spare in a hour or two. The guy who was assigned to deliver the new spare looked at his map and decided not to bother, and also not to tell anyone. Grr. We spent the night in a lovely hotel - El Cortijo Hotel Boutique. The thing about staying in hostels is that when we stay in a hotel, we wander about going "this is so nice! Feel the sheets! And air con!". The view was also lovely.
In the morning, we found the local tyre dealership (a massive operation - something tells me the owner doesn't want the road paved), got a new tyre, and set off. The road down to Salta is a fun drive. Through Los Cardones national park, the road is as straight as the eye could see, and lined with warnings about speed being enforced. I figure that once or twice a year the cops go and ticket everyone for racing on the road. The park is stuffed full of cactus. A legend tells of a priest who fled over the plateau at night - thinking the cacti were Indians chasing him.
The lack of turns in the park is made up for by the road down from it. The Satellite photo fails to show that it loses about 2000 metres in height - and its unpaved. The photo of the edge is a bit too scary.
We just about managed to navigate around Salta and get the car back in time. In short, if you're planning on going - go to Cafayate for wine, take a few days to drive there and back (not two), and take a wrench extender!
Other advice for fellow travelers is to be prepared for the money situation here. In short it is crazy. Lots of small towns have no ATM or ATMs which run out of money. That's OK, it's South America and we've managed to plan and carefully budget our way around it. What is more frustrating is that even in large towns many places including accommodation (decent hotels included) and restaurants will not take card payments. This means that if you are travelling to an area with no ATM you need to start extracting the money days in advance due to the limit of cash that you can take out in one day. It also means that if you are staying for a few nights in one accommodation you need to start the withdrawal process days ahead in order to be able to pay at check-out. The other approach is to come with money in several current accounts.
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