Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘salta’

Dec 3

1 Comment

Cafayate…. the life saver in Salta

Cafayate (to be pronounced in Argentian Spanish as Cafaschate) was a kind of a time out from Salta which was supposed to be a place to be. Well it wasn’t really made for me. It started again not very welcoming – again i didn’t find any cash upon arrival so  had to walk with all the luggage across the city to my hostel. It was not that far though.… because i could have also taken a taxi and tell him to take me there and stop at an ATM on the way. Anyway once arrived at the hostel it was not at all to my gusto.. or let’s say hoped to find. A 6 people dorm, mixed, not full but still 😦 a very tiny room with this ugly guy lying next to me, the old lady snoring… jeeze but well it was only 15 bucks per night, guess that’s what you can expect. So i needed to have a plan B as quickly as possible as i was supposed to stay in Salta for almost 1 week. Impossible to even imagine this… thus went online and with the help of trip advisor i found a nice Bodega in Cafayate. Then went to book a car and yes i was ready to hit the road. In fact i was quite excited to be driving a car again. It had been weeks / months that i did so. It felt really cool even though the car wasn’t at all. My Chevy ‘C’ which stands for classic and not cool!

IMG_5054Despite the fact of having a really boring car which in fact drove quite nicely and had a radio – yesssss how did this feel finally being able to sing very loudly in a car again. That must be the reason why some people cannot imagine to commute by public transport. Once i had left Salta behind, villages and farming land become scarse and soon vanished from the surface. This gave way for bizarr rock formations in ’50 shades of red’ as well as narrow canyons carved into the mountains – the quebrada de Cafayate.

IMG_8585la garganta del diablo

IMG_8529i was totally taken aback by this amazing landscape which i didn’t expect to see at all, as i thought i am taking the less interesting way as not passing Cachi which takes supposedly 6 hours. Well the road which normally would take approx 3 hours took me quite some more time as without kidding sometimes stopped for pictures within less than 5 minutes. It was simply breathtaking – like a combination of Death Valley and Grand Canyon together.

IMG_8573

IMG_8538Then finally arrived in Cafayate. Unfortunately my Navi was perfectly happy with having reached the major crossroad which the Bodega put as its address on their website. However at this crossroad there was the vineyard of El Esteco and not the hotel. Now i thought that the hotel must be within the vineyard, so i drove through the gate and started to cruise around the wines. But after 2 rounds i figured out that this must be wrong and i’d better get out of the vineyard and search harder, i.e. drive a bit closer into the village and here we go – only a few more meters and there it was Patio de Cafayate. Once i got closer i burst out laughing. The winery El Esteco is owned by Michel Torino whose most basic wine – which we had to degrade to the cooking wine shelf as we got terrible headache from it – can be purchased in Denner! I was shocked, i landed in the only winery in Argentina which wines we really disapproved from. Should the Salta curse continue?!

IMG_5069

IMG_5077(here rests the non headache wine…. in fine oak barrels and not in the steel tanks!)

so after checking into my suite – yes i got an upgrade – i went on a tour of the headache winery. During this tour i learned that the wine being exported to Switzerland is the most basic wine they produce – the elementos. Ufffff what a relief to hear that because i was already concerned what i will be drinking for dinner, water?  tea?  surely no headache juice! The wine chosen was fantastic, a younger Malbec, fruity yet full bodied.. and i kept the cork, so that i didn’t have to drink the whole bottle but could take it with me back to Salta – it would be a great help to overcome the hostel sueblues.

IMG_5106

IMG_8577yes life can be very tough and then quickly again very sweet 🙂

IMG_5091(half a bottle of malbec to go)

the drive back was again the same as the way there and still i discovered new rock formations and had the 2nd chance to stop where i didn’t stop the day before.

IMG_8609

oooops fin de la carretera….

Nov 25

bife de lomo reloaded…

i just can’t get enough…… so more so preparing more steaks in the dreadful hostel kitchen

 

IMG_5111

 

Nov 25

Mountainbiken in Argentinien

Nun eines war klar, nachdem ich endlich wieder etwa aktiver war in San Pedro de Atacama…. wollte ich in Salta weiterhin tolle Ausflüge machen, am liebsten wandern oder velofahren. Leider habe ich nicht geschnallt, dass in Argentinien Hochsaison ist und somit all die coolen Trekkings und Velotouren ausgebucht waren – es sei angeblich normal, dies ein paar Wochen im voraus zu reservieren. Kann man leicht sagen, aber ich hatte vor ein paar Wochen echt noch keine Ahnung wann ich genau in Salta ankomme.

Das heisst suchen suchen suchen bis die Finger vom Tippen glühen und siehe da, eine Agentur hatte tatsächlich noch eine Tour offen, welche zu scheitern drohte, weil eine Teilnehmerin kurzfristig abgesagt hatte. Wow was hatte ich für eine Freude, denn es handelte sich um eine 2tätige Downhill Mountainbike-Tour (ich verstehe das nicht so genau, aber hier gibt es nur Downhilltouren – nix Uphill). Aber auch ok.

So ging es morgens wieder los, pick up vom Hostel mit einem ‘pick-up’. Im Gegensatz zu San Pedro fährt man in Salta VW Amarok – hässliche Pick-up Kisten aber ziemlich praktisch für einen MTB Trip.

IMG_8617

Angekommen auf dem Abra del Acay auf 4895m kriegten wir unsere Bikes – und oh Schreck, die Hinterbremse ist bei diesen Rädern rechts!!!!!!! Tja nix mit Bremsen wechseln wie bei der Death Road – er meinte: ‘ja, da musst du dich jetzt daran gewöhnen’!

IMG_8621

Ok, das heisst für mich, mit der linken Hand ganz fest den Griff umklammern und ja nix damit machen. Es ging dann eigentlich ziemlich gut, denn wir gingen anfänglich ganz gemächlich den Berg runter. Die Route war spektakulär oder besser gesagt deren Aussicht. Wieder einmal mehr wunderschöne ‘Monument Valley artige’ Felsformationen von grün über gelb bis rot und sogar Guanaco-Herden! Zum Glück war die Strasse ziemlich breit und nicht wirklich gefährlich, so dass man die einmalige Szenerie geniessen konnte.

IMG_8632

Je weiter es das Tal runterging, desto vielseitiger wurde die Vegetation. Quinoa-Felder, Riesenkakteen, Felder mit Schafherden und sogar wilde Papagaien. Letztere schafften es leider nicht aufs Video, weil ich die Kamera gerade vorher ausgeschaltet hatte….Kurz danach erreichten wir das authentische Bergdorf Cachi – eingebettet im Nirgendwo. Ein hübscher kleiner Ort mit der obligatorischen Plaza, wo sich das Leben abspielt und wir uns ein wohlverdientes und eiskaltes Cerveza negra gönnten.

IMG_5138

Was für ein Segen – ich hatte mir in einem tollen kleinen Hotel ein Zimmer reserviert. Zum Glück eines mit Heizkörper im Bad, welchen ich dringend benötigte um meine klatschnassen Schuhe zu trocknen (wir durchquerten einige Bäche). Das wäre der völlige ‘non-burner’ gewesen in einem Hostel.

IMG_5140

Am nächsten morgen ging es dann weiter, vorbei am grössten Riesenkakteenwald von ich weiss nicht genau (jedenfalls mal nicht ein UNESCO Weltkulturerbe – puuuh!) hoch zum Cuesta del Obispo auf 3457m.

IMG_8628

IMG_8634

IMG_8635

Von dort gings dann zuerst auf Asphalt – juhuu einfach laufen lassen ohne, dass man viel aufpassen musste – und danach wieder abwechslungsweise auf Schotter, Staub oder Asphalt den Berg runter bis wir unten beim Fluss ankamen. Wiederum wurden wir mit einer atemberaubenden Aussicht belohnt und nein, es war dieses mal nicht wegen der Höhe, denn 3500m machen wir mittlerweile mit links.

Nov 25

San Pedro de Atacama – Salta by bus (11hours)

This will remain my only real bus ride (+5hrs) during my entire holiday – sounds almost pathetic… but yes it is true. I think this is not my desired mean of transport.

Although I have to admit it was not too bad, despite the fact there is simply not enough space for your legs, the backpack and myself. I really don’t know what engineers think when they design the so called ‘first class’ coaches.

Nevertheless… once squeezed into my seat it turned out to be pretty comfy – though i wouldn’t have minded another person next to me… she was taking almost every minute a picture accross myself which was kind of a pointless mission as the reflection in the window was killing it all (i picked some of the best in this post… total waste of space on the memory card!). However she kept going… and i joined her in with taking some pics… felt somehow too disinterested if i had continued reading…. She even explained me when it was really worth taking one ha ha.

So after about 100 pictures we reached the Chilean / Argentinian border. Far too early for my liking as i still had apples in my bag and the sandwiches intended for lunch were still untouched. Having said that it was mainly due to the signs at the border which were very clear: you were not allowed to bring any fruits/veggies, no dairy products, no meat, no nothing across the border. Well what to do – i didn’t want to rely on the crappy snacks they would provide later but also not get unnecessarily in troubles. So i decided to quietly throw the apples in a bin but keep the cheese sandwiches in the bag.

IMG_5025

At the scanner it meant keeping fingers crossed — and yes either they didn’t care or they didn’t see them. Unfortunately i missed to bring my big bag for the scanning in the first place which meant i had to go another time through the scanner….. but no objection against my lunch – yess!

After about 1h at the border, they distributed the first snack box just before continuing the journey. Man was i glad i had my sandwiches… you really don’t want to rely on this stuff. Chocolate, crisps, marshmallows, fruit juice, candies and energy bars. Well actually not so bad – just not what i consider as a lunch.

To be honest besides all these silly non important comments this bus ride was probably the most beautiful i have ever done. Driving across a pass of i cannot remember what altitude, passing beautiful volcanos, mountains coloured by it’s various minerals, salt flats and spectacular serpentine roads. Due to its beauty it passed surprisingly fast… i would have never imagined that.

An absolute must for anybody travelling from Chile to Argentina even if the start of this post is hinting in the other direction.