Cafayate- Hitting the Travel Wall and Hitting it Hard

Cafayate-  Where the Touring had to Stop

Our third tour day our same guide arrived but the same cool women did not join us. Instead it was a very quiet couple from Spain. We drove though green country side and up high again and through a cactus forest, to the village of Cachi where we had lunch. This would have been enough. But from there we took a curvy, washboard dirt road for five hours to get to Cafayate, pausing at churches viewpoints and geologic formations. Anika got quieter and quieter and she stopped getting out at the various stops for churches and views along the way.this should have been a clue she wasn't feeling well but we didn't pick up on it.

Green valley we started out in before climbing to Cachi

The long and windy road. At least this part was paved.

Forest of Cactus in a national park. I have never seen this many tall cactus any where, not Mexico, or the US Southwest.

Street in Cachi

Court yard of old hacienda we stopped at

The pepper harvest was happening and there were places where they were drying the peppers.

Famous geologic formation

Almost as soon as we drove into Cafayate Anika started throwing up. And she kept throwing up until 4:oo am. We got to our hotel and they were very kind and helpful. Dave and I went out to eat and I knew it was a mistake as I was doing it. By the time we got home to the hotel I was throwing up. But mine was short, Anika's lasted almost all night. Dave got going in the morning. We spent the next day in bed and cancelled that days tour. We were weak the following day. We stayed in Cafayte for four nights to recover and just slow down. none of us wanted to go anywhere

Luckily Cafayte is a really nice small town. The town is in a valley surrounded by colorful mountains ans hills It is one of the hubs of the wine making industry here and vineyards surround it. Many people come here to do wine tasting. You can walk to wineries, ride bikes or drive. Of course there are guided tours too. (Not that we could do this while we were there with recovering stomachs!) We were there during the harvest so trucks were going in and out of town piled with grapes. It is a tourist town to with enough infrastructure to be comfortable but with also enough other things going on that it doesn't feel like its all about tourism. The town plaza is big and shady, a good people watching spot. Besides wine they have wine flavored ice cream. It really sorbet and we tried it right before we got sick. It was very good.

Cafayte town Plaza

Interesting building in Cafayate

Vineyards and mountains surrounding Cafyate

As you can imagie as we got better we were ready to eat something very light. This is a concept hard to explain in Argentina. I just wanted some soup or plain rice. We had to work had to find a restaurant to do this and convince them some nice meat would not make us feel better. We started to really get tired of the meat, cheese and white bread diet. We fund a restaurant that had several soups, something that was hard to find in Argentina, and that helped a lot. One thing that is different in Argentina than say Mexico is that in Mexico I could explain our situation and ask for almost anything food wise and if they had or could get the ingredients they would make it. Not and option any where we found in Argentina.

When we were better we had one day of adventure here. Dave and I rented bikes and road out to Rio Colorado. When the road ended we hiked to a swimming hole. It was a gorgeous spot. It took us along time to get out there as we had to go slow since we were still kind of weak. But it was worth it. (Dave would not let me post any photos of him climbing around naked like spider man so you will have to use your imaginations.)

Swimming spot

View from Spot

I really liked our four quiet days there. Cafayate was my favorite town in the Salta area. We learned that you should ask for details about tours before you book them. How long is the day, what kind of roads are you on, how often do you stop, is there a lot of altitude change? I think we are not really the tour types as we like to go at our own pace. We never would have tried to drive that much in those conditions day after day. Our poor driver/guide, no wonder he needed all that coca. And after a while you can't take anything in and it all becomes a blur. well another travel lesson learned.