Quebrada de Concha, Cafayate and Quilmes

I was up before dawn this morning to catch my tour bus to Cafayate and Quilmes, located south and west of Salta.

We drove south into the Quebrada de Concha ("Shell Canyon") which is home to many cool rock formations created by water eroding the soft, sand-based rock that makes up the Quebrada:

"The Amphitheater"

"The Castles"

There´s no name for this one, just a lot of different-colored hills!

Before reaching Cafayate, we visited a bodega called Vasjia Secreta:

This is the entrance to the vineyard.

At the end of the Quebrada, we came to Cafayate, which is a small town surrounded by bodegas. There wasn´t much interesting going on in Cafayate except for the local Banco de la Nacion, which our guide pointed out had a reinforced metal roof, designed to withstand snow...which never occurs in Cafayate -- someone along the way had confused Cafayate with Calafate (in Patagonia) and sent the wrong type of pre-fabricated bank! Oops!

After Cafayate we went to Quilmes, the site of an extensive settlement created by the indigenous Quilmes people, who lived at the site from approximately 800 c.e. The Quilmes were able to resist both the Incas and also neighboring tribes, however they were defeated by the Spanish and forced to march to the suburbs of Buenos Aires, where the last descendant died by 1810. The area where they were relocated to became known as Quilmes, and and the brewery of what was to become Argentina´s national beer was first located in the Quilmes neighborhood of Buenos Aires. The ruins in Tucuman were discovered by the Army during military exercises in the 1970´s and were restored in the late 1970´s and early 1980´s:

San Salvador de Jujuy

This morning, I slept in and then took a bus to San Salvador de Jujuy, the capital of Jujuy Province, which is about three hours (by non-express bus) from Salta. I had originally planned to spend a few days here, but most of the travelers I met recommended seeing the city as part of a day trip, as there is not nearly as much to see and do in Jujuy as there is in Salta.

Which, as it turned out, was pretty much accurate. Jujuy is a nice city, but the center is also definitely smaller, and not nearly as picturesque. The only thing I took a picture of was a folclore band that was playing in the restaurant where I had lunch:

Back in Salta

After yesterday´s attempt at hiking, I decided to do some touristy stuff in town. My first stop was the cabildo on the plaza, which houses a local history museum, but I found the architecture to be much more interesting than the museum:

I ate lunch on the plaza (while a street musician played "Salta, La Linda" and then headed over to Cerro San Bernardo, a large hill on the east side of the city with a set of 1,070 steps (or a gondola) to get to the top. On the way I took some pictures of Salta´s other landmark church, Iglesia San Francisco:

At any rate, 1,070 steps is a LOT! Here´s a (slightly smoggy) view from the top:

Also, there was an Andean jam band playing at the top:

Tomorrow: Day Trip to Jujuy City

A hike to, um, nowhere

I woke up super early to catch a bus to Alemanía with Patrick for a hike in the countryside. Alemanía was founded by Germans in the 19th century (who apparently got the pronunciation of their country wrong) and became a huge party town in the early 20th century when the Argentine government decided to build a railroad from Salta to Cafayate in order to transport food and wine to Salta.

Unfortunately, the railroad took longer than expected and the construction had only reached Alemanía (which is less than halfway to Cafayate) by the beginning of WWI. After the war, the government changed its mind and built a rail link to Chile instead. After the rail construction ceased, Alemanía faded in importance, and is now pretty much a ghost town:

The red roofed building in the center was the rail station during Alemanía´s glory days.

The plan for our hike was to hike four hours to a set of waterfalls, eat lunch, and then hike back to Alemanía and catch the bus back to Salta. Unfortunately, the two people we met in Alemanía (roughly half of the population) gave us bad directions and we set off in the wrong direction, although we were never really far enough away from the main highway to be really lost. At any rate, the scenery was stunning:

And I got really familiar with the thorn bushes native to Salta and now understand why the gauchos from this area have these giant saddle guards:

Eventually we reached a roadside restaurant, where we met a family who agreed to give us a lift into Salta (the mom later told us that we looked pathetic!).

Horseback Riding in San Lorenzo

I took the bus to San Lorenzo--a suburb (north? west?) of Salta-- with Patrick to do some horseback riding.

San Lorenzo is a beautiful town, up in the hills overlooking Salta and the Valle de Lerma, however the view was somewhat obscured by a combination of smog (from Salta) and actual smoke in the air from fires which, according to our guide, are set by bored local kids.

Salta, Day 2

I spent today sick in bed...hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Salta, La Linda

I arrived in Salta this afternoon with Patrick, a friend I met at the hostel in Mendoza who happened to be on my bus to Salta, although not in the first class section like me!

The contrast between Mendoza and Salta is incredible to say the least. First of all, the weather is much, much warmer here (although apparently the cold snap is still continuing, so it´s colder than usual here as well), and sunny, and there are people on the streets and tons of vendors selling llama socks and sweaters, pan pipes and ocarinas, in addition to the usual cumbia CDs and pirated DVDs.

After checking into the hostel and dropping off my bags, I went for a stroll to the center, which in Salta is named Plaza 9 de Julio (instead of the usual Plaza San Martin). The plaza is very cool, filled with orange trees and palms and surrounded by cobblestone streets and sidewalk cafes, with the town Cabildo on one side and the pink Cathedral on the other:

It also appears that the Salteños are big fans of the Simpsons:

Also note that "Coca y Bica" (partially covered by the woman walking past) is on offer here -- this is a reference to coca leaves and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), which is not technically legal in Argentina but the sale and use is tolerated in this region of the country because it is a traditional part of Andean culture.

And at the bar I went to later:

Cool!

Trekking, Rapelling, Thermals and Snowmen on Cars!

Today I decided to take one of the "adventure" tours on offer at the hostel. When I woke up it was freezing cold and snowing, so I threw on my ski gear since we were going to go for a hike and then rappel down some rock walls before visiting a nearby hot springs in the mountains.

Unfortunately, some of the other group members failed to notice that it was, um, snowing and stuff and showed up for the hike in sneakers and jeans. We were halfway up the hill when several began to refuse to walk any further, so the whole group had to walk down the icy hill. This also meant that we couldn´t do the first two rappels because they weren´t accessible without climbing the hill, but the last, and also the largest (150 ft), could still be done.

Here I go!

After the rappelling, we went over to the hot springs to relax for a while, and then headed back into the city. On the way, we saw people building small snowmen on the hoods or roofs of their cars. Our guide explained that it is customary here to put snowmen on your car, rather than in front of your house.

An example:

Bodegas Mini-Tour

It´s gotten really cold here -- apparently the wind shifted direction last night and is now coming from Antarctica, so the whole country is pretty much caught up in a cold snap. I was feeling better today, but still not 100% so I decided to take the wineries by minibus tour rather than renting a bicycle and going under my own steam.

Since it was Saturday, most of the major bodegas were closed, so we visited a medium-sized traditional winery and then a small organic winery. The countryside is pretty barren this time of year, since the harvest took place between Feb and April, so I didn´t take any pictures of grapes or vines or anything like that.

At both wineries the tour guides explained how the equipment works, and where the wine ferments, etc. The more traditional winery aged their wines in giant oak barrels, which have to be cleaned by hand once the wine is bottled. Here are some of their 100-year old wine barrels:

The person who does the cleaning is slipped into the barrel at the base, where the spout, etc is located in the photo. Apparently one of the major job qualifications is to have shoulders narrow enough to fit through the slot!! We tasted some wine, of course, with the Malbec varietal being by far the best of the ones we tried.

After the wineries we did a quick visit to a chocolate factory on the way back, which was not the most interesting thing ever, but it definitely made me hungry:

Mmmm...industrial-sized vat of chocolate....

Mendoza Days 1 and 2 -- I´m sick!!

I left San Martín on Wednesday afternoon and got into Mendoza yesterday morning, sick, sick, sick with the flu, so I spent all day yesterday and most of today in bed trying to get better. Hopefully tomorrow I´ll feel well enough to take a tour or something -- stay tuned!