Travelogue

Click here for pictures from the Quebrada de Cafayate. Let me start off by saying that I´ve never really been to any real canyonlands. I´ve not been to the Grand Canyon, or Moab, Death Valley, etc. etc. So I have no way of knowing whether the magnificance that I experienced in the Quebrada de Cafayate is paralelled or not. However, you can rest assured that this humble narrator was duly impressed, and moved beyond words at several points of our canyon tour via bus with a coca-leaf loving local expert guide. Impressed to the point that I have even contemplated changing my plans for next year. Rather than spending 6 months in New Zealand, I strongly thought about instead returning to South America. For one, it would be much less expensive, not to mention there is no shortage of things to do, and would certainly be an enriching cultural experience. That being said, for now, I´ll stick with the plan. I have a (hopefully) long life ahead of me, and can certainly return another time. On with the tour.

Click here for pictures from Cafayate. Ahh Cafayate. I´ll remember that place for a long time. I may even have to re-visit. It was just that nice! There is no way I can truly do justice to any of the places we are visiting on this trip. To really appreciate it, I recommed that you start booking your own trip very soon. It´s the only way to go. Perhaps the >1000 pictures we´ve taken will help convey the thoughts, but really, it´s pointless to explain. I´m almost at the point of stopping writing for the simple fact that there´s too much to tell. But I digress (btw, did you notice I gave up flash-blogging? that wasn´t fair to you all either, you deserve the benefit of my sometimes long-winded stories). Now back to our tale.

Click here for pictures from Salta. Wow, time sure flies when you´re trying to both travel a country as well as tell the world about it. I almost decided not to write today, but given that I have the time, and I have a nice cold beer in my hand, I changed my mind. Now, let me rewind to just after the horsey experience. That was to be our last night in Salta, and as such, we were going to see a local show at a restaurant. Well, it was a great show, with an exceptional meal, as well as fine musical entertainment from a local group. I´ve got to admit right off the bat that Argentina is not the country to go to if you intend to lose weight. These people truly love to eat. And eat well! My favourites so far are Milanesa, which is sort of like a battered, fried steak. Of course Argentine meat is delectable, and this is very tasty. My other favourite dish, which is what I had that night is called Matambre, which is a steak from the stomach area I think, and this one was covered in a roquefort cheese sauce. Heaven in meat form I say. If Alix is reading these posts, I have to let her know that she would absolutely love this country. Great shoe shopping (or so it would seem), great steaks, great beer, and great prices. On with the show..

Click here for pictures from Salta. Another sunny, beautiful day in Salta. Our last day and night before heading to Cafayate, the land of delicious white wine, particularly a variety known as Torontes. For a final fun experience, half of our group decided we´d go out for a half day of horseback riding, then a lazy afternoon in the city, hence my time to blog right now. Argentineans in this region are definitely leaning towards more of a desert-like frontier, and that means there are plenty of cowboys and riding to be done. They apparently don´t ride western style. I didn´t know what that meant. The short version is that they have diferent saddles, and use only one hand, rather than two on western style. I was quite excited to do this, in spite of the fact that I really have no horse experience. This will come into play later in my story, believe me 😉 The start to our day was a little confusing, as we hadn´t really been given much information on how the day was arranged, ultimately, we were picked up by two taxis at 9:30, and headed to a place called San Lorenzo, which I think is a rich enclave not far from Salta, the land is much more lush, and the houses quite large. As the cowboys put it, mucho deniro. read on.

Click here for pictures from Salta. Howdy folks, well, I´ve got a rare bit of free time to write up a post in the sort-of middle of the day. It´s just around 4:30, and I just got back from my lunch, and have free time till 8pm, so let´s just pick it up where we left off and talk about yesterdays journey. I talked about getting on the train to the clouds, and then subsequently finding out it would be a mini-bus to the clouds. I´ll have to be honest though, sometimes, these little changes are just what you need. This tripped proved to be well worth it. Although by the end of the trip, we all agreeed that these particular clouds weren´t very soft and fluffy, and could use a spot of pavement 🙂 As it turns out, the road we travelled was pretty bumpy, and filled with lots of cargo trucks laden with lithium brine and borax. These are some of the things that get mined from the salt flats that exist in the altiplano at high altitudes between here and Bolivia. We got an early start to our day, boarding the bus at 8am. The trip was to last for about 12 hours, and we had a great guide named Pablo to fill us in on all the gory details of the areas we´d be seeing. read on…