Road to CafayateArgentina: Salta, Purmamarca, Cachi and Cafayate
It took Argentinean Airlines a full day to bring us from Ushuaia to Salta, a trip of more than five thousand kilometers!
Salta is a rather big city in the far North of Argentina, close to the Chilean an Bolivian borders. Nicknamed Salta la Linda ("Salta the Fair"), it has become a major tourist destination due to its old, colonial architecture and the natural scenery of the valleys westward where we were heading for.
We rented a car and drove a scenic route to Purmamarca, the Town of the Virgin Lands -
"Pueblo de la Tierra Virgen", which is the literal translation of the Aymara mountain indian language word Purmamarca, a beautiful village cradled to the north by the Río Purmamarca, and to the south by the mountains bordering the ravine by the same name. It has less than 400 inhabitants and comprises a square and just a few streets from where we could see the surrounding mountains from different angles, especially imposing is the so called "Cerro de los Siete Colores" - the Mountain of Seven Colours behind the village.
From Purmamarca we drove through the more than 100 km long Humahuaca Valley. This Valley has been used over the past 10,000 years as a crucial passage for the transport of people and ideas from the high Andean lands to the plains. Its distinctive pre-Hispanic and pre-Incan settlements, as a group with their associated field systems, form a dramatic addition to the landscape and one that can certainly be called outstanding.
We stopped in most villages and had lunch in Humahuaca, a village slightly larger than Purmamarca. 
We returned from here to Salta where we had ample time to visit the town square, the Cathedral and the Convent of St. Francis before we left for Cachi. The 200 kilometers long road to Cachi was unpaved for the greater part and was leading over a mountain ridge that was hidden in the clouds. For that reason we have been driving with visibility almost zero over a slippery and unprotected road along ravines that could not be seen, a terrible experience. However, after reaching the plains, the sky cleared and the temperature increased from 5 to 28 degrees centre grade. Without noticing we had entered a national park of which the red sandstone mountains could be seen in full glory.
Cachi is a nice small town surrounded by imposing snow-covered mountains reaching as much as 6,480 meters. We decided to stay over for the weekend and enjoyed the hospitality, the wine and the bright sunshine that warmed our bones that had suffered so many days of icy temperatures.
Cafayate, our next destination, was only some 165 kilometers from Cachi but the road was unpaved, reason why it took us five hours driving. But what kind of hours? The word “unbelievable” is the best that can be used to describe the beauty of what we have seen. This must be one of the most beautiful parts of Argentina and still it was deserted, we passed some villages that consisted of a few houses and sometimes a church but we rarely saw people. Sometimes we were driving through a deserted moonlike scenery that could suddenly change into a spectacular wall of hundreds of feet of high sandstone castles.
Cafayate appeared to be an important tourist centre for exploring the Calchaquíes valleys, and because of the quality and originality of the wines produced in the area, the last we have enjoyed above all.
From Cafayate we will return to Salta and Buenos Aires from where we will travel to Rio de Janeiro to spent some more days in this beautiful part of the world before crossing the next ocean.
We have received another unexpected reaction to our blog from Barbara Kalmoutis in Campbell, California. She and her late husband Peter used to live on the Greek Island Aegina where we always spent our summer holidays between 1980 and 1992. They have moved to the USA where we have visited them in 1994, almost 16 years ago. Barbara must be about 90 years old by now and it appears that she is surfing the Internet regularly. Well done Barb!
As usual: visit http://www.jan-margreth3.blogspot.com/ for more pics
Salta is a rather big city in the far North of Argentina, close to the Chilean an Bolivian borders. Nicknamed Salta la Linda ("Salta the Fair"), it has become a major tourist destination due to its old, colonial architecture and the natural scenery of the valleys westward where we were heading for.
We rented a car and drove a scenic route to Purmamarca, the Town of the Virgin Lands -
"Pueblo de la Tierra Virgen", which is the literal translation of the Aymara mountain indian language word Purmamarca, a beautiful village cradled to the north by the Río Purmamarca, and to the south by the mountains bordering the ravine by the same name. It has less than 400 inhabitants and comprises a square and just a few streets from where we could see the surrounding mountains from different angles, especially imposing is the so called "Cerro de los Siete Colores" - the Mountain of Seven Colours behind the village.
From Purmamarca we drove through the more than 100 km long Humahuaca Valley. This Valley has been used over the past 10,000 years as a crucial passage for the transport of people and ideas from the high Andean lands to the plains. Its distinctive pre-Hispanic and pre-Incan settlements, as a group with their associated field systems, form a dramatic addition to the landscape and one that can certainly be called outstanding. We stopped in most villages and had lunch in Humahuaca, a village slightly larger than Purmamarca. 
We returned from here to Salta where we had ample time to visit the town square, the Cathedral and the Convent of St. Francis before we left for Cachi. The 200 kilometers long road to Cachi was unpaved for the greater part and was leading over a mountain ridge that was hidden in the clouds. For that reason we have been driving with visibility almost zero over a slippery and unprotected road along ravines that could not be seen, a terrible experience. However, after reaching the plains, the sky cleared and the temperature increased from 5 to 28 degrees centre grade. Without noticing we had entered a national park of which the red sandstone mountains could be seen in full glory.Cachi is a nice small town surrounded by imposing snow-covered mountains reaching as much as 6,480 meters. We decided to stay over for the weekend and enjoyed the hospitality, the wine and the bright sunshine that warmed our bones that had suffered so many days of icy temperatures.
Cafayate, our next destination, was only some 165 kilometers from Cachi but the road was unpaved, reason why it took us five hours driving. But what kind of hours? The word “unbelievable” is the best that can be used to describe the beauty of what we have seen. This must be one of the most beautiful parts of Argentina and still it was deserted, we passed some villages that consisted of a few houses and sometimes a church but we rarely saw people. Sometimes we were driving through a deserted moonlike scenery that could suddenly change into a spectacular wall of hundreds of feet of high sandstone castles.
Cafayate appeared to be an important tourist centre for exploring the Calchaquíes valleys, and because of the quality and originality of the wines produced in the area, the last we have enjoyed above all.
From Cafayate we will return to Salta and Buenos Aires from where we will travel to Rio de Janeiro to spent some more days in this beautiful part of the world before crossing the next ocean.
We have received another unexpected reaction to our blog from Barbara Kalmoutis in Campbell, California. She and her late husband Peter used to live on the Greek Island Aegina where we always spent our summer holidays between 1980 and 1992. They have moved to the USA where we have visited them in 1994, almost 16 years ago. Barbara must be about 90 years old by now and it appears that she is surfing the Internet regularly. Well done Barb!
As usual: visit http://www.jan-margreth3.blogspot.com/ for more pics
