We had heard good things about the Northern Argentinian town of Salta, so we booked an airbnb for four nights. It is a beautiful town surrounded by dry and arid desert. We probably stayed at least one night too many and we were ready to leave when it came to it. It didn't help that our airbnb host was a tad on the odd side; knocking on our door at 2am to tell us a joke, waking us up for breakfast, and the worst, hanging up our wet laundry to dry (my pants included). I was genuinely scared he was watching us through a camera. We do believe he was trying his best just to be helpful but he really needed to learn to respect the space of others. That aside, we did really enjoy our time here, the town is genuinely old for Argentina and beautifully maintained. Its churches are grand and ornate, our favourite was Iglesia San Franscisco which needed absolutely no Insta filter help to show off. There are even a few cobbled streets here and there One bonus to our airbnb was that the wifi was pretty good so we did a lot of blog updating and general admin. Travelling for eight months is a full time job people! But it was lovely to visit the artesanale market and pick up a couple of souvenirs whilst exploring the town. We cheated a little by taking the cable car up Cerro San Fernando where we had awesome views of the city, and we finally enjoyed a huge asado that left us feeling like we had had our months intake of red meat in one night! One thing we did not appreciate was that most of the places of interest in Salta are actually outside of Salta and can only be accessed via a tour or rental car. So this time we decided on a bit of both. First, a day trip to a village called Cafayate. It's a good job we shopped around for tours as they all vary but mostly do the same route. We ended up choosing Altro Tours as they looked the most professional! The village itself was totally missable but the scenery on the drive through the Quebrada de las Conchas valley was pretty spectacular and the rock formations, such as the Devil's Throat, along the way were impressive. But it is a long day tour and I think we’d of rather have done it as part of a road trip. It was finally time to say goodbye to our odd American host as we hired a car from the airport to embark nervously on our road trip to Bodega Colome, via the small and picturesque village of Cachi. I say nervously because every person we spoke to about the roads to get there cringed when they saw how small our hire car was. But we weren't going to let that put us off! What a drive it was! We traversed the Los Cordons National Park for five hours, navigating the most ridiculous hairpin gravel roads up to an altitude of 3470m above sea level (our highest yet) whilst passing through some of the most beautiful and varied landscapes. Words won’t do it justice so here are the photos instead. Cachi, our base for the night was a real gem. Full of whitewashed buildings, cute cafes and bars, it is a small town that clearly takes pride in its appearance. However the last few hours to reach Colome were somewhat more challenging; the roads were dusty dirt tracks at best but our little hire car withstood the test and to our surprise, the engine did not fall out and we still had all four hubcaps. We drove through some lovely little dusty untouched hamlets on the way; the surrounding hillsides full of blazing red patches where peppers were being laid out to dry, later to be crushed up into pimientos.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorsRob & Charlie's travelling adventures on their long journey back to London after living in Hong Kong. Four continents, twelve countries, lots of experiences. Archives
July 2017
All photos copyright ©
Robert Ware & Charlotte Nunn |