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Argentinas Index - Argentina Pix
We just got home on February 19, but our last travelogue
left us in Tafi Del Valle and promised the next travelogue would detail
"the truly spectacular parts of the North that we visited". We hope
this travelogue delivers on that promise!
From Tafi Del Valle, we took another ride winding through
the mountains, up and over a pass into the next valley. As happened often, the difference from one
side of the mountain to the other was amazing. We moved into a high desert
terrain. The land was extremely dry, not very much vegetation at all and more and
more saguaro cactus as we went down into the next town, Amaichi Del Valle.
Conveniently, the bus let us off right in front of a little
sun canopy with a temporary tourist information office. We asked about
transportation to our next destination, the archeological ruins at
The ruins covered a reasonably large area of about a square
mile or so. All that remained were the
walls of the various dwellings. The site was built into the side of a U shaped
mountain so they were protected on three sides. Fortifications along the
mountain ridge provided further protection.
The largest dwellings were furthest from the hillside and were houses
for five or six families, presumed to be workers. As you got closer to the
hillside, the houses became smaller for smaller groups of people, until you got
to the smallest houses, but with the safest location (and best view) where the
priests lived. It was well enough fortified to stop the Incas who controlled
almost all of
After spending an hour at the ruins, the taxi took us back
to the main road, where we said goodbye to our recent acquaintances and got out
to hitch a ride or get a bus to our next destination, Cafayate. We waited about
45 minutes with a number of cars passing us (and no buses) until we got a great
hitch from a young couple (Rodolfo and Maria) who had gone through the ruins at
about the same time as us. They drove us all the way (30 miles) to Cafayate,
with a quick stop at a small town on the way where there was a statue honoring
Rodolfo's great grandfather who had once been the governor of the province. In
Cafayate, we stopped at a winery where Rodolfo knew the owner who,
unfortunately, was not in, but we had a nice wine tasting. Then we walked
around town looking for a good place to stay. After exchanging e-mail
addresses, we said our goodbyes to Rodolfo and Maria since they were heading
on.
Cafayate was a very pleasant town with a nice tree filled
plaza. The town was about five blocks wide by fifteen blocks long. There was
lots of artesania - metal work, jewelry, ceramics, weaving, carving and of
course, the ubiquitous t-shirts. For the first time since we left
We took an incredible six hour tour of the valley covering
about thirty miles of roads. They would
drive us a little ways, everyone would get out, we would follow the guide for a
half an hour walk through a particular formation, he would explain it and then
we would head back to the van and go to the next spot. There was red, red rock
formed from copper oxide, green rock from iron oxide and many other colors from
some sort of oxide, shmoxide. You could probably spend a week just hiking in
the mountains around Cafayate and never tire of the scenery, but we had places
to go so the next day saw us on a bus to the city of
The city of
Most of the other museums in
One night, we went to a very popular local peña. It was a
restaurant where they have "folkloric" music every evening. The all
male band consisted of a lead guitar, a rhythm guitar, a drum and a bandoneon
which is a small button accordion of German origin. We arrived at about 10:30,
got pretty good seats and the band started a little later. The best comparison
I can make is to an Irish pub in the
There were a number of other towns we wanted to visit in
the
The guide books rave about the ride through the mountains
to Cachi and about the town itself. They may have oversold it a bit, but it
certainly was a pretty trip. At first, it was very green with lots of small
trees and shrubs, but after crossing a mountain pass and descending into the
valley, we were in another arid area with saguaro cactus. In many places, the narrow road ran along the
side of the mountain and we saw a cut rock wall on one side of the road and a
sheer cliff on the other. That's when
you hope there is no on-coming traffic!
When we arrived in Cachi, we found a truly small, quiet,
tranquil town. There was almost no traffic in the streets and just a couple of
people hanging out in the plaza. After settling in at our hospedaje (which was
a very welcoming place with a big patio overlooking the river), we ambled over
to the tourist office to see what they had to recommend. As luck would have it, there was a sunset
cultural tour of Cachi leaving in a few minutes.
The tour is run daily by a couple of enterprising local
families. They led us to a beautiful viewpoint overlooking the town where we
all sat down. As we watched the sun set behind the surrounding mountains, they
told us about the local history, economy and politics. The town was started in
1673 as a Spanish hacienda. However, it remains populated by mostly indigenous
people. Typically, they engage in small scale agricultural labor, but the
recent influx of tourists has increased the amount of artesania.
They took us to one of the guide's family's home which was
typical for this area. It was adobe (mud brick) plastered on the inside with a
large inner courtyard and all dirt floors.
They had an outhouse for a bathroom and no electricity. The entire group
of twenty-two of us sat around a large table while they told us more about the
indigenous culture and the worship of the mother earth goddess, Pachamama. The Spanish tried to eradicate the worship of
Pachamama and replace it with Catholicism. However, families continued to
practice it in private. Recently, the
younger people in the community have started to try to move it back into public
and community life. What was interesting is that many families are both practicing
Catholics and worshippers of Pachamama. After singing a few songs for us,
accompanied by just a drum, our guides led us back to electricity, running
water and the town of
While we liked Cachi very much and would have loved to
spend a few more days in the area, it was February 5th and we still had a lot
more of
Lois & Paul
Aventuras Argentinas Part 4 Aventuras
Argentinas Part 6