Cafayate

We left our estancia on the Thursday relatively late with just a short drive to our next stop in Cafayate. We did however have problems leaving as our crew thought head office had paid the estancia by card already, but they hadn't which caused a delay. We eventually left, with our guide and driver having swapped roles due to a few issues, and within a minute of starting his new driving job our driver backed into the fence where the horses were and broke it. Instead of causing more problems it was a matter of foot down and drive off.

En route to Cafayate we stopped to view a few rock formations. The scenery changed from lush green countryside to red coloured canyon like scenery pretty quickly and our first stop took us to this rock face which was pretty impressive. Our second stop was at this amphitheatre like formation which made lots of echoes. There were people in here padding guitar which was very fitting. Other sights en route included a toad which we just viewed from the truck.

We arrived in Cafayate by lunchtime, where I found a local brewery and a few of us had lunch. Cafayate is a small town in north west Argentina, and is world-famous for its wine production. The surrounding vineyards produce some of the best quality wine in South America - Cafayate is particularly renowned for its Torrontes, a distinctive and crisp white wine that is typically Argentinian and similar in style to a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. Cafayate itself is small and has a sleepy laid-back feel, although it can become usy during Argentinian holiday periods.

After lunch we made the short drive to the campsite and set up on what was a touristy campsite with decent facilities, before a few of us went off to go wine tasting. The first vineyard we stopped at produced nanni wines and was run over generations by a small family. We tasted a torrentes, malbec, cabernet sauvignon, and tannat variety here. The next vineyard we visited was  the piattelli vineyard, set on a vast sight centred round a picturesque house. The setting was beautiful. We opted to taste the grand reserva wines here to add a bit of glass, tasting another torrentes, two varieties of malbec, a cabernet sauvignon, and an oak aged blend which were all very nice, but expensive though. 

We didn't arrive back to the campsite until like 8, stopping at the supermarket en route to the camp to buy food for the next couple of days. Considering half the group didn't come wine tasting, they were hungry when we returned! Dinner in the evening was another Japanese curry after the huge success last time and the fact there aren't many survivors left from the Colombia who got to try it before. It was really good, and after dinner it was nice sitting at the campsite on what was a really warm evening, although we did have a early night.

Friday was an early start as we effectively had to cover 1100km over 2 days to get to Mendoza, wild camping somewhere in the middle. We decided the best plan of attack was a matter of get as we could the first day and see where we ended up. Shortly after leaving we stopped at Quilmes. The ruins of the city of Quilmes are located on a remote hillside in the Tucumán province in north west Argentina. The people of Quilmes were an indigenous tribe who inhabited this area as far back as 850 CE, fiercely resisting attempted Inca invasions in the 15th and 16th Centuries and even holding out against the Spanish for over 100 years before finally succumbing to a siege led by the colonial powers in 1667. I went up the hill to the viewpoints while the other explored below before leaving after a short while to continue.

The roads weren't that great and we initially made slow progress but we eventually made it to ruta 40 and the tarmac and got some speed up, stopping at various places en route for toilet and snacks. For lunch we even managed to find a shaded area and had the usual truck lunch before heading up into the mountains on winding roads which slowed us down a fair bit. We eventually stopped driving at about 7, stopping at a local campsite which had a pool to avoid wild camping. It was a really hot day. You know it's hot when the Aussies say it's hot. After setting up, we relaxed with cold beers in hand before dinner, which was chicken pasta. We then had an early night with another long drive day to come.