2008/02/08

Salta and Cafayate, Argentina

After an overnight train ride I arrived in Villazon in the early morning of December 26 and the very bureaucratic Argentinean immigration procedures really tested my patience to the maximum. This was definitely the slowest and most complex border crossing I have experienced during my whole trip…. it took as well over 3 hours to cross the border (on foot) and of course I missed my bus to Salta. So I had some time to kill in La Quiaca, the town on the Argentinean side, before I boarded the next bus to Salta. After another 8 hours on the bus I was really happy to finally get to a nice hotel with shower and bed waiting for me!

I only had two days in the beautiful, colonial town of Salta in the Northern part of Argentina, because on December 29 I would finally see again my boyfriend José Luis, who came to visit me for ten days…

A very popular destination for a one day tour from Salta is Cafayate, famous for its excellent white wines, which are made from the fruity torrontés grape. The road from Salta to Cafayate takes you through the spectacular “Quebrada de Cafayate”, a river gorge with fascinating rock formations in different colours. I happened to be in a very nice, girls only group for that day and met Judith and her mother from Buenos Aires and Mercedes, a journalist from Brazil.



Salta












Quebrada de Cafayate