San Antonio & Valle Calchaquies

Next stop of our travel was the very remote village San Antonio de los Cobres - Lonely Planet described it as a "dusty little mining town" and they were not far wrong...

As remote, unpleasant, cold and windy as it was we really liked it in a strange way. The accommodation was not much more than a cowshed, but the owner was probably one of the nicest and most helpful person I have come across so far. Moreover, the multiple layers of blankets made for a comfortable and warm night. Plus steak dinner and 1/2l of wine for Arg. Pesos 28 (EUR 5) was not to be beaten.

Our hostal (what a difference to our first accommodation!):

Viaduct close to San Antonio:

Biggest challenge though was to get out of San Antonio again as James had the great idea to go over the highest pass in South America (4859m). Unfortunately there was no public transport, no-one in general going and no taxi would want to make it because of the rough road. Hours later we managed to convince the son of the local policeman to take us in his old beaten-up truck. The journey really was wonderful and worth all the hassle!

Next stop was La Polma, the first place of civilisation after the pass. Not sure I can talk about civilisation as there seemed to be no-one in the whole village. After an hour of waiting at a street corner for a car (for a hitch-hike) and not even seeing one car from a far we decided to go for the only (empty) hostal and restaurant in town. Luckily for us the next bus out of town was on the following morning (there are only 3 buses a week!).

Waiting and waiting...

After arriving in Cachi we took the next bus out and enjoyed the lovely Valle Calchaquies until Molinas.

Molinas turned out to be as vacant and windy/dusty as La Polma so that we ended up standing at the next street corner hoping for a car to get us out of there.

 ... and some more waiting...

An hour later a very nice couple from Buenas Aires was our rescue and we finally unpacked our back-packs in the beautiful town of Cafayate and its amazing Quebrada.

The best thing about Cafayate was the amazing Parilla (BBQ Restaurant). Not a tourist in sight, plastic chairs, paper table cloths, fabulous house wine and juicy steaks as big as a dinosaur! What more could you want?!  :-)