Living the Gaucho dream!

On the bus again (3h journey) our next stop was Tucuman - for pizza, cinema and popcorn. Tucuman only was a quick stopover for a few hours until 23:00 for our night-bus to Cordoba (8h journey). As if we had not traveled enough on buses for the last hours we jumped straight on the next bus (3h journey) that took us to the little village of La Cumbre. Unfortunately La Cumbre is a favorite getaway for Cordoba dwellers and therefore quite expensive. So it did not take long until we were sitting in a remi (taxi) to go out of town to a ranch called Estancia Puesto Viejo (another 1,5h journey). You wont believe how glad I was when I was finally able to take of my boots (not sure James was of the same opinion when I did so though!? ;-)

The Estancia turned out to be a peaceful place in the middle of the Cordoba Pampa. There was absolutely no one else for miles - only some lonely horses, cows and goats. A great place to relax and live the gaucho dream!

The highlight of our first day was Parilla in the evening though. James is really getting an expert in Argentinian BBQ! I am pretty surprised how much meat one can eat! Somehow I always think that we can never manage to eat what we buy at the local butcher (around 1,2kg of beef), but then there is never anything left on the plates?!

The highlight of the second day was a wonderful horse-ride in a stunning landscape with an even more amazing sunset. Breath-taking pretty!

Vacio in the Valley

After a wonderful time in the wine-producing village of Cafayate (try La Ecoteca wine!) our next stop found us up a mountain in a small village in the valley called Tafi del Valle. When we arrived it was miserable, cold and rainy. Nevertheless, we thought we would give it a chance and as lucky as we are the sun was tickling our nose on the next morning. Breakfast on roof top terrace and off we went on a nice trek together to an even smaller village 12km away.

Now as we had a taste for big steaks on parilla we decided to do our own. James fired the parilla (he felt like a boyscout again...) and I was responsible for salad and wine. We got the tip from locals that "Vacio" is the best cut of beef and oh my god, what can I tell you! It was amazing! I am almost embarrased to say that James and I had 1,2kg of wonderful meat between us! Even the locals thought we were mad!  :-)

Even though we had 2 bottles of wonderful wine in the evening we still managed to get up early the next morning to climb a mountain for breakfast at the top with breath-taking views.

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?!  :-)

¡Señor James!

Surprise, surprise! As if it was not enough that I was all excited to see James again after 7 weeks of travelling on my own, James surprised me by waiting for me at the bus station in Salta/Argentina after his own 35h journey to pick me up from the bus from San Pedro de Atacama. However, the biggest surprise was that all of a sudden someone approached us with the words "¿Señor James?". It appeared James had actually arranged a wonderful place for our first two days and the lady from the hotel was so kind to meet us at the station. And off we went in the back of her car... The hotel turned out to be an old castle and the room was amazing! :-)

We have spent a wonderful 2 days in Salta and in the beautiful suburb San Lorenzo before hitting the road to some more rough travel. It truly is wonderful to be together with James again! :-)