Cafayate: more amazing landscape and finally some wine tasting

On my way to Mendoza I wanted to go via Cafayate as I had heard that both beautiful landscape was to be found there and good wine. They are especially known for their torrontes wine.
The tour started up with a stop at a small café in the middle of nowhere. But of course next to it was a little church! This one was more modest and simple than any of the others I had seen in Argentina, I kind of like it:)

Even though the church was nice, that is not what I remember most of this trip. It is the toilet. Not that it was particularly worse here than other places I had been, but this time there was no option and there was a long time to wait for the next opportunity. Let's just say it was a work out for the thighs and that one should always bring paper towels when traveling in Argentina. If not baby-wipes as well...

We made a lot of short stops on our way to Cafayate to admire the nature. Lots of rock formations!
 

Really green place with no electricity..:-o

This place was called the amphitheater

Road work..:/

The guides were not interested in waiting for the workers to give us a green light to get passed. Instead the driver drove passed all the other cars that were waiting and as soon as the white car had passed we just had to hope a car was not coming behind that turn.

I only participated in one wine tasting before I left the tour, but it was enough for me to realize I do not fancy torrontes. The wine was way too sweet for me. As everything else in Argentina...

I had planned to stay the rest of the day in Cafayate and take a late bus towards Mendoza, but it was getting stormy so I decided to leave right away. I am glad I did. It started pouring just seconds after I got in the buss, and it didn't stop till I got off. Luckil I got one of the last seats on the bus from Tucuman to Mendoza so when I woke up the next day I was in Mendoza and it was sunny and real hot. I think my decision to leave was a good one:)

This was just the beginning

Quebrada de Humahuaca

Quebrada de Humahuaca is a valley in Jujuy. It is really beautiful with colourful mountains and lots of culture. On the tour we visited Tilcara and the pre Inca ruins located there, the city Humahuacha and Jujuy and a pottery.

Tilcara

Lama or chama as they would say in Argentina.

In Argentina there were 4 types of Lamas. Some of them wild and other domesticated. Their wool, especially the alpacas, is very soft and is often used to make clothes. I didn't buy any, but I did try the meat several times, and it was really good:) In the region they even had empanadas with lama meat, yummy!

Pre Inca ruins

The ruins were always placed on a hill so that it was possible to keep a look-out for enemies. There were several of these ruins in the valley and they were all located like this. What was really fascinating was that even though they didn't have any thing fancy to build their houses, they were still standing there. With only dirt roofs and rock walls. They must have been really clever!

The whole in the ground was used for something, but what I can not remember:/

 There were always a lot of cacti around these ruins. We got two explanations for this; the first was that the seeds have to go through a digestive system. The second was that people planted them there. An other amazing thing in the region was how they used the wood of the cacti: lamps, roofs etc.

The people living here could not have been big...

Tropico capricorno
From Wikipedia: "The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It lies 23deg26'22'' south of the Equator, and marks the most southerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon. This event occurs at the December solstice, when the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun to its maximum extent."
This event calls for a celebration in the city before it spreads throughout the region.

Pottery
There was a lot of pottery in the region. The products were really nice and well made and very cheap. Unfortunately it is very difficult to back pack with breakable things:/

Humahuaca

look at that statue!

There was a famous Glockenspiel here, but it was only twice a day so we missed it. Angela had wondered why the churches were closed some places we visited, here we got the answer. After a piece of jewelery was stolen from one of the statues, the churches are now only open when someone is around to supervise.

This grave is very different from the the average grave in Norway

And this doesn't remind me of a graveyard at all...  It has too many colours and looks too joyful

An other graveyard a long the road that was very special. The colours and shapes of the mountain in the background was also typical.

Jujuy
In Jujuy we just did some quick sightseeing around the plaza before we had to get on the buss again. The first thing we saw were the statues that had been moved from BA after the women of BA had found them inappropriate. Apparently because of the nudeness of the statues and especially the female ones. I must disagree, what do you think?

An other church made like a wedding cake, of course!

This was so sad to see. it was on a wall one block from the plaza. I hope it has been removed by now!

Purmamarca and the Salt Flats

From Salta the salt flats are only a short(Argentinean distances), but windy drive away. First we took the longest road out of Salta. It went through a forest and we stoped to look for SPIDERS! Apparently there were spider as big as a hand living in that forest. The spiders were not dangerous, but they could jump 1m up in the air. I am glad we didn't manage to spot any of them.

Chewing koka leaves are supposedly good to do if you want to avoid altitude sickness. As we had to drive through a pass at more than 4000 meter we had to try it:p

The home of the spider...

The windy road up to the flats

At 4170 meters!

 One could feel that the air was thin and dizziness was not far away...

First sight of the mountain with seven colours with Cecilie:)

What a coincidence and luck we were on the same tour and on the same bus=) 

We tried to take good pictures at the salt flats, but it was not easy. We were, or that is, Cecilie was just getting the hang of it when we had to leave. The excursion was good, but we all wanted more time at the flats instead of a long lunch, but I think food is too important for Argentineans for them to get the idea.

The mountain with seven colours in Purmamarca.

Instead of going back to Salta we jumped off the bus in Purmamarca (we got picked up the next day to go on an other excursion). First we had lunch with the rest of the group , then checked in at our "hostel" and then we hiked up the mountain with seven colours. Purmamarca was a cosy village with a relaxed atmosphere. If it wasn't for the hostel, that was only a bed in a hut, I would have loved to stay longer. The standard at the hostel was okay for one night, but it was very expensive considering the standard and that nothing, not even hot water nor toilet paper, was included. I had to go toilet paper hunting just before bed: not easy to find! But I did get to see the village by night. A whole crowd was gathered at the plaza and they were playing instruments and singing. I just wanted to join! I would really recommend anyone to stay in one of the small villages in Jujuy, it is a different experience than what one gets just stopping on the way to attractions. (

Beautiful colours in the valley behind the seven couloured mountain

A little bit of hiking:)

Why not bring a guitar to the top of the mountain? It was idyllic:)

Angela, who I traveled with and me looking rather tired

Making pita smells so good, but when we got there following the smell, they were sold out:(

What is that on the top of the mountain? Yes, it is a cross. As everywhere else.

Our hostel

All that was included

The next day we got up early and managed to do a short hike on the mountain opposite the seven coloured mountain before we got picked up and headed for new places:)

Purmamarca

A narrow path, but wide enough

Salta and a lot of churches

On the bus from Posadas to Salta I got talking with an other woman traveling alone. She had done good research regarding hostels and I joined her to see if there was room for me too. It turned out that they did, but we couldn't check in until later. We left our luggage and went out for breakfast. Neither of us were specially good in Spanish and when we ordered two large juices, at a place recommended by Chloe, the man looked weired at us. Why? It was not two large juices we had ordered, but two jugs. I managed to drink it all=) I think that says a lot about the "breakfast" one gets on the buses.


While eating our breakfast several very young children came begging for money. We knew that giving money to them is no good because the mother is usually nearby and will take the money at once. The mother sends her children to beg for money instead of sending them to school, and that is something I can not support., even though it is very hard to say no to the children. We found two of the youngest children when we were finished and gave them the rest of the pizza instead=) All over Argentina I got surprised at the poverty that existed.

Before we went back we stopped at the tourist information, but we did not get to think long before we booked a trip. Right across the road from the tourist information was a tour arranger and of course the trip was booked when we walked out the door. I was not surprised when I ran into some of my classmates later that day and they told me they did the same thing.

On Sundays there is an artistic market in Salta where artists come from all over the area to sell their products. There was all sorts of things to buy there and the artists like to talk about what they make. Once again I wished I could speak Spanish. This was a great place to buy souvenirs or gifts and not ending up with some junk. market,

There was a hill in the city, San Bernardo Hill, that could be reached by cable car. Being restless from not having exercised for a long time I had to check if it was possible to get there by foot. It was=) It was x amounts of steps to the top and a road leading to the top as well. I decided to go for the stairs and got a great view at the top and some good cheering on the way up:)  On the way down I took the road and met a lot of other runners and also cyclist, everyone with a nice hi:) But when I started my run in the city back to the hostel I just had to close my ears from all the comments.

We finished the day by visiting the 7(!) churches that were located within only 7 blocks! They were all big and fantastic. None of them in the same colour and several of them could remind me of a wedding cake. Wedding cakes with different topping. The amount of churches and the decoration of them makes one think of the amount of money they had to have spent on them and how hard they had to have tried to convert the locals to Christianity. Not to think of the money they still spend on maintenance. For me it seems crazy. To end a long and eventful day, we went to a peña; A place where musicians meet and play without it being a performance. Since Salta is touristic, this was not a real peña, but people paid to perform. Either way it was fun to see the traditional dance and listen to the music:)

The hostels name was Hostal La Posta. It had a good location, very helpful host, a nice backyard, clean and very cosy. I would recommend this hostel too:)

Church nb 1, the pink one

Seem familiar?

Market=)

What a colour on a house!

It seems like anyone that has ever done something in Argentina has a statue with them on a horse..

Church number 2, the blue one...

A surprisingly modern backyard of the blue church 

Church number 3, the white one

Church number 4, the red one

Here you can definitely see what I mean with wedding cakes...

Church number 5, the oldest one, yellowish

Church number 6, the beige one

Church number 7, the grey/brown one to high for my camera...

This was the church that looked most like a Norwegian church

The pink church by night