27 January 2017 – Cafayate (Argentina)

I slept late this morning but I say I misunderstood the breakfast time. Anyway we left at 0800 hrs to arrive at Cafayate at 1150 hrs having passed a lot of cactus growing in the mountings.

Views on the way

On the way to Cafayate we stopped of at the Quilones (Quilmes) Ruins. The site was the largest pre-Columbian settlement in the country occupying abo 30 hectares and dates back to about 850AD. It is believed that 5,000 people lived there at one time and after the people were driven off in 1667 when the population was defeated by the Spanish it was not found until 1888. The area is now slowly being reclaimed and preserved by the dependents of the Quilmes people.
    

The ruins from overhead (photo from the web)

Views of the ruins

Worn flag stones

Dried cactus

Me

 We have hardly had our feet on the ground today (in a sort of way) for as soon as we arrived at the Cafayate Municipal Camp Site we had hardly time to put up the tents when the others, all of them, went out to an organised lunch at a winery.

The winery for lunch

Not wanting a big meal in the middle of the day I went with Tanya, the driver, to another winery where she said that the wine tasting was free, but it was not, and tasted two wines, had a very small lunch, did not buy any wines, then went back to pick up the others only to go to another winery for another tasting (which I did not do).

Winery building

Oak barrels

Corking machine

Ruston (English) diesel engine supplied from Italy

Some were then dropped off in the town, to go to another wine tasting, whilst the rest of us went back to the camp site. A bit of washing my clothes, then myself, then to the camp shop where the young girl let me sit in the shop to charge the laptop and get onto wifi, very very helpful. It was very very noisy during the night and few of us had much sleep.

Municipal camp site

26 January 2017 - Taffe Del Valle (Argentina)

Leaving the Estancia at 0700 hrs we passed through the town of Jesus Maria on Route 9 heading for Taffe Del Valle (of which there are numerous spellings) with others complaining of bad backs and sunburn still. A lot of the ride was on very flat and dull countryside which changed to salt flats and farming.

Lunch at the salt flats

Salt flats

Salt flats

                                            After 11 hours we started climbing the scenery changed to mountains covered in trees.

Into the mountains

Into the mountains

Just liked the picture

Nearly sunset

Nearly sunset

At Taffe del Valle say something….. we camped at the municapal campsite called Campsite Los Sauzaces, which wass very full and noisy into the erly hours of the following morning. I walked down to the village, ate a pizza, and then was in bed by 2100 hrs.

22 to 25 January 2017 – Estancia Potreros (Argentina)

Our first stop on the way to the Estancia was at the Rio Los Sauces campsite, somewhere near San Sebastian, where we were to camp for the night after 12 hours on the road. There was nothing special about the camping site except that some people put their tents up close to a river bed and the local people suggested that they be moved as they thought that there would be rain during the night if the river flooded. The tents were not moved and it hardly rained at all. The pre-trip information advised that tents may have to be shared but I have brought my own as being old (I,m 21!!) I did not want to share a tent with anyone else.

Me taking a photo of the others taking photos of the rocks

My old tent on the first camping night

 Leaving the campsite at 0630 hrs we stopped at a supermarket outside Cordoba to buy food for meals during the next few days. We are expected to eat at a daily cost of US$3 per person per day which might sound little but is enough for us to have good filling meals if spent carefully. While travelling across the country I noticed that a number of farms(estancias) had narrow gauge steam engines or railway items on plinths near the road as if to show that they had a railway for their own use at one time.

The drive from the main road up to the Estancia Potreros was a pretty rough track that had to be taken slowly. The property is owned by the descendants of a scottish family who came here over 100 years ago and consists of an up-market boutique hotel costing £450 per night all in with the emphases on horse riding. The owner also breed Aberdeen angus cows for their meat. We stayed in separate buildings consisting of bunk rooms, kitchen, various toilets and showers and a games room, being allowed to run of the place including the property as a whole. There were not enough bunks for all of us so it was left up to us individually to decide if we wanted a bunk or stay in our tents. I put up my own tent, with five others, even though there were two bunks not being used.

Inside the games room

Inside the games room

The games room

On arrival we were given a cold drink then went to an outdoor barbeque area and had tea and biscuits (afternoon tea). The lady of the house then told us the rules of the estancia such as not too much noise late a night, no cigarette butts in plant pots or on the floor/grass, do not leave a mess anywhere and that the dogs were all friendly and loved chasing a ball or stick.

In the evening we were invited to a wine tasting of local wines in the
main house.

Wine tasting

The owner's wife

The following day breakfast was at 0900 hrs, quite late for  us, then others went riding either in the morning or afternoon. In the evening a local musician came onto the estancia to play guitar and sing for us, a very enjoyable end to the day.

The local musician

Ready for the ride

The following day (25 January) there was again riding for those who wanted to go, except those who cried off having a sore back and sunburn from yesterday.





I have been for a little walk around the place and found a couple of old cars in the sheds, Fords, but could not find the model type. There is one heck of a mixture of chickens around as well with peacocks and goats.

Another old Ford

An old Ford

In the evening the staff prepared a barbecue for us which consisted of mainly meat, chicken and aberdeen Angus beef, and it was very good indeed. Plenty of wine was supplied as well.

The barbeque area

20 to 21 January 2017 – Mendoza (Argentina)

We left Santiago at 0630 hrs heading for Mendoza. The road was full of twists and turns and the weather warm. Near the Chile/Argentina border we had to go up a switchback with 29 bends, each one numbered at the side of the road. It was aid that the bends were numbered so that anyone breaking down could call the breakdown truck and say exactly where they were. Leading up to the border was the Los Libertadores Tunnel There were no actual formalities at the Chile border but on reaching the Argentine border immigration formalities were carried out for both countries by one immigration officer making things much easier. Even though there was a large queue of trucks, buses and cars at the border we were called through quickly and getting through took about 90 minutes.

The switchback

View from inside the Los Libertadores Tunnel

Once across the border we stopped to see an Inca Bridge though I found it difficult to make it out From near the border and to Mendoza there were still railway lines for a narrow gauge railway, now not used. This was built by the Brazilian brothers in 1987 but has been out of ususe since 1984 because of the terrain and weather (lots of landslides, blocked tunnels and bridges washed away). It looked as if it would have been too expensive to keep the line operational. There was also a number of hydro-electric power stations and two chairlifts for grass skiing seen along the way.

Part of the old railway

The Inca Bridge (I could not make it out before taking the photo)

Views on the way to Mendoza

 Driving through Mendoza at 1800hrs it looked to be a very green city with lots of large sycamore trees on the side of the roads and a number of green spaces. Mendoza itself is only 100 kilometers from the Andes and is actually built in a desert, perhaps that is why it is the centre of the wine growing district here. In 1861 the city was destroyed by an earthquake and later rebuilt with earthquake prof houses and buildings (the buildings I agreed with a local had no ‘presence’ and looked like square boxes with no form or colour. When rebuilt the city was moved slightly and large drains were made in the streets so that water from the mountains could flow freely through them and at the same time water the trees and green areas to make the original desert seem to bloom. When I first saw the water in the drains I thought that there was a lot of leaking pipes about the place! We stayed in the Hostel Lagares, in six bunk bedded (or six bedded bunk) dorms.

While the some of the others went rock climbing or cycling to vineyards I went into the city to take the ‘free walk,’ again a student being a tour guide for tips only. This time there was only a young French girl and myself going round with the guide for just over two hours. Mendoza has a number of plazas to visit including the Plaza Espana which is the monument of Spain’s discovery of South America with Andalucian tilework depicting Christopher Columbus’s sighting of South America and a scene from a book by Don Quixote amongst others.

Views of the Plaza Espana

Don Quixote

Christopher Columbus’s sighting of South America

A wall tile mosaic

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 












The Plaza Independencia is the physical and cultural centre of the city and is set in a park.

The Plaza Independencia

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
The Park General San Martin celebrated the first spaniard to cross the Andes to Chile with an army to liberate the southern part of South America  from the Spanish, As this is the 200th year of that anniversary the Police Band were playing in one of the pedestrian precincts in the city.

Full uniform

The Police Band

I took the following photograph as is depicted real recycling in a way with the men sweeping the park with palm leaves that had fallen off the tree.

(Not sure if the palm leaf can be made out properly)

An old bank building, now an arts centre.

Stained glass windows

                                            There was an original shopping arcade in the centre of the city with glass windows and roof which I thought we quite pretty.





































By the time I had walked roud, listened to other bands and buskers in the street shops were beginning to close. This was a friday afternoon and I would have thought to be a very busy time for shopping but it was not so as in Mendoza shops close from 1400 to 1700 hrs for a siesta. It was also very warm, 36C I believe, so I went back to the hostel buying a melon on the way; couldn’t get wine in the bottle shops as they had closed as well so bought one in the hostel (at near supermarket price) watched a film, ate some of the melon and shared the bottle of wine with others who had given up because of the heat.