Salta & Cafayate - North West Region of Argentina

Salta is a city in the north west region of Argentina, getting there required another long 20hr bus ride from Mendoza. The city of 500000 sits just west of the Snow capped Andes mountain range, in a valley with San Bernardo Hill looking over the city to the east (which like any town in south America that has a cable car to the top). It's quite a nice city but not too much to do apart from check out shops, churches and restaurants. We only spent one night here before heading 4hrs south to the town of Cafayate.

We didn't really know what to expect on the drive to Cafayate but it was spectacular and for once we scored the front row top seats. The drive takes you through Quebrada del Rio de las Conchas (Canyon of the river of shells) and Calchaquíes Valley. The valleys are full of massive cacti, and red dusty eroded hills and rock formations. It looked like we had driven to mars. The valley near by apparently features in Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back. The river running through the valley must have been experiencing a large amount of rain fall further up on the Andes range as it was pumping, and had eroded away part of the road in a few sections.

The town of Cafayate is regarded as the Tuscany of Argentina, surrounded by winyards, and large rocky dry mountains covered in cacti. The town is small and dusty, but with plenty of restaurants, shops and a nice plaza. We stayed at this pretty nice hostel which had a cool out door area to sit around in, covered by grape vines. We tried to hire a car as it seamed like the easiest way to explore the region but found out we should have done this back in Salta..

The following day we hire some bikes and caught the bus back out the the Valleys we had driven through the day before. The bus dropped us off about 50km out of town at this big dry canyon called Devil's Throat. The ride from here just headed back along the main road which was a fairly easy ride with only a few hills, however we did climb from 1300m to 1800m to where the town sits. The ride was amazing and by the end my neck hurt more than my legs from continually looking around at the different rock formations and eroded landscape. The last part of the ride was pretty tough, as by now it was bloody hot, with no shade, and long straight and boring.

The next day we headed out on foot along this dry, boring road to Rio Colorado. From here you head up the river, rock hopping and wading through the river as there isn't really a track. We got caught by a group being lead by a guide at one stage and tagged onto the back. The walk brings you up to a 10m waterfall and swimming holes. Really nice.

That evening we ate out near the plaza. We were joined by a local donkey who really wanted to share my steak... He got a few chips but still wasn't happy... I don't blame him it was delicious.