Salta & Wine

We arrived in Argentina with our camera charger broken and the batteries flat, and just a disposable camera for company. Not a good start. Our first walk into then centre of Salta revealed a parade of some kind going on. We later discovered it was the start of a huge 3 day religious festival, apparently bigger than Christmas, that sees half a million pilgrims march on Salta to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for protection from earthquakes. We watched as the various groups arrived including of course the gauchos, and various other costumed pilgrims, we were later told that many travel by horse or by foot from miles around Salt to arrive into the town square in preparation for the parade, of the virgin and Jesus ephagies ,which takes place on the final day of the celebrations. Quite the spectacle!

 Our hostel in Salta was great. Partly because the weather was great and we had a lovely garden to chill. But more particualy as one of the receptionist, who hearing our story of 'camera problems', offered to lend us her camera. Seriously, what an awesome gal! So that evening we captured some cool pics of the town.

The square itself is full of beautiful whitewashed buildings, and with two of the most ornate churches we've seen anywhere. We took the cable car up the montain at the edge of the city, for a view of the city and mountain biked down, which was good fun! As we travelled back on foot to our hotel we stumbled upon a very interesting grave yard which had vaults with windows so you can see in and there were coffins and urns in each. Very ornate buildings and the whole experience was a bit surreal.

Colonal buildings on the square

Salta Cathedral - site of the festival

Basilica de San Francisco

Our night out at a traditional restaurant was really fun, with live traditional music and dancing. We ate the local speciality called paraillado, which is a huge tray of grilled cow bits - including steak, sausages, ribs, liver, kidney, intestine and some not so recognisable. It was mighty good! Marc also discovered that the Argentinians brew black beer. It's sweeter than Guiness and (whisper it) tastier - result!

This sums up the Argentinian nightlife - music, danding & lots of meat

The following day, with borrowed camera in hand we headed for our excursion to Cafayette, which is famours for its wineries. During the ride to the winery we had our first real experience of 'Mate'. For those who don't know Mate is a specific herbal tea traditional in Argentia served in a very unique 'cup' with a metal curved straw. We discovered that It's quite a social drink so we got to share some with a bunch of Argies. Interesting taste but not exactly gonna rush out and buy it. Love the sentiment though!

There's some really cool scenery on the way to Cafayette including the 'devil's throat' (cue photo) and some other amazing rock formations, landscapes and giant cactus. Liz's first experience of huge cactus, and I must say I was impressed.

Getting to know a gaucho

The big scenery on the way to Cafayette

Marc in the Devil's Throat

Very big and very prickly

 As you'd expect when we got to the winery, we tried the wine! Cafayette produces a white wine called Torrontes which is not produced anywhere else and we both really liked it. We had a tour of the winery and view of the vine yards. Athough not the right season to see the grapes it was pretty cool to see. We also got to walk around Cafeyette town and have lunch, and try some red wine and white wine ice cream from the local gelateria for dessert - strange but good.

Liz waiting for the wine to age



The best bit of the winery tour

 
We'll be back to Argentina - Buenos Aires - at the very end of our trip. There's a ton of other Argentinian places we'd like to visit too, but they'll have to wait until another trip. Before all that, we're off to Bolivia...