Cafayate, an oasis of tranquility

We actually stayed in one place for seven days and it was wonderful! Jane actually unpacked her suitcase! We were in the desert town of Cafayate which is in Northern Argentina at the southern end of the Salta Province. On the 4 hour bus ride from Salta city to Cafayate we were entertained by the many stops made to either pick up people or drop them off out in the middle of nowhere in the desert, including children going to or from school. We would look around and wonder where they came from or where they were headed.

The trip was about 190 kilometers. The scenery as we got closer to Cafayate was spectacular. The last 80 kms was through a gorge, Quedbrada de Cafayate, where there are incredible rock formations, multi-colored mountains, deep crevasses and sand dunes. The gorge leads to the Calchaquies Valley. This is a long desert valley that runs north/south. Look for one of our slide shows to focus on this gorge. We couldn't get good pictures from the bus so I got some from a local.

Cafayate is about in the middle of the valley 50 kms from any other town. Cafayate and the vineyards around it are an oasis in this desert valley. While hot in the summer, the rest of the year is very mild. We had temperatures in the 70's and low 80's during the middle of the day. Cafayate is a quiet little town of about 15,000 with a huge central plaza surrounded by restaurants, shops, and, of course, a Catholic church. There are many hotels and hostels. Tourism and wine are the mainstays of the town. Along with the many people of all ages either walking, riding bikes or motorcycles, or driving old trucks or cars there are many dogs that frequently are seen around the square.

We stayed in the Hotel Killa, owned by Martha and run by Juan. Old friends and our travel consultant put us into this great little hotel. While we had the smallest room, the one with the lowest rate, we overlooked the pool, veranda and garden on the back of the property. They had a wonderful dining room and breakfast buffet. The staff was really well trained and very nice to us, including scrambled eggs for breakfast (unheard of on breakfast buffets in AR). they gave us great suggestions for things to do during our visit.

The first night we went to one of their recommended restaurants, Colorado. It is a small place with eight tables decorated very well and with some soft lighting, which is also unheard of in Argentine restaurants (one of their only drawbacks). As it turns out the place is run by Charlie and April from the U.S.A. What a great place to land in. Being land owners in Chile, they had come up for a look at this little town they had kept hearing about. With the weather so much better than Chile's, they decided to make Cafayate their home base. They opened the restaurant last December. The cool thing for us was the menu. There was some Mexican food, a Thai curry dish, a cordon bleu, and, of course, some great meat served with panache. So we ended up eating there three times with other local typical Argentine restaurants interspersed during our week. They are doing well with the locals, especially the Mexican dishes, but one night seven of eight tables were full of foreigners. They were mostly young people traveling around Argentina. So the food was great and the people were fun.

Our days here were very slow. We spent a lot of time at cafes on the square having snacks and playing gin rummy. One of our days was really interesting. With Horatio, our guide and driver, we went down valley about 50 kms to Amaicha, and old Indian town where Victor Cruz, an entrepreneur and artist, has built Museo Pachamama, a private museum and gallery. Amaicha is in the desert 1790 meters above sea level. It contains exhibits about the precious stones mined in the valley, some archaeology and Indian history and artifacts and copies of artifacts, as well as his art works. The museum is a series of buildings with a wall around them. All the buildings are covered in stone. There are colorful rock sculptures and murals depicting the rituals to "Mother Earth" that were a big part of the culture of indigenous peoples of the area. Again please look to a specific slide show on this topic.

After the museum we stopped at Quilmes, which is a partially restored village of the Quilmes Indians that lived in valley from about 1000-1665. At one time the village had 5000-6000 inhabitants. About 15% of the walls and fences were restored in the late 1970's. The village lies at the base of the mountains, so you can walk up to higher places that allow you a vista over the whole area. These peoples were unusual in that they fought off the Spanish conquerors for over 100 years. Finally the last 400 families were captured and forced to march by foot over 1500 kms to Buenos Aires by the Spanish. These themes seem to reoccur around the world. Okay, on to the wine.

There are about 2000 hectares (4400 acres) of grapes under production at this time. Wine has been made here for many years, but it is just in the last ten years that the quality has improved and that exportation has become a big part of the strategy. For years all the wine was drunk locally or sent in barrels to Salta and sold as bulk wine. Now quality and export are the topic of every wine discussion. Some of the wineries were sold to foreign investors in the mid to late 1990's. Italians, French and U.S. interests are all here. Malbec, torrentes, cabernet savignon, cabernet franc, tannat, merlot, chardonnay and savignon blanc grapes are all grown here. Historically malbec and torrentes were predominant. Now everyone is making a varietal line and a reserve blend line. While growth will be limited by the availability of water there is apparently enough for an additional 2000 acres. Some of these acres are over 2000 meters above sea level, which make them some of the highest in the world they tell me.

What is very cool is that you can walk around town and stop into four or five wineries within three blocks of the plaza. All are very interested in giving you a tour and a taste. Since we were here in a very slow tourist month, we got the royal treatment where ever we went. Nanni, which is one of three certified organic wineries in Argentina, is a great example of true winery hospitality. After a short tour they offered us tastings of four of their wines. Another day we rode bikes 5 kms uphill to Los Nubes Bodega (it almost killed us) which overlooks the town. A nice bottle of torrentes and a board of cheese, sausages and bread brought us back to life. Our sixth day we went on bikes north about two kms to El Esteco Bodega, now owned by some Italian winemakers, who have upgraded every part of their operation. They are now exporting over 60% of their production. They monitor and control the temperature in all fermentation tanks with computers. Their bottling, labeling and distribution is highly automated. A very impressive place.

That was the same day we rode out to Cabras de Cafayate which is a farm that makes goat cheese. What a hoot. They have 600 goats and about 15 cows and two llamas. We watched the milking operation where they can milk about 50 goats at one time. Two men handle the operations and they milk about 200 goats an hour. They make about five types of cheese and it is great.

On the opposite end of the size scale is the Pequeno Bodega that makes a total of 5000 bottles a year: a malbec the traditional style and a malbec roble aged in oak. This winery is run by a 70+ year old man and his son, a physician that has decided making wine is much more to his liking than medicine.

Sunday we went to the 10:30 church service and it turns out that is the children's mass. The church was full of kids along with a few adults. Children were standing all around the church as there was not near enough places to sit. It was a very cool service with lots of singing by all the children. No one except Jane and I seemed to notice the dog that wandered about the main aisle for most of the service looking for someone with some food.

Monday was holiday devoted to the areas annual celebration of their independence from the Spanish. A ceremony was held in the center of the town plaza. A group of musicians were there and representatives from all the schools surrounded the plaza's center. The pastor was present and local officials were in attendance. Gauchos, folk dancers young and old were on hand. After a prayer, a few short speeches were given and then the music and dancing commenced.

Although this city is out of the way and doesn't have much written about it, when passing through NW Argentina make Cafayate a stop.

The Northwest Provinces - Salta & Jujuy

The northwestern part of Argentina is like being in another country. Here you find a diverse terrain, a much slower pace of life, and a land and people influenced by ancient preHispanic civilization. Our first stop was the city of Salta, the provincial capital of 600,000 which has the best preserved colonial architecture. Salta lies at the North end of a large valley which is surrounded by green hillsides of mountains bigger than the Appalachians but certainly not the Andes. We spent most of our time wandering the narrow streets, looking at the old buildings and churches, and people-watching in the large central plaza. This is a bustling city with a great deal of retail in the blocks around the square and tour companies hawking their wares at every corner of the square. They have two pedestrian shopping streets that run for 4 or 5 blocks, which are packed with people up to 10 or 11 PM.

At the edge of the plaza stands a beautiful baroque cathedral that was built in 1858 and is considered Argentina's best-preserved colonial church. We were also taken by the beauty and ornateness of the Iglesia San Francisco. This church was rebuilt in 1759 after it was destroyed by fire. It has a 173' tower and ornately decorated white pillars that are in contrast to the terra cotta colored walls of the church. It also has an enclosed courtyard with beautiful flowers.

Salta has a vibrant nightlife with many restaurants and clubs. There is one area of town just north of the central plaza that has about three blocks of restaurants where they have live music much of which is folk music with dancing. We had dinner one night where we were treated to a show of Spanish folk dancing and also Indian folk dancing with the appropriate costumes for each.

The highlight of our Salta visit was time spent in the Andean Archaeological Museum (MAMM). The main focus of this museum, which was opened in 2004, is its exhibit of the recent excavations at Mount Llullaillaco, the highest volcanic peak in Argentina near the Chilean border. In 1999 a National Geographic team of archaeologists found three well preserved Andean mummies (over 500 years old). Many objects were found with the mummies which are also being displayed. Though only one mummy, that of a 15 year old girl, was on display, the photos, stories, and artifacts were fascinating. These people were here since about 800 A.D. and predate the Inca's by some 500-600 years.

We wanted to go to Jujuy, the next province North next to the Bolivian border, to visit two very old villages. We rented a car and could have taken the direct route at about 155 kilometers, but we were interested in taking a route which ended up being about 350 kilometers. It was quite a day. We climbed out of the green valley to find ourselves driving through miles and miles of mountain gorges. The road follows an old railroad line which was recently used for a tourist train called the Train into the Clouds. After three hours of mountain passes and high valleys we landed in San Antonio de los Cobres, a small mining town in the desert.

After a nice lunch of local empanadas, the staple everywhere, we found our car with a flat tire. After changing the tire with the help of the 10 year quartz salesman working the parking lot, we needed to find a gomeria to fix the flat. We were heading into 100 kilometers of desert and couldn't go without a spare. At midday on a Sunday this was cause for concern, but the locals kept sending us from one gomeria to another until we found one at home. I think the gentleman must have been 75 years old. He certainly knew what he was doing. With the bare minimum of tools, he did have a compressor, he set upon the task. He did a great job and we were on our way in no time. On we went into the desert. We were heading to the grand salt flats of Jujuy and then on to the villages of Purmamarca and eventually Humahuaca.

Much of this drive was on gravel roads, but we finished the day crossing a 13680 foot pass and dropping down 6500 feet into a huge gorge and eventually Purmamarca. Our mouths were hanging open most of the trip--the scenery is spectacular. Our descriptions of the multi colored mountains, canyons, desert, salt flats, small pueblos (towns), and the people will not do justice to actually seeing them. Please check out the slideshow on this. We were amazed at the thousands of cacti that grow on the sides of the mountains. The scenery is a bit like the Southwestern part of the USA. We find these mountains to be very dramatic.

Purmamarca is a very small pueblo (village). It is tucked at the base of mountains that are layered with colors generated by the minerals in the stone. Right behind the village the locals see seven colors arrayed on the close peaks. It is quite amazing. Selling goods to the tourists is the major industry here. There are a remarkable number of little restaurants, some with live indigenous music. Humahuaca is further north up the Rio Grande river valley. It is a little larger and has a prominent central square with a church that has a large steeple. Each day at noon doors on the side of the steeple open and a Franciscan friar comes out to give all present in the square a blessing. It draws all the tourists in town by noon and all in the square for the vendors pleasure.

After a couple of days here we headed down the Rio Grande river valley to Salta on the 155 km route. After coming down about a thousand feet we turned a corner to find ourselves looking at the top of a cloud which covered the valley we were heading down into. It was eerie as we drove through the cloud eventually finding ourselves under it and on our way to the city of Jujuy and Salta. Little did we know that mountains surrounding Salta extend quite a ways north, at least 50 kms. As we came down into the mountains we found that the two lane road narrowed to the width of a one lane road, which we found odd. But soon we found ourselves on 45 kms of switchback roads climbing over passes and around lakes in these very heavily treed mountains. It was like climbing through the Smokey Mountains on a one lane road with tight turns and open overhangs all over the place. Fortunately we came out of this just as Jane's car sickness was peaking.

Now that we were back into Salta we went to drop off the rented car and catch a bus for our trip to Cafayate. Our good friends, Pam and Joe Ollinger, were in Cafayate several years ago and told us such great things that we just couldn't pass up making it one of our spots. In fact we are stopping for a week, so let's hope they were right.

Well I am sure this was more than you wanted to know about NW Argentina, but it is so beautiful and interesting that we would recommend it to anyone. Thanks for coming.

Wine tasting in Mendoza, Argentina

We had been looking forward to our stop in Mendoza for quite some time. We were not disappointed. Mendoza is a tidy, oasis city, filled with tree-lined avenues and beautiful parks. It is surrounded by the vast patchwork of vineyards and the Andes mountain range nestled in the background. It was founded in 1565 by the Spanish but was destroyed in 1860 by an earthquake. It was then moved and rebuilt with a plan which included a main square and four other plazas close by. They felt this would allow the people to rush to green space in the case of another earthquake. Just like San Rafael, open irrigation channels are along the streets of the whole city. They carry water from the Andes and are visible reminders of this city's colonial past. This complex and very old system of river-fed aqueducts was started by the Incas and continued and enhanced by the Spanish. Without the irrigation this land is a desert. The Mendoza province now produces 70% of the country's wine. In Mendoza trees line every street providing great shade in the hot summers. This city is a very popular tourist destination with the huge number of wineries and the Andes close by. We stayed at the Plaza Italia B&B. This turned out to be a wonderful stay. It has a great living room with comfortable chairs and a wonderful dining room and table, large rooms with king sized beds and new baths for all rooms. Mercedes, Tito, the owners, and the whole staff were wonderful. They help you with knowledge of the town, touring, the restaurants, etc. Truly the best. On our first day we took a high mountain tour to the Andes which was amazing. The tour began at 7:30 am. We traveled in a Mercedes mini bus all the way to the Chilean border high up in the Andes. At the highest point, right at the border, we were at 4000m (13,000ft) with the rugged snow covered Andes ever so close. To get to this point we traveled the last 1000 meters of altitude on the old highway to Chile, which of course was a narrow gravel road with hairpin turns that wound its way up the mountain. I think all of us were a bit intimidated by the height, the steep narrow road with no rails and dramatic views to the highway far below. At the top is the famous monument, Christ the Redeemer, erected in 1902 after a territorial dispute with Chile was settled. The flags of Chile and Argentina fly along side the monument. It was cold, windy and the air was thin, thus we were there for only a short time. Very impressive! On this trip we also got a great view of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. (6,962m/22,841ft). Reaching the summit requires at least 13 to 15 days . While we were in BA in January, 6 climbers died on this mountain. It is a very popular destination for mountain climbers. Our Saturday was spent visiting three wineries. We hired a car with a driver who spoke English and we headed out at 10am. Our first stop was to Norton's, one of the largest wineries here that exports to the USA. They make 50,000,000 bottles per year. The tour included a look at all the machinery, tanks, barrels and the underground aging rooms. The grape harvest was completed in April so the wine is either in stainless steel tanks or in barrels aging. Next we headed to a very small, family owned business, the Bressia Vineyards. This was an interesting visit since the wine maker spoke no English and had opened just for us. We were able to communicate well enough to learn a bit about this bodega. The winemaker grabbed a large goblet and poured cabernet savignon right out of a spigot on the large stainless steel tank. It was great, very smooth. In the same manner we tried the merlot and the malbec. Then we went to the cellar where the aging barrels were and he siphoned wine and gave us a taste of each again. Hands down, this was the best wine ever!!!! This small winery has made a name for itself and we hope to find it on the shelf in the US. Our third stop was to a very old bodega that is now a restaurant. We were greeted at the gate by our waiter and he led us down a vine covered path to the restaurant. Our first course was already on the table in this small cozy little room. Words can't describe the colorful array of small wooden bowls and trays of food. We were both open-mouthed at the amount and variety of food. There were 9 different kinds of meats, 5 different cheeses and multiple wooden bowls filled with 4 varieties of beans, rice, carrots both pickled and roasted, onions, quail eggs, roasted white and sweet potatoes, squash, pate, pickled eggplant, breads and more. The table looked like a page out of Gourmet magazine. Our waiter brought wine, water and then later the next courses which were tapas: the first an empanada, then a small bowl of beef cooked in wine with vegetables and lastly came pasta with a homemade sauce. As with the first course, we ate small amounts of each of these. After that it was an ice cream dessert that we barely managed to get down complimented with champagne. So much food but truly an experience not to be forgotten. Lastly we visited the Carmine Granata winery, which was built in 1931. It is a small winery where they make a full compliment of wines and export or sell at the winery. We tasted with a Mother and daughter from New York that were touring. By then we were over full and tired so our memories are a blur. Needless to say there was no going out for dinner in the evening. On Sunday we attended Mass and then sat in one of the many plazas and read the newspaper. We spent the afternoon at Parque San Martin. This park is over 1000 acres and practically half of the city. We took a bus tour to try and get a feel for all of it. Inside the park there is a university, soccer stadium, swimming complex, tennis complex, lake where there is rowing, boating, etc, several high hills that offer great views of the city, a zoo, restaurants, and endless open spaces for all kinds of activities. Like most Sundays the park was full of families picnicking and sharing cups of mate. The highlight of this visit was the wine tour that we did on Monday with Javier, the son of the owners of our B&B. He is very knowledgeable about wine, the area and the people that own and run the wineries and is a lot of fun to be with. We went with a young French couple who were staying at the B&B. What a day we had. Our first visit was to a very small family run bodega, Domaine St. Diego, owned by Angel Mendoza, the long time winemaker at Traphiche, the areas largest winery. Instead of the usual tour through the winemaking process, Angel's daughter-in-law took us into the vineyard to taste the grapes and learn about how they care for the vines and the olive trees. We were then treated to some wonderful wines, homemade breads, raisins and nuts grown at the bodega. We tasted a blend of Malbec, Cabernet Savignon and Cabernet Franc which spent no time in oak barrels. This is the first vintage that they had produced like this and they feel the quality of their vineyard allows a quality product in this manner. It was very young and seemed a bit aggressive to us, but it is early. The second wine was 80% Malbec and 20% Merlot and was wonderful. In the end the best of the day. Thirdly we had a bottle of 100% Malbec in which they allow the maximum alcohol development during fermentation. It has 18% alcohol and a great natural sweetness. This is the closest you can get to port without fortifying with extra alcohol, illegal in the Argentine wine industry. Before we left they showed us the olive press they had just purchased. In the past they had to use a large company for pressing and never knew whose olives went into the oil that was returned. It was very interesting to see this and taste the oil coming out the end of the process. Next was a larger bodega Achavel Ferrer, owned by an accountant , a lawyer and an Italian winemaker. While relatively new, it is garnering high marks in Wine Spectator for its wines. It has beautiful new buildings with great marketing materials. We tasted with three couples from California. The French couple, Jane and I weren't too impressed with the wines. They export all their wine for very high prices so we were tasting barrel samples which all seemed young and aggressive to us. My pictures don't do credit to the beauty of the building. On we went to the Ruca Malen Bodega for lunch. It was a 5 course meal with wines to compliment each course. This was an event that lasted over 2 hours. I will run through the wines to give you a glimpse of what a good Argentine winery is making: 1) Savignon Blanc 2007 (100% Sav. Blanc) 2) Malbec 2006(85% Malbec, 8% Petit Verdot, 7% Temranillo) 3) Cabernet Savignon 2006 (90%Cab, 5% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot) 4) Petit Verdot 2007 (100% Verdot) 5) Malbec 2007 (95% Malbec, 5% Cabernet Savignon). Great wines and marvelous food. For example the second last course was a 12 oz. filet and the last was white chocolate and seasoned fruit. After lunch we were treated to a lesson in the art of drinking mate, which is a tealike drink that is popular all over Argentina. Our last stop was to the Carlos Pulenta Vineyard. Pulenta is part of the family that used to own Trapiche. After the sale in 1998 he bought a vineyard planted in 1948 and started making wine. In 2003 he opened the new bodega with rooms, a restaurant, the winery with a great tasting room. The tasing room is below ground with one wall open so you can see the layers of rock and soil in the vineyard. With the aging and storage in the lower level they use gravity to move the wine. Fabulous place. The wines they make from the old vineyard are all blends. They also make wines with grapes from their acreage in the Uco valley, which are all varietals. Impressive blends but I like the Malbec from Uco. A long day but well worth it. We left late the next day on an overnight bus to Salta in the Northwest of Argentina. While in Mendoza we ate at several good restaurants and tasted wine at a unique place called The Vines of Mendoza, where you can compare five wines at a time. They have six different flights of five to choose from. Very cool idea! But certainly our stay at the B&B with people from Australia (Megan & Alexia), France, Holland and the US was truly delightful. We recommend Plaza Italia B&B!!! Reply Forward POJO is not available to chat

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San Rafael is a tranquil town located in the heart of fertile land irrigated by the frigid waters of the Andes'. We were impressed by the streets that are all lined with beautiful sycamore trees. These trees provide much needed shade especially in summer when it gets quite hot. This is a very arid area that receives no more than 250mm of rain each year. There are irrigation canals that run between the sidewalks and the street. These canals and the plan on their use are centuries old. The Inca's started the canal irrigation and the Spanish conquerers of the 16th century picked up the plan and expanded it. The open canals run everywhere, neighborhoods, suburbia, vineyards, and allow for vegetation. Interesting concept that is also used all along the Andes'.

Just a short 25km outside of the city is a "mini grand canyon". We drove to a hydroelectric plant, one of 5 built to provide power for the area along with controlling the flow of water for the irrigation. After checking out the dam and the lake, largo resuyno, behind it, we continued along a gravel road to the middle end of the lake (the lake is 40 kilometers long). This road provided unbelievable vistas of the canyon, lake and the highly eroded red rock walls, as our pictures show. It is quite an impressive drive which included a tunnel and those pesky gravel, narrow and curvy roads.

We visited five bodegas to finish our day. At the Suter bodega we got a tour, in Spanish, and were able to taste one of their wines and had fun with the staff. At a much larger winery, Bianchi, we took a tour with a guide who spoke English and Spanish which was helpful. At this bodega they only make champagne in the historic French method. We tasted their champagne and learned in detail about the way they implement the fermentation processes. At a couple of the others they weren't prepared to show you much but were very willing to discuss their product line and let you taste one or two wines. This is a large wine making area and is considered part of the Mendoza province wine industry.

Our last day in San Rafael was our favorite. We drove out to Algodon, a vineyard, which was bought by a few people from the U.S. a few years ago. It has a restaurant, lodge and golf course with plans for a tennis complex, home sites and a new winery. The restaurant, at the edge of the golf course surrounded by olive trees, is beautiful and the food was extra great. Because they have no natural gas for cooking everything is prepared in their homemade adobe ovens and/or grills. They also dry their own fruits and vegetables. When we were there they had many sliced tomatoes , onions and quince out in their "drying boxes." Because the sun is so intense there in the summer it takes only 1 day to complete the drying process. More time is required in fall and spring.

After we ate we were treated to a private tour done by the current winemaker who spoke only a tiny bit of English and another woman who spoke both languages. We walked through the olive trees over to the small looking winery. They took us through the entire wine making process and the entire building in the process. The vineyard has 1300 acres and 700 of those with vines planted. They have plans to grow quite a bit and plan on a large addition to the wine making facilities. They, like most of the wineries here, make malbec, cabernet, syrah and chardonnay. These people also made a great rose out of malbec, which we really enjoyed.

To us it looked like the wineries of San Rafael were well run and prospering. Our first touch of the Argentine wine industry was certainly a positive one. Now on to Mendoza, the heart of the Argentine wine industry.