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Day 38: 7/8/12
Today I had a day trip to Cafayate. (I had booked that for tomorrow and a different one for today but the company must have decided to go the other way around or something- well see if someone turns up to collect me tomorrow!)
I forgot to say yesterday that it was raining in the morning and the sky was really grey- it was very Irish weather! This morning was a bit foggy buy not raining!
I was collected in a mini-bus which was good! Once again though it's a lot of older couples.
It was the same direction initially as Cachi yesterday so went through the same villages and stuff. The guide immediately was much better and told us lots of information- Tabbaco is the main industry here. They produce 30,000 tons of tobacco a year. They dont make coharettes. 80% is exported and 20% sent to buenos sites to be processed. No tobacco in the fields at the moment though- it's too dry this season.
The locals all drink weird tea here- today's guide and yesterday's guide both have it. In Peru and Bolivia matte was like a herbal tea- water with leaves floating in it. Here they have special cups with a permanent straw coming out of them. The leaves are crushed on it- looks a bit like a big pestle and mortar. They then pour hot water into it to drink. It looks pure solid though- just green mush!!
First stop was jus for toilet or drinks. The place was nice though with cactii outside and goats next door. Some of the people tried to talk to me but once again, they have barely any English!! Wouldn't ya think these people would learn the language!!!
We were in the department of la vine for half of the journey. This was the first place to produce wine in Argetina and it was the Jesuit missionaries that brought the process to America.
We passed a place with an old train station. The train doesn't go there anymore and only three families live there. People call it a ghost town. The train was to go between salta and cafayate but it was never finished due to world war 1 & 2. It used to be a security place for entrance to the gorge. It's name meant beginning or end of the gorge in the local language, but the Spanish modified it.
Cafayate gorge is actually called gorge of the shells. There's a project to get it recognised as a national park.
Next we stopped at a look out over the gorge and some mountains. 50million years ago everything here used to be under the pacific ocean. The tectonic plates collided to create these mountains. One part of the Nazca plate is still moving around in the pacific ocean and there will be earthquakes here until it settles. There's a trench in the ocean up to 12000 m deep that it needs to fill.
Different sediments left over millions if years mean the mountains have horizontal stripes. Most of the mountains are red because of iron oxide. There's no mining though cos its too mixed with other minerals. Also a lo of clay around, which looks almost orange. They use it for pottery and ceramics. Also a yellowy greeny colour which is form years of decomposition of plant and animal life. There's lots of fossils here apparently. Copper and zinc have a blue colour. Also, there's spots on the rocks from severe changes of temperature- from the glaciers millions of years ago.
When the incas arrived the introduced the idea of pacha mama. People crossing the gorge left piles of stones to ask for protection. The Spanish replaced these with crosses.
There's only one village in the gorge called Santa Barbara where the people that maintain the road live.
The river in the gorge is small but in summer time it gets deep. Last year tere was more rain than usual and the road was affected. There's all white sand in the river. Apparently when it was under the pacific ocean it was like the caribbean.
There's holes in the rock for mountain parrots who go to salta for cereals and Cafayate for grapes and berries! Clever birds!
Lots of basalt rock here which is a volcanic rock, even though there ate no volcanoes here- the rock was moved when this place was formed.
They have vultures, eagles, condors... Lots of birds! There are snakes, weasels, skunks, grey fox, tarantula, armadillo.... Also puma, guanaco and llamas. They dont live near the road though- thankfully!
We stopped at a rock formation that looked like the titanic sinking. Lots of cool rocks around- its like the wild west around here!
The gorge then opened into the calchaqui valley. It's warm here and always blue sky. So the people used to work at night. The incas then called them calchaqui which means moon farmer.
The name Cafayate comes from the local language and means little box of water. The Rivers and springs converge here as it the lowest point in the valley.
80% of economy in Cafayate is wine, the rest tourism. Lots of people holiday here from Salta.
I Cafayate we had to collect five people that were coming back to salts with us. Then we went to a bodega- a vineyard. It was el transito and the wine was called pietro marini. The white wine is called torrontes- the main white in the region. We saw the vats they ferment the wine in and the wooden cases they keep them in. The white wine is separated from the seed and ye skin of the grape and then fermented. The red wine is fermented first and then separated. Most wines are then filtered an sent straight to market. Other woes are kept in a wooden barrel for so many years and then the bottle for another number of years. These ate the expensive ones!! Their expensive wine is a mixture of several grapes and has a slightly different name- still begins with p and m.
Then we were lot off in the square to wander around for two hours. I had lunch looking out at the square- watching everything! It was nice but too many flies!! It was really warm here- a lot warmer than Salta or Cachi. It was a bit windy too but it was just hot air that was on he wind. It was a nice pretty town- lots of little shoppeens with touristy stuff.
The First stop on the way back was the back of the titanic rock which looked like castles. Then we stopped at a place where you could see the horizontal lines on the to rocks after years of sedimentation. It was called something like plaster mound- apparently the white colour is plaster. Next stop was a place called the amphitheatre. The rocks had formed kind of a cave. It was really high- I think she said 400m so there was jus rock all around. You could see the sky at the top of the rocks. It was cool. It made an echo- there was a local guy there to play some music and one of he Argentinians in our group joined in- a real comedian.
The smell of coca leaves on the bus was awful. The driver and the guide were drinking or chewing them the whole time- the smell makes me nauseous!!
Last stop in the gorge was the devils throat. It was like the amphitheatre but rocks had collapsed into the centre. It still looked cool though!
We stopped at the same cafe again on the way back- had some yummy chocolate cake!!
Back to the hostel then for a few mins and then went to get money out and have dinner. Nothing very exciting in town. There's a girl sharing the room with me tonight- but haven't met her yet!
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