Day 82 : Cafayate

Cafayate is located in the Calchaqui Valley, about 183km away south of Salta, and famous for its wine production.  I booked myself into a day tour which departed at about 7.30am and brought us back about 5.30pm. 

The road to Cafayate goes through the Quebrada de las Concas, a series of capricious and rock formations with some amazing view points.

Some views from Quebrada Las de Conchas

Some key spots that were highlighted during the trip include :

El Anfiteatro

It is named “Anfiteatro” as it supposed to have the best and naturally formed acoustic if someone was to perform in the partially enclosed space.  There was a few locals performing when we were there.

Feeding of Llamas

Got the chance to feed llamas with corn here.  While we were feeding, one of the geese decided to attack our tour guide for no apparent reason!  So to take revenge, our tour guide decided to get back at the goose!  It was a funny sight (especially when the mannerism of our tour guide reminded us of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean!)

Los Colorados

Los Castillos

It is named Los Castillos because the formations looked like castles!

Garganta di Diablo (Devil’s Throat)

During heavy rains, the rain water could be so strong that it will sweep through this space and create massive floods, and was thus named Garganta di Diablo. 

Climbing up and getting down from this place was a little tricky, but we had some fun and took some good pictures here.

Cafayate and Vineyards

We were brought to 2 vineyards to taste some wine, which I felt was rather disappointing.  Mainly because there were not much selection of wine offered for tasting.  The 1st vineyard (Vasija Secreta) only offered 1 small glass of white wine, which tasted a little rough on the edge.

The other vineyard, Domingo Hermanos, offered 1 white and 1 red which tasted much better, though the quantity poured just barely wet our palettes. 

There were vineyard tours though, but it was mostly conducted in Spanish, we were lucky that at the 2nd vineyard, one of the visitor helped with translating the contents to us in English.

The other highlight of the trip was tasting llama salami and some goat cheese at a street stall just outside the 2nd vineyard, which were really yummy!

And of course another main highlight was lunch, where we ordered the infamous Argentinian steak that was suppose to be a huge piece of meat and fairly cheap. 

Am I glad that I shared this portion with one of the other girls in the tour, as it was a huge and chunky piece of meat!