Day 83 : Cachi

Cachi is located 157km from Salta, and stands at 2,210m above sea level.  The road towards Cachi is filled with ever-changing landscape, and goes through the Los Cardones National Park (said to be the 2nd largest National Park after Iguaçu) as well as a few other key spots.

For me, it was the stops and the beautiful views along the way towards Cachi that was most interesting, as I felt that Cachi town was a little too sleepy and laid back for my liking.

Cuesta del Obispo

A 21 kilometre mountain road built between 1928 and 1931, and starts in the site known as Pie de la Cuesta and ends at Piedra del Molino.  Got wonderful views of the mountainous region at our stop point.

Piedra del Molino

Piedra del Molino is located at 3,348m above sea level and is the highest point of the Cuesta del Obispo.  It is the entrance point of the National Park Los Cardones.

Recta de TinTin (Tin Tin Straight)

This is an absolutely straight stretch of road that stretches for 13km.  Said to be built by the Incas, back at a time with no technology, where poles after poles of fire were lined up in a straight line on each side of the path.  It is impressive because when it was first built, it was estimated to have less than 1cm deviation.  It is now about 3cm deviation due to the movement of the earth plates, but still a phenomenon. 

Many unexplainable stories as well as stories of UFOs also seemed to have occurred along this road. 

Views of the side of this road were really interesting too.  On one side was Mount Tin Tin with its coloured hills and another was a huge area filled with “cardones” a type of cactus.

Pit Stop – Herbal Street Store

We came to a street vendor selling various types of herbs and spices, as well as jams and wines, and our tour guide brought to our attention something called “Muna Muna” and “Rica Rica”. 

We were told that it is the herbal version of Viagra – Muna Muna for men and Rica Rica for women. 

Everyone had a good laugh when they heard about it, and the tour guide bought quite a few of them, which we later realised that a packet was to be given to each of us at the end of the tour. 

So now I have a packet of Muna Muna in my bag!  Maybe I should start spiking someone’s drink to see if it works! haha..

I bought a bottle of “Arrope de Chanar” from the store though, which was said to be a good herbal remedy for cough and cold.  Have been trying to completely fight off a cold over the last 2 days, that may become full blown, and as it was still lingering, I thought I would just give this a try to see how effective it may be.

I opened it the moment I got back from the trip to try.  It is sweet, but not so easy to drink as I felt like I was drinking a thicker version of kecap manis!

Back to the trip – the views at this stop was amazing though!  Snow capped mountains and cacti!  What a contrast!

Payogasta

We headed next to Payogasta, which was where we were going to have lunch.  Set in a casual setting, the restaurant is said to serve organic food grown at its farm and meat from its own sheep and cows.  All food is cooked in a traditional clay oven.

They also produce their own wine in a small vineyard located next to the restaurant.  This vineyard is the highest in the world, standing at 2,500m above sea level.

Apparently the wines are only for consuming at the restaurant or to be purchased in small quantity from the restaurant, and it is not available anywhere else.  A member of the tour group had ordered a bottle and I got to try some and it was really good, especially for a 2010 bottle!

The owner spoke to us for a while and we later found out that he also owns the hotel located just opposite the restaurant, which comes with spa facilities.  He gave us a tour of the vineyard and its production and what caught our attention was the fact that condom is a tool used as part of the wine process! 

He later explained that it was used to measure the fermentation process as the condom would inflate when the yeast is added, and deflate once the fermentation process is completed.

 

 

Cachi

A sleepy town with just a main square and not much else to see or do.  We stayed here for about 30 mins and took a quick walk around the square.  Got a couple of nice view points but other than that, nothing much noteworthy about this town.

I fancied this tour better than Cafayate, even though Cafayate is a must do tour and is much more highly promoted than Cachi. 

Perhaps it was done with a different agency and I had a good tour guide which provided a more detailed and interesting background of the places better.