Cafayate 1600m

Cafayate

More wine and mountains, we loved Cafayate. On our first day we checked out the quaint pretty town and had a tipsy lunch which included a sample of the local white wine- torrontés.

We then took a walk out to a goat cheese farm where we bought some yummy herbed cheese. We finished the day at a bodega, taking a wine tour and sampling the local drop which was so good that we bought a bottle having it for dinner with the cheese, delicious!

The next day we took a tour of the Quebrada de Cafayate 50kms away. This mountainous sunburnt red dusty area holds a host of spectacular sandstone landforms some of which are named the Devil’s throat, Amphitheatre

toad

Obelisk and more. They were pretty amazing; you got a sense of how the landscape is susceptible to change with large landmasses jutting up from the earth, with multicoloured striation marks across their fronts.

Everywhere we looked produced spectacular views, we were impressed having never seen such raw earth before. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves here.

No rest for the wicked, we decided to walk the 5km to the base of the nearby mountain and hike the two hours up to the local waterfall the following day- and then return the same way. Apparently you can swim in the waterfall in summer, but due to the ice floating on top we were not tempted- despite the sweaty hike to get to it! It was a beautiful day, if a bit tiring and we certainly deserved our food that evening.

Which brings me to another highlight of Cafayate: La Casa de Empanadas or house of pies. You can imagine that Malachy was in his element, as was I. Out of the 12 flavours of empanadas on the menu, six were veggie. Mmm they were so good, we still dream about them, and they go particularly well with a glass or two of the torrontés, which naturally we combined. It was begrudgingly that we left Cafayate the following day.

Tucumán

Our first stop as we progressed up north was a city called Tucumán. We just overnighted there taking in the vibe of the city where Argentina was declared independent. It’s a nice city, perfect for a quick stopover. We stayed in a quant friendly hostel near the central plaza which is landmarked by the illuminated Casa de Gobierno. We spent the evening strolling around the various markets and plazas.

To continue the journey we bought an open three stop bus ticket up country with our first stop being Tafí del Valle.


Tafí del Valle

We arrived in Tafí early afternoon after snowfalls in the mountains and were accosted by a little old lady who wanted us to rent her annexed cottage flat.


We were easily won over by the whitewashed walls and little fire stove, a comfy assurance against the frost outside. It felt like we were in a little old traditional Irish cottage, and keeping it real the wind blew straight through the cracks around the windows and doors. Thankfully the five blankets on the bed and the burning embers kept us warm.


The town was perfect, it looked like a film set, ideally placed in a snowy mountain valley overlooking a lake with llaymas in the fields.


After wandering around the town we discovered that the best way to reach the Parque Los Menhires, some 10km away was to hitch the quiet country road.


A pick-up eventually stopped and we hopped in the back, next to a raw rip cage, presumably dog food. Oh My God was it cold when we rounded the corner and the crosswinds from the lake hit us, we were blue with chattering teeth when we eventually arrived.

First things first, a warm cup of tea and lunch, we had some traditional food wraped in a corn leaf.


The Menhires are indigenous granite monuments collected from nearby archaeological sites representing ancient art and prayer.


Getting back wasn’t as easy, we waited a while for a lift, walked along the foggy icy roads eventually getting a lift half way with two fisher men, and amazingly we got home the rest of the way with the same pick-up that brought us there. This time we knew to sit with our backs to the wind!
Before leaving we made sure to sample some of Tafí’s handmade cheese which weren’t half bad.

Amaiche
Next was Amaiche a tiny town where we stopped to visit the nearby ruins of Quilmes. We joined a tour with just one other lady from Buenos Aires. Our guide was of Quilmes Indian decent and his German girlfriend was our translator, she also brought along her baby on the tour.

We stopped en-route under the shade of a medicine tree where our guide described the history of the Quilmes people, of their near obliteration by the Spanish invaders and the current state of affairs. Then it was on to the ruins, these are amazing and surrounded by a forest of cacti.

It looked like a ‘cowboy and Indians’ movie! The ruins were appropriated and partially restored under the dictatorship of General Videla in the 70’s without consulting the Quilmes people, the rightful owners. The land was then leased to a business man named Cruz for ten years for $110 which he didn’t pay. He actually built a hotel with a swimming pool on the grounds without consent from the community or any impact studies. It’s now closed and in legal contention. The site remained closed for some time but the Quilmes community decided to reopen it to visitors, thus benefiting the community. The hotel remains closed.


On our return we visited a small village with mud brick houses, and a little ceramic workshop. We drank maté with the owner while discussing his way of life and his craft which he learned from his mother.

Maté is the country’s obsession. It’s a tea drink made from the herb yerba maté. It’s unusual to see a group of Argentineans on a bus or trip or bunched together without at least one thermos flask full of hot water amongst them. The person with the flask carries the cup, which is also called the mate and fills it up with the yerba and adds hot water. You usually drink the tea out of a sliver straw with perforated ends so only the tea and no herb gets into the straw. The first person drinks the tea and it’s refilled with water and passed to the next person, everybody shares the same cup and straw. The tea can be refilled many times, usually until the water runs out. If you don’t want another round of tea you say ‘gracias’ when you’re finished drinking and hand the cup back to the host. It tastes a little like herby green tea, but they add lots of sugar so it’s way to sweet for us, if we have to accept any we’re quick with our ‘gracias’ in returning the cup. As an avid tea drinker I wholly commend this practice- although the sharing of the straw is a little gross, especially in these times of swine flu!

After our trip to the ruins we checked out the local museum named Pachamama, who is mother earth. People pray to Pachamama for a good harvest or present offerings to her in appeasement. Even with the acceptance of Catholicism throughout South America, Pachamama is still important and prayed to.

This museum was pretty impressive with an array of beautiful rocks from the surrounding countryside, including quartz, gold and marble. It also gave an example as to what the houses at the ruins would have looked like when the 5000+ Quilmes people lived there.

The museum grounds are beautiful with pebble pictures depicting some of the traditional indigenous pictures and symbols.

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Argentina- Viva Vino!

The drive from Santiago, Chile to the border with Argentina was spectacular. As we looked from the bus window, winding roads and snow capped mountains raced by.
At one point we passed a ski resort where the road wound beneath the chair lift giving us an amusing view of legs and skis in the sky above. Our first indicator that we were approaching Argentinean territory was of a faded battered transparent flag; thankfully not an indicator of things to come.

Mendoza

Our first stop was the city of Mendoza. We got a nice heated room in Hostel Independencia and boy did we need it; unfortunately our summer days are behind us. It’s a really pretty city and thankfully cheaper than Chile. We chilled out for the first day or so, sampling the local cuisine and wine, while viewing the city. Mal quickly became obsessed with Argentina’s empanadas, after being somewhat disappointed with the salty dry Chilean variety. Empanadas are little pies with various different fillings, the most common being meat. We actually can’t walk past a stall or shop selling them without him buying a few.

The next order of business of course was to get serious about the wine. The region around Mendoza produces 70% of the country’s wines, hence a tour was in order; and what better way than on a ‘Bikes and Wine Tour’? For $4 each we arrived at the office, were given a glass of wine and some empanadas, a route map and the low down on the best wineries to visit and sent on our merry way, with bike break-down service available if needed. There was a 22km circuit to bike including: a museum, a chocolate factory, an olive farm and eleven vineyards! We had no idea; otherwise we would have arrived at nine am!

We biked to the furthest vineyard, a small family affair and caught the tail end of a $4 tour, so we ended up sampling the wines first (not such a bad thing!) with the big group, thus having a private tour of the vineyard where we learned a lot about wine. Time was racing past as we quickly popped into the olive factory and picked up a few jars of goods; one jar of black olive tapenada, one green jar and a jar of sun dried tomatoes, all made on site. They were delicious; we scoffed them down with freshly baked bread for days afterwards- yummy.



The next winery we stopped at on recommendation of some other drunken cyclists was another small one, which still used the traditional vaults to store and make the wines and which looked amazing. We samples four wines here and were impressed with one of the bottles, so we bought it and definitely enjoyed it over dinner a few nights later. There was only time for one more bigger winery before we discovered to our horror that we hadn’t changed our watches back an hour when we entered Argentina (two days before!!) and had to be back in 30mins. Can you believe that for two days we had the wrong time!? I guess you can, we’re pretty laid back at this stage of the holiday, and with a glass of wine with lunch and dinner- what difference does time make?

Unfortunately on the last day or two in Mendoza things began to shut down due to the efforts to contain Swine flu, which was beginning to sweep through the country. Buenos Aries was under containment and the lockdown was heading to the western side of the country. So things were pretty quiet. We were worried we may actually get trapped there so we bussed it up to Cordoba for our next stop off as soon as we could.

Cordoba

We discovered the joys of the ‘cama’ busses on our overnight trip to Cordoba. The busses are double-decker luxury, depending naturally on how much you pay. A regular bus is the cheapest, next is the ‘semi-cama’ (cama means bed), where the chairs recline quite far, but not as much as in ‘cama’. Cama also includes a meal and drinks service- and depending on price, the drinks can be whiskey or champagne! We slept well over the 12hr ride arriving in the morning to the beautiful city of Cordoba.

Cordoba is absolutely packed full with churches, universities and museums. It was named the cultural capital of the Americas in 2006, so you can guess what I’m on about!

We probably spend too much time there, but when the ice-cream’s that good and every corner produces a new café beside another stunningly beautiful church, what can you do?

We took a day trip from the city to the town of Alta Gracia. This is the childhood home of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, which is now a museum and kept us entertained for a few hours.

There are hundreds of photos from his life and the legendary motorcycle from his infamous trips around South America, chronicled in his ‘Motorcycle Diaries’. The museum was actually visited by his revolutionary ally and friend Fidel Castro, with a whole room dedicated to photographing the appointment.

Since we arrived in South America we’ve mainly been in cities, so we’re looking forward to heading up to Northern Argentina into the countryside to get a taste for something different. And we don’t even mind the overnight journey, guess which bus we’ve booked?

Chile- We're in South America!

Santiago

6^th of July and we arrive in Santiago, Chile at 12pm jetlagged. We never crossed the International Date Line before, so maybe that had something to do with it, but the minute I got to the hostel I slept through until evening and still later had a good nights sleep! Chile definitely felt different to anywhere we’ve been before; we instantly knew we were in South America. It’s not like landing in Shanghai, Seoul, Hong Kong or whichever huge Asian city, where the shiny newness blends everything together and if someone told you that you were in Frankfort you might believe them- architecturally of course. Looking out the bus window from the airport to town (between protesting eyelids) everything looked old and dusty. Even the people looked weather beaten as if they’d just descended from their mountain hut rather than their city home. Of course this could be due to the route the bus took as we later discovered the heart of the city is a cosmopolitan place.

It has a rich inheritance from the Colonial age with beautiful buildings lining the city alleyways making a change to the Asian skyscrapers. We liked what we saw. Everyone warned us about the notorious pickpockets and advised us to watch ourselves at every turn, but the more we walked the city the more relaxed our tense grip on the money belts became. But we’ve been on the road nine months at this stage and not even our wedding rings look shiny and new; I don’t think anybody will be bothering us!

Our next stop was a town called Valparaiso just under two hours from Santiago, the Galway of Chile. It’s a cool hip town, like what I’d imagine San Francisco looks like as it’s built against a mountain and you’ve to climb uphill to get anywhere and that included the hostel with our backpacks; never mind it’s all training for Peru!

The town was an important port in its heyday and they built acensores between 1883 and 1916 which are still in use today. These elevators are basically bucket carriages on steep rail tracks leading up to the houses built at a crazy angle and elevation to the sea. We did the walking tour visiting all the sites en-route, taking a few acensores while we were at it and loved the place.




The vibe is bohemian, the people are friendly and it’s a place you could stay a while, although your wallet won’t thank you. Chile is not that cheap, and while we were there Chile was in fact downright chilly! Moving on, next stop Argentina.

New Zealand- a whirlwind adventure

It’s June 22^nd and we arrive in New Zealand to the shocking cold. Thankfully for the next few days we don’t have to worry about accommodation, a great introduction to the country! Tonight we stay with our friends Anna and Robin who we met in Korea and then on to Christchurch to stay with another friend.

Anna and Robin and baby Belle, along with Anna’s sister Sarah, live in a suburb skirting the city, along with Phineas the cute dog. So in an already crowed house they were kind enough to make room for us and our luggage! We arrived shivering at their door just before 8pm and spent the next few hours chatting the night away- not whispering as Belle isn’t disturbed that easily! It was a year and a half since we saw them last and already we were looking forward to spending our last few days in NZ together.

But now it’s the next morning and we have a flight to catch to Christchurch with Air Pacific which we picked up for about $20 each- bargain! We had a quick peak around the city, stopped at a food court and had some amazing Indian food costing not much more than in India and tasting better with the peace of mind that we probably wouldn’t get diarrhoea!

We touched down in Christchurch around 4pm and made our way to Fidelma and Andrew’s place. Fidelma is a great friend of my sister Demelza and even thought I haven’t seen her in years and she’d never met Malachy she offered us her spare room. When I rang her in the morning she told us we’d probably arrive before she got home from work and the key was under the *______, oh and to talk to the dog before entering as she doesn’t like strangers. Molly is her name. After locating the key we heard a loud bang on the other side of the door. We looked at each other thinking the same thing, Oh my God is that the dog? Another trash against the door and we cheerily call out ‘hello Molly’- never show fear. Another loud bang…Molly, hi Molly lessening in confidence with every thump.

Did Fidelma mention how big the dog was?

No

I’m not opening it.

Neither am I!

Both thinking about the little café we passed down the road, but before we could mention it the door opened to our horror, but thankfully it was Andrew holding the gigantic Molly back by the collar. Introductions were made all around, for we hadn’t met Andrew before either, but he didn’t take as much coaxing as Molly. We were deep in conversation when Fidelma arrived, with Molly at my feet who I’d easily won over with a neck massage- just like Malachy after a row! She was so lovely and clean and warm, Molly that is, although Fildelma was equally so, adding a big Irish welcome and we all became instant friends. They cooked us a lovely meal and once again over a bottle of wine the evening ended too quickly. Myself and Mal spend the next day exploring the lovely Christchurch. It’s a big city but we didn’t see many people, maybe the cold kept them in doors? We visited the museum (the first of many in NZ), the incredible art gallery, cathedral, all the sites along with a shopping centre to buy some thermals and a jacket. We stayed one more night with Fidelma and Andrew, unfortunately as we were in such a homely environment we forgot to take even one picture, but we’ll rectify that over a few ‘bears’ when we meet again for Christmas.

Our bus tour to Queenstown took nearly nine hour, but it was amazing, passing stunning mountain scenery en-route. We sat right up in the front seats having a panoramic view accompanied by a wonderful commentary from the driver; he pointed out sites where some of the battle scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed, along with some local gossip from the filming.

We stopped at the stunning Lake Taipo mid-journey acquiring double views of the mountains through the mirror lake, beautiful. It was dark when we arrived in Queenstown but we weren’t worried as we’d booked a four star hotel to stay at for the next three nights on an amazing last minute deal- cheaper than a hostel! Our Rydges Hotel was located right on the lake giving us stunning views in the morning. We couldn’t believe our luck. We braved the cold and did the ‘Fern Hill Walking Loop’ into the mountains behind the hotel, it wasn’t the easiest and didn’t take us long to heat up over the next few hours! The winter festival opened in the town that night. Along with a nice fireworks display there was some bands on a stage in the square and lots of food stalls, although it wrapped up early- probably due to the freezing cold.

We braved the cold once again at 6.50am the next morning for our bus and boat tour to Milford Sound. Our bus had a glass roof so we wouldn’t miss any of the stunning scenery and the driver was a lovely man full of stories about his homeland. We learned the whole history of NZ, stopped at lots of beautiful sites and refilled our water bottles at a fresh water stream with the ‘elixir of life’, after having drank that water odds are in our favour for a long and healthy life. Which was just as well as we were to pass through a rough tunnel next and NZ was due an earth quake! We spotted some colourful Kea on two of our little stops.

We arrived at Milford sound for our ferry trip at 1pm. Our Captain was equally chatty and informative explaining the geographical location and formation of the Fjord which is not actually a sound. Amazingly for us we saw some dolphins leaping and swimming alongside the ferry for a time, some seals on the rocks and a waterfall which is higher than the Niagara Falls, but dwarfed in the landscape. There is nothing between Milford Sound and Antarctica. We lunched on board and retuned an hour and forty minutes later to our bus for the trip home.

We didn’t have time for skiing, but really we weren’t brave enough for the cold (a few days ago we were in Fiji).

Our next bus, dark and early at 7.30am was to Franz Joseph the home of the Franz Joseph Glacier. We stopped again many times along the way in lovely towns like Wanaka and another Mirror Lake. We had no trouble realising why NZ is called the land of the long white cloud as one remained with us most of the day, intermitted with fog and snow. We arrived in plenty of time to Franz Joseph to walk the 5km to the glacier park and up to the viewing point to get our first glimpse of the colossal ice cube. Pretty impressive, particularly as we read how it once covered the entire valley and could be seem from the local church.

The next day we hiked once more to the glacier had our packed lunches on site and circumnavigated our way back to town via some lovely walkways, spectacular. We stayed at our first hostel in NZ- Châteaux Franz Joseph, and we were impressed. Wow compared to Australia, this was a home! It was warm, we opted for an ensuite room, which was still cheaper than a dorm in OZ, and included delicious all you can eat home made veg soup in the evenings.

After our two days here we had a 9.30am (wow it’s bright!) bus to Nelson. This was a long day on the bus as we stopped a lot in dead end towns and for over an hour in one of them. But we also stopped for half an hour at the famous ‘Pancake Cliffs’ for a sprightly walk along this natural phenomenon, where the horizontal linear rocks have baffled geologists. We arrived after dark into Nelson and booked into the gorgeous Hostel Tasman for two nights. We were actually blown away with the incredible standard. Our room was small but cute. The commune areas were big and comfortable with armchairs everywhere and a fully equipped lovely kitchen. It’s run by people who have travelled and it shows. We highly recommend it. Oh and the best bit, at 8pm every evening there is free hot chocolate pudding and ice cream, and breakfast included.

We availed of the free bikes offered by the hostel the next day and cycled to the centre of NZ (about 500m from the hostel).




After hiking up and down to the ‘centre’ we cycled out the coast road to the WOW museum. This is a very cool museum, two designers had the idea of staging a different type of fashion show where instead of your regular material the models wear ‘wearable art’, there are various categories, with our favourite being the bizarre bra section, with the fun ‘a pair of hooters’- two owl heads. There was also a classic car collection on show which was impressive. We cycled back to town, called into the local museum and spent a relaxing evening sampling the delicious NZ Pinot Noir red wine.

Our next bus was to Picton, where we got a massive ferry through the beautiful picturesque Marlborough sounds to Wellington. We stayed at a dodgy hostel where there were more long term residences then travellers and the conversation in the kitchen ranged from two women talking about when they could see their kids again to a guy asking his girlfriend (who also worked on reception) if she would be going to prison after her day in court for assault. She wouldn’t be, but received a fine and community service, this conversation continued to the dining room and was taken up by the other residents who were having a little birthday party, discussing who had spent the most time in prison which was worse prison vs community service, and progressed on to the best drugs to help you pass the day or night. Charming company, we were glad we were just spending one night. We were enamoured with Wellington, for the first time we actually saw lots of people and they were all out and about. The restaurants were full, the shops displayed kitsch little outfits and it was all very reasonable. The most liveable place we’d seen in NZ. The following day we went to the Wellington museum which we were extremely impressed with until we visited the enormous Te Papa museum. Wow, we simply didn’t have enough time to look at everything and could have spent another day there, however we’d a flight to catch to Auckland so all is not lost.

We were collected at the airport by Anna and Robin which was brilliant and we sang NZ’s praises all the way home. Robin had just received his school holidays and Sarah was babysitting so we headed to Ponsonby, a hip part of town for a cool night out. Cooler still for Anna as her lovely jacket was stolen- on her first real night out since Belle’s birth. Needless to say the two of us were drunk on two glasses of wine- although that didn’t stop us from drinking a few more.




We were in bed before four and Anna was up again at six feeding Belle- ouch. Robin fed our hangovers on French toast as we planned the day or rather afternoon ahead. We toured around the city heading up to One Tree Hill and the Auckland Te Papa museum where we probably spent more time eating and chatting in the restaurant than looking at the displays, although we did manage to get some photos with traditionally dressed Maori. Our delicate heads weren’t able for too much excitement so we retuned to the house for a rest and later lots of pizza. We managed to recover enough to make it back out that night to an Irish bar called ‘The Dogs Bollocks’ where some local bands were playing.




It wasn’t too late when we got home so the next day we drove to town, snacked on sushi and took a ferry across the city, where we were caught in a rain shower and took refuge in a lovely café. We practiced holding and playing with Belle, she’s gorgeous and just looking at her is hours of entertainment! The day ended too quickly, time flies when you’ve so much to say so we ordered in Thai food and had a relaxing night in.

The next day we had lunch in a local restaurant and Anna, Robin and Belle dropped us at the airport as it was time to go to Chile!

We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our whirlwind adventure in NZ and would love to do it all again- except this time in the summer. We didn’t get to explore much of the North Island at all so I think another visit is looming. Such a pity it’s actually in the middle of nowhere!