Cachi

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Salta trip, Days 5 and 6: Cachi

We found a lovely hotel just around the corner from the main plaza, and soon found Cachi to be a delightful little place. Although it does get a lot of visitors, it doesn’t feel crowded at all and in fact it has a sleepy air that probably comes from its altitude.

Cecilia went for an exploratory wander while I sat at a table outside a little cafe on the plaza and did this sketch. At that point I decided I wouldn’t even try to sketch these mountains any more, because their magnificence was way beyond my meagre skills. But it’s enough to bring back the memory for me any time I look at it. That’s what my sketching is, by the way. Although I do share them in my blog and in my book, these images are really just for me. Taking the half hour or so to sketch a scene makes me really look at it, taking in details I would miss with a quick iPhone snap.

It’s a small world after all

We both needed cash, and we found that the “bank” was just a little room with two bank machines — and it seemed the entire population was lined up to get at them! Cecilia fell into conversation with an elderly man, Orlando, who told us he was holding a spot in line for his daughter, who would be along in a moment. He told us they were from Buenos Aires and were building a retirement home up here in Cachi. While doing so, they are living in a container. All I could think about was how on earth they got it up here, and Orlando told us quite casually that of course they brought it by truck up that winding road. I have no words.

Orlando’s daughter, Marisa, arrived and we were soon chatting to her. She told us she was a professor of history at the University of Buenos Aires, at the campus quite near where Cecilia lives in Olivos. Cecilia said she had a young woman staying with her at present, the daughter of a friend from Peru, who was in Buenos Aires to study at the university. Marisa said, “I have several Peruvian students in my class. What is her name?” Cecilia told her and — you guessed  it — she was in Marisa’s class! What are the chances of that? We were a thousand miles away, high up in the mountains, standing in line for the bank machine and we met someone who knew Cecilia’s guest. I took a photo of Cecilia and Marisa and we sent it to Nicole, who was totally gobsmacked! How’s that for a small world story?

They invited us to come to their container that afternoon and drink mate (pronounced matay) with them. Mate is a very popular drink in Argentina, made from a herb that is a mild stimulant. It’s a very sociable activity, as there is only one cup (also called a mate) with a silver straw called a bombilla (bombeesha). It’s passed around from person to person while the conversation is going on. Took me a few tries to get used to it, but now I love the mate ritual. Here’s a photo of us enjoying mate outside their red container.

Dinner

We found this lovely, cozy little local restaurant called Viracocha in time for dinner. The food was good and the service relaxed and charming. While we were there we met Mika, a delightful, friendly German woman traveling by herself, and arranged to have dinner together the following night in the same place.

Day 6

Another bright, clear, sunny, HOT day in Cachi. It’s one of those places you could wander around in for days, just breathing in the healthy air and giving your body and mind a break from the busy-ness of everyday living.

Cecilia’s friend, whom we had met in Salta, had a connection with the Automobile Club of Argentina, which had a beautiful club and restaurant on a hill looking down on Cachi, and she invited us to have lunch there. It gave us quite a different perspective on the town, and the only sounds around us were birds singing.

The previous day, Marisa had told us a strange story about Cachi. Apparently there is a long history of people reporting UFOs in the skies over Cachi and in the mountains surrounding it, so much so that they built a runway for them to land! No planes or helicopters land here, and as far as anybody knows neither has a UFO, but the strip is there anyway. No kidding, here’s a picture of Mika and me right on it. It’s a weird sensation walking on this deserted airstrip, built for who-knows-what to land who-knows-when!

Now I know I’m pretty obsessed about this, but I couldn’t help thinking that if we had caught even a glimpse of a UFO on that road it would have sent us right over the edge — literally as well as figuratively!

When we went back to Viracocha for dinner, we found Mika already ensconced with more new friends, this time a couple from Holland. Marisa, her husband Leandro and her father were also there, but elected to sit upstairs because the men wanted to watch “futbol” on television!

It was a lovely ending to our visit to Cachi, and I  hope to stay in touch with Mika and perhaps meet up with her again one day.

Back down the mountain

Having learned our lesson the hard way, we began our return trip very early in the morning. Sure enough, the weather was completely different, high blue skies and warm sunshine and not a sign of low hanging clouds. Now we could really appreciate the splendour of the mountain scenery, complete with llamas, mountain goats and other wildlife — including this lone bull standing right on the edge!

Being able to see the road like this, though, made us shudder to think how we had driven up it a couple of days before with visibility limited to the hood of the car!

We were happy to get back to Salta, check into a nice hotel near the plaza and have a relaxing evening before our flight back to Buenos Aires next day. It was an unforgettable trip into an incomparable landscape. I feel immensely privileged to have experienced the High Andes, despite the white knuckle mountain roads!

Now I’m back in Buenos Aires, which has its own beauty and allure, and I’m happily getting back into the social swing of the city.

 

 

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Salta Trip, Day 5: Cachi

Our time in the Province of Jujuy was now ending and we would drive back down past Salta into the small town of Cachi, which everyone had assured us was beautiful and not to be missed. I’ll insert a little map here with the time and distance, but as you’ll see as you read on, this was obviously for optimum weather conditions — we took a little longer!

We set off after breakfast, and as we took the highway back instead of La Caldera, we made good time back down past Salta. After stopping for a couple of empanadas for lunch, we were soon on the road to Cachi. I don’t know why, but for some reason because it was south of Salta, I assumed it wouldn’t be as mountainous as Jujuy. I had envisioned gentle slopes across rolling green meadows — kind of like Julie Andrew in The Sound of Music. Boy, was I wrong.

Again, as in Jujuy, the climb began slowly and the vegetation was lush and thick and dark green, but the road was already winding. It was lovely though, each turn in the road bringing another view, with the sun creating patterns in the green. Eventually, though, the vegetation thinned out and again the mountains were bare rock. And again, they were full of wonderful coloured patterns and jawdropping splendour.

Everybody had told us the road was beautiful, but nobody told us we should get onto it in the early morning because the afternoon weather could be iffy. As we drove ever upwards I noticed clouds on the higher peaks, and I hoped desperately that they wouldn’t come down as far as we were on the road. Unfortunately, they did.

You know when you’re in a plane and you fly through a cloud and you see absolutely nothing but white? Well that’s what we drove through! We couldn’t see anything in front of the car. We had to crawl along (up!) at about 10 miles an hour, and every so often a curved arrow sign would loom out of the whiteness warning us of a curve.

The road was just barely wide enough for two cars, and we did in fact meet traffic coming down — that was hair raising.

At one point we came to a place where they was a small lay-by on the right, which was covered in rubble. In the middle was the road, and on the left was the sheer drop — which we couldn’t see. Cecilia said, “I don’t know which way to go!” I could just barely see the rubble on my side and was able to guide her around the curve while staying on the road, but it was touch and go. I’ve never been so terrified in my life. And it just kept going up — and up — and up!

We had been on the mountain for at least two hours, when quite suddenly we broke through the cloud and onto slightly flatter terrain. Wonder of wonders, after quite a lot more curves, there in front of us was a straight road, no curves, a yellow line painted down the middle and lots of room for two cars passing each other!

This last part was lovely as we could relax a bit — although poor Cecilia was suffering from aching shoulders from urging the stick shift car up the road and fingers almost frozen to the wheel. But now it was meadows on either side of the road – and wildlife! We saw llamas and vicuñas, wild donkeys and goats. Wonderful!

On arrival in Cachi we literally ran into this herd of sheep and goats, which the farmer was trying to get into a field while they obviously preferred to surround our car! That made us laugh and broke any tension remaining from the mountain. We did, however, decide to stay in Cachi for two days instead of moving on to Cafayate, and when Cecilia suggested this I was vastly relieved. Now I could relax and enjoy Cachi.

Well, kind of. I actually didn’t sleep for two nights worrying about going back down the mountain!

I still have quite a bit to write about Cachi, including the most amazing “small world” story I’ve ever experienced. So I’ll finish this in tomorrow’s post. Stay tuned.