It was a hot dry day (38C) for our drive south. After Salta we were in new territory that we hadn´t seen before. At first we went through tiny towns and had to watch out for chickens close to the road. Then we were out in the country, in a wide valley with mountains on either side. We saw tobacco growing, and fields with horses and cows. Gradually there was less and less vegetation...Then we were in a narrow canyon, with signs warning the road was sinuoso, and it was... twisting and winding; around corners there could be rocks on the road, or cows, or goats! The sides of the canyon became more and more colourful - red, brown, orange, ochre, and terracotta. Then we started to see shapes - some of them were named, with signage, and we stopped to take pictures at the amphitheatre, the frog, and the monk. Others we saw as we drove by: the castle and the obelisk. The late afternoon sun on the rocks was beautiful; the canyon bottom with the river flowing through became wider and wider... soon we saw vineyards and knew we were close to the town of Cafayate.
After settling into our hotel, a lovely low building with white walls, tile roofs, lots of stone and wood, meandering courtyards full of plants, and a pool, we set out for the plaza a block away. Around 8 p.m. we were sitting on the patio of a restaurant thinking how amazing it was to be eating outside in the middle of November... when we felt a drop of rain, then a few more, and then it really started to rain and it was a comical scene of diners picking up their plates and running into the restaurant, and waiters racing back and forth to move everything indoors.
We wandered in and out of a few stores, heading towards the internet cafe, which was in the direction of our hotel. We were in a candy store when the heavens really opened up and there was torrential rain, thunder and lightening, and then the power went out! It was pitch black - not one street lamp... we waited, but the storm wasn´t letting up, so we decided to make a dash for it - we had to wait for a car to come down the street, walk quickly until the light disappeared, then shelter in a doorway until another car came along! Crossing the street was like stepping into a river, but eventually we reached the hotel - pretty wet, and glad that we each had a little flashlight in our room!
Photo by Juan Ignacio (Flickr Creative Commons)
