Parrots and hamsters on Ruta 40

We left Tafi del Valle four days ago and followed the road towards Salta. It heads North East out of town and crosses the mountains behind Tafi at their lowest point - El Infiernillo (little hell) - at over 3,000m before swooping down into another valley and reaching the town of Amiacha.

Amaicha sits in the Valle Calchaqui between two mountain ranges with peaks almost 5,000m high to the East and West. There´s a sign in the Plaza de Armas that tells visitors that the town has a population of 5,000, lies 1,987m above sea level, and gets 360 days of sunshine each year. On a bright Saturday afternoon you couldn´t imagine a nicer place to be.

Having spent the night in Amaicha we rolled downhill to join up with the Ruta 40 once again. Not far from the main road are some Pre-Incan ruins which we visited. The stone walls and paths built into the hillside are the remains of a settlement belonging to the Quilmes Indians dating back to 800AD. The ruins themselves have been restored but the area feels really unspoilt, so you´re able to get a feel of what life must have been like for the people that lived there. From the very top of the ruins the views across the valley were incredible.

We left Quilmes and set our sights on Cafayate, Argentina´s second biggest wine town after Mendoza. The Ruta 40 passes through some beautiful little villages on the way and we were easily lured into one of the bodegas by the side of the road for a mid-afternoon wine tasting session. The road to Cafayate was flat and fairly easy going (except for a few bits towards the end of the day when the wind got up) and the views down the valley were breathtaking. Brightly coloured layers of rock in the distant mountains looked awesome in the late afternoon sun. We saw wild hamsters running between burrows by the side of the road, and lots of bright green parrots swooping overhead. There was the usual smell of decaying road kill on the wind from time to time but we´ve got the knack of holding our breath when we see a carcass approaching...

 

Cafayate in Autumn is quite beautiful. The leaves are turning on the trees and the vines and the town pops up out of the scrub of the valley (where nothing grows except wirey bushes and the kind of comedy cactus you find on the menu of any self-respecting Tex-Mex restaurant) like an oasis. As you come into town it´s hard to miss the main square and we sat and rested our aching limbs there, watching the world go by for a few hours before finding a place to sleep for the night. 

The next day we got up and decided to go and explore the Rio Colorado that lies about 5km out of town. We were expecting a fairly tame stroll through some woods to the big waterfall that everyone tries to find, but it turned out that the walk was not for the faint-hearted. In fact by most people´s definition it wasn´t a walk. Almost immediately we found ourselves having to clamber over enormous boulders and hang on to rocky ledges for dear life in order to follow the river up into the mountains. Luckily we had a guide to help us out along the way, and we saw some incredible waterfalls. The swimming was not for the faint-hearted either. Aparently the best months for swimming in the waterfalls are December to February. After that the water gets a bit chilly, so we decided to stick to paddling...