Argentina to Uruguay

We spent two weeks in Cafayate, the heart of Argentina’s white wine region. 
Apparently, wine tasting is a popular hobby.  

Only in Argentina

The local vineyards grow a great deal of grapes to make Torrontes, a crisp, fresh white that is wonderful. We visited a vineyard and sampled its wares.

While this sounds luxurious, we spent two weeks working on a new website and advertising campaign to change Smith Restoration Sash into SRS Hardware. The website should be up and running in July and ads will be appearing in all your favorite old house magazines soon!

We left some time for sightseeing in Cafayate. Who know there we bicycles built for three?!?

We need a third person!

The town has a wine museum where we put Justin to work

This is the WHUT? house 

We facing the South American winter which is less than ideal in a two-wheel drive rig with a broken heater, so we've decided to head to the UK and follow the nice weather (both weeks) and hit the continent after summer break.

We need to get Westy to Europe and our best shipping option is Montevideo, a huge port in Uruguay’s capital. We cut short the visit to Chile and Argentina, leaving plenty for another visit, and made a beeline for Uruguay. In case you are curious, the center of Argentina is the longest, flattest drive we’ve taken since crossing north Texas. These people really, really like to plant corn. This sign was a welcome sight

Montevideo is a much larger city than we realized but it has a nice coast line and park.

We took in the sites for only one day before heading up the coast. A few sights:

One of the last old houses on the street

Lighthouse near the Naval base

Justin found our tow car!

Half of Uruguay lives in Montevideo and the rest live in rural and agricultural areas. The country is well organized, clean and friendly. Heck, even their cows are well organized. 

Must be union cows....

The coastline is really lovely and reminiscent of New England with large rocks, long white sand beaches and good sized waves. Small boats dot the shorelines and they use small winches to pull them up the beach.

We camped along the shore for a few nights. Our propane tank is empty which is good because we are not supposed to ship it with propane. An empty tank means that we will be cooking dinner on the hibachi for a few weeks. Justin is good about making the fire for dinner, of course he gets plenty of help....

This is OSHA approved footwear, right?

Where the beach meets the Eucalyptus trees, families of small parrots live in large communal nests. They spend their days zipping overhead, chattering and bringing more sticks to their nest. They are very loud but very funny.  

The nest, with one little parrot entering the nest

We are spending four days at a Swiss owned campground, surrounded by German, French and Swiss retirees. Good practice for the European leg of the journey. Here we are preparing Westy for the long voyage and are packing for a month of hiking around Ireland. On April 28^th we fly to Dublin, next blog from the Green Isle! 

Great Salt Flat and Northern Argentina

We crossed into Argentina after only 25 minutes at customs (amazing!) and the smooth passage set the tone for days to come. Our visit coincided with the major holiday week of Semana Santa or Easter. All of Argentina is on vacation and so all the tourist areas felt festive and fun. First stop was the unplanned and wonderful Great Salt Flat. The natural resource is mined for table salt and local craftsmen uses the salt to carve statues of varying quality.

With a few inches of water, the flat reflects the sky like a mirror

The mining takes a few forms, they plow the surface like a parking lot or dig shallow troughs (see photo above for troughs)  for the salt crystals to collect.

Salt is dried under the sun and packed into bags. 

Justin harvested a little for our table.

There were signs about the strong sun and the locals take sun protection seriously.

I'm pretty sure we won't burn...

Next we toured the northwest region and the UNESCO site of  Quebrada de Humahuaca, a narrow and arid mountainous valley, flanked by the high plateau of the Puna and the woods to the east. Once populated by the Inca, it is a 155-kilometer natural north-south corridor. Two rivers meet along the corridor and provide water for agriculture and ceramics. It is famous for the amazing colors of the rock- minerals from the extinct sea floor turn the cliff walls green, violet, grey blue and brick red. 

The erosion cliffs are over 100 feet tall

Typical slice of cliff with all colors

Red hues dominate in this section of the mountains.

You can see how the "Mountain of 40 Colors" got its name 

We finally left the tropics, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn. 

We decided the tropic needed better public relations or a spot on "Tropic Makeover." The Tropic of Cancer and Equator both have signs, non-profit promoters and super photo opps. Poor Capricorn had a sun dial, missing hour markings and a lone goat. Just sayin' it deserves better. 

How do you tell time with no hour indicators!!!

At least someone was working for snacks...I mean tips......












Turning further south, we headed to Argentina's famed Route 40 and white wine region. Needless to say, Melanie is anticipating a nice month there...

High desert in Northern Chile

Fellow travelers warned us that parts of northern Chile could be a tad boring...

Guess we really don't need the GPS here. 

 It got a little more interesting as we passed the military bases...

Just keep swimming....

We stopped over in the City of Iquique, which was unremarkable except for this GIANT sand dune looming over the city. It dwarfed the high rises and neighborhood below. We almost drove off the road trying to take it all in. 

Those are high rise buildings below the dune

Heading for the high desert we went seeking snow capped mountains and the Geysers del Tatio. 

Sunset in the high desert. 

The desert features the one of the highest geyser fields in the world. Geysers del Tatio is a geothermal field at 14, 1110 feet, high in the Andes mountain range. The fumaroles of these geysers are produced by the high temperatures of their watery craters and offer a unique view in the desert. We camped at the El Tatio Geysers Park. While it was very cold, the geysers are most active in the dawn so we hauled out of bed at 5:30 am (brutal!) and walked the geyser fields. 

The field as day breaks

This geyser burst every few minutes, spewing hot water and deliciously warm steam 

 

Did we mention, it was cold??

We found a small natural lake teeming with Vicuna, flamingos and ducks. It seems incongruous that what we thought of as tropical birds, live in high altitude, cold places. 

We spent two days camping in the remote area, hiking, exploring some volcanic rock formations and settin' stuff on fire. 

Home sweet home

Large rocks of magma with burst volcano behind

The volcanic field was large enough that clever shepherds used them to make night pens for llamas and sheep. We had fun checking out the stone huts and pens.

Melanie is at the very top of the rocks.

Oh, and we finally let the Chinese lantern go. 

At least we won't start a forest fire here...

Night time was cold enough to freeze and burst the water tank's ball valve. In the morning, Justin noticed the tank was leaking precious water in the desert. Panicked at the thought of losing the hot shower, we brought the valve to the town's small hardware store hoping against hope for a replacement.  

The store had an exact replacement and 

viola! High altitude repair complete! 

Taking photos is really, really helpful. 

Because Chile and Argentina are long and narrow, we will heading south via a zig zagging east-west route touring both countries. So, the land of wine and cheese is is next...

Colca Canyon and Arequipa in So. Peru

We headed south toward the famed Colca Canyon. The canyon is popular for its amazing views and the prevalence of condors that live near its high walls. Condors were sacred to the ancient indigenous population (bringing the spirits of the recently deceased up to the gods in the sky). Condors are so large they can not launch themselves from the ground and need the updraft from currents and thermals to start soaring and once underway, they soar so high, you can hardly see them. We spent two days camping on the cliff edge waiting for the fog to clear...

Amazing view off the cliff no??

We did catch sight of a condor in the afternoon, right behind Justins head. 

 so close we almost missed it...

Getting a little closer to the birds, we met this fella walking down the road after a hunt with his domesticated Eagle. Justin met him up close.

We traveled further south and toured the small city of Arequipa. Arequipa is home to one of the largest and most prestigious convents in the country. Back in the day, wealthy families sent second or third daughters to Santa Carolina as novitiates at ages 12-14. This gave the family someone devout to pray for the family's continued success and saved a fortune on marriage dowries.

Novitiates had to spend the first year praying and reflecting in their room for 23 hours per day with the door closed but with the window open so the supervisor could watch them.



Each girl could spend one solitary hour walking in  this enclosed garden under the supervisors watch. Sound familiar??

Space for free time....

After one year, the girls would take their orders and become full members of the convent. While they never stepped outside the convent walls again, they were allowed to have personal servants, work with fellow nuns and families could visit, with strict limits. Servants did the cooking and washing and remained enclosed behind convent walls as well. 

Early water bubbler, volcanic rock is the
filter with pure water dripping below 

Kitchen in a private room. 

 The convent created an ingenious washing machine system using clay water jugs and gravity. Each half jug had a dedicated spout and when you needed to fill your jug for laundry, just plug the common spout and let your jug fill. When full remove the rock and the spring flowed to the next jug. Laundry must have been a breeze!

Despite Melanie's harrumphing about the convents recruitment 

practices, the building was beautiful and peaceful. 

We visited an Alpaca and Textile museum. Alpaca World featured live animals, fiber sorting and weaving demonstrations. Peru has the most beautiful and intricate weaving we've seen. 

This little fella is only 3 days old!
Same "unimpressed" facial expression as his mother...

Traditionally women learn fiber sorting from their mothers. 

All sorting is done by sight, separating shorn fibers 

based upon fiber quality, length and color.

Yes, there are two women working in this huge pile....

 

Weavers use berries and seeds to naturally color the fibers

She is weaving 12 colors and all four sides of the fabric are finished. 

Finishing up Southern Peru, we turned our sights to Chile. Northern Chile is next!