Tues 19 Jan. Cachi to Cafayate is 165km and takes about 5 hours. Set off down the Calchaquíes Valley after breakfast. From Cachi, we took RN 40 south past Brealito to Molinos, a 17th-century town of adobe homes and dusty streets virtually unchanged from how it must have appeared 350 years ago. And on to Cafayate.
This statue bids you farewell to Cachi on the road south
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Molinos (116 Km from Cafayate) Village in the Calchaquí Valley that is very attractive due to its historical parish church built in 1659. We stopped to admire the church.
The on via Angastaco and San Carlos, through the Quebrada de las Flechas (Arrows Ravine), with its stunning rock formations, which appeared in The Empire Strikes Back. And finally arriving in Cafayate.
Cafayate was founded in 1840 by Manuel Fernando de Aramburu, at the site of a mission. It is the main city in the district of Cafayate and has become the most important site in the Calchaquí Valleys. Located at 1,660 m above sea level , it has about 12,000 inhabitants.
Stayed at the Hotel Portal del Santo. It was very cheap, but represented good value for money. Portal del Santo can be seen on TripAdvisor and the hotels own web site. This small hotel is 600 yards from the main plaza. It is managed by the owners, a couple of Argentineans even older than us! It had a small pool, and fairly basic bedroom and bathroom, but nevertheless a perfectly agreeable place to stay.
We had dinner in town the second night, the first night we just went to bed carrying our upset stomachs. The Portal del Santo Hotel does not have a restaurant. We chose the Restaurante Colorado, which was just off the plaza. Run by an American couple, and we enjoyed the meal, even though our tummies had still not really recovered from our bout of diarrhea that we had picked up at Cachi. They offered, as well as food, wine flights where we could try different types of wines made in Cafayate
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Wed 20 Jan: Cafayate. By now we had caught up with our original schedule, and had a second night at Cafayate. The day was spent in and around Cafayate. To keep things together I have put all Cafayate information on this page, as we, through hotel problems at Tafi, ended up spending another 2 nights at Cafayate in a different hotel
Thurs 21 Jan. The following morning we drove on to Tafi del Valle