We crept out in the early morning to the pick up truck waiting for us. Before setting off we picked up the fourth person of our tour, a chatty abuelita called Melia, and started to make our way to Calchaquies Valley.
Our convoy rapidly whisked us into the Argentine countryside and we found ourselves surrounded by amazing coloured rocks and mountains.
The arid scenery provides an ideal habitat for cacti which are scattered all over the mountains. We learnt that a cactus can only grow if the grain finds its way under a "nursery plant" which shields it during its first five years of growth!
We made rapid progress, only halting for picture stops in order to capture the incredible views.
The whole experience was breathtaking: the winding roads brought us up in altitude actually making us feel the lack of oxygen.
Our highest stop was at the Piedra del Molino at 3457m (quite windy).
We stopped midway for lunch in the small and beautiful village of Cachi and made it early to the ranch, our home for the night. The huge house was lost in the midst of stunning nature providing us with a true rural experience.
Cécile and Capucine attempted to convince Flora to go for a horseback ride. She accepted to go and see the horses but then she whisked Capucine up into her frenzy and they decided they would rather stick to stroking donkey foals. So instead we all settled on going for a long country walk.
Once back at the ranch, we started feeling peckish and weren't quite sure how or where we were going to eat. While waiting for a solution to magically appear, we felt we needed some intellectual activity so we all sat on the front porch to read in the setting sun.
Berta, our host, came to the rescue and offered to cook us dinner. We gratefully and gleefully accepted and were even happier when steaming dishes of various Argentinian delicacies were set in front of us. However, once dessert arrived we were slightly less enthusiastic...
This substance resembles marmalade but is served with nuts not bread. Capucine and Cécile went local and ate it all (Capucine even claimed to appreciate it) but Flora only swirled it around her plate unconvincingly.
It seems that radiators don't exist here in northern Argentina and when bed time arrived we piled on the layers: 3 bed covers, leggings, sweatpants, two pairs of socks, tshirts, fleeces and it was still our coldest night yet!
This morning we woke up feeling equally frozen but the smell of warm toast helped us to make it out of bed and to the breakfast table (however we did skip the shower after realising that it would only spurt water that was even colder than our toes). We felt like naughty children when the marmalade was served again! But we liked it much better with toast and we soon set off for more amazing scenery.
Half along the track we had to play wonderwomen when we came across this car....
Okay fine - we stood and giggled. But Mario our driver and guide, actually saved them and pulled them out. Check out this action shot:
We stopped for lunch in Cafayate - the largest town in the Calchaquies Valley. Mario recommended a restaurant where we indulged in three ginormous steaks, purée de papas, papas fritas (and don't fret mothers, we also had a salad to compensate for all the chocolate and ice creams we've had on this trip). Full and content we decided to share the leftovers of our feast with these cuties who had been staring at us and dribbling on Cecile's bag during the entire meal. And as if a shared litre of beer wasn't enough Flora and Capucine decided to go for some coca leaves (locals use it for its capacity to cure altitude sickness). Much to our disappointment no pink elephants on parade made their appearance; the girls got giggly but there's absolutely no guarantee it had anything to do with either substance or even the altitude. Flora rapidly declared she felt like she had toilet paper in her mouth and accepted defeat. She elegantly spat out the lump of wet leaves. Capucine, set out to succeed, stuck out the whole recommended two hours, again claiming to enjoy the experience (practically a local that one!).
Tonight is Flora's last night so we've had a girly evening in chatting and giggling away anything we may have forgotten to mention in these weeks as a team!
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