Date of Entry: January 5th 2016

Date of Writing: January 14th 2016,  Hostel Empedrado, Mendoza, Argentina

Frustrated by the lack of options for good tours that don’t involve an endless amount of time in the bus, I’m thrilled when I meet Yann and Mari from Germany and Georgia Respectively.  They too have booked a tour and had a much worse experience than I did and so they are interested in potentially renting a car and looking for people to lower the costs.  I’m in, without a question, thoughI sadly can’t offer to help drive since Canada has way too many automatic’s and I haven’t yet properly learned how to drive Manual transmission, which is definitely a goal for the next time I’m back in Canada.

We spend the night before talking deep into the night and wake up the next morning Yann and I heading out into town to find a rental car.  We end up paying extra for a international company who we trust, In the end I’m not sure it was worth it as we paid about 1150 ARS (120 CAD per day) with Alamo on Buenos Aires Street when some of the local companies we’re offering cars as low as 750 ARS (80 CAD per day)  though of course having extra security in case something goes wrong is always a good idea in the mountains.  Want to see the car?  It’s not much to look at but it kept us safe and alive through some sketchy moments (soon to come on the blog) and I’m glad of that.

We head back to Hostel Salta Por Siempre, pack up our stuff and walk back to the car rental place picking it up at 2 pm and heading out of the city immediately, hoping to make it to the town of Cachi by the end of the day.

The road out of Salta is simple enough and soon enough were well and truly out in the country side reaching the small town of El Carril and taking a right on to the road to Cachi which rises up to over 4000 meters in the Andes before we’ll reach our final destination.  Yann and Mari are both awesome people so the time passes quickly as we chat away the time until the scenery starts to grow more and more impressive, starting with a sudden burst of butterflies, I’m talking biblical plague level, though sadly photos don’t really capture the tiny white creatures committing mass suicide as the try to cross the road.

We drive on the road starting to wind up a bit higher into the Andes and eventually make our first real stop just after crossing an impressive looking bridge.  I quickly pop pout of the car to take some photos of the incredible scenery all around us before we climb back into the car and quickly pass through a platoon of horses doing there best to occupy the entire road.

We continue along the road varying from paved to good gravel and back again, the drive passing quickly thanks to all the incredible scenery the Andes have to offer and us chatting away to each other as we drive sharing world views, travel stories and everything in between.

Eventually we come to our next unscheduled stop (ah the glory of having your own car)  At a small cemetery built into the side of the mountain and covered in bursts of colour from countless flowers laid on the graves.

As we get higher the scenery grows less green, cactuses replacing trees for the most part and the mountains seem to grow more colourful too, flashing brilliant hues of red and yellow all around us.  It’s not something I’m used to saying even after one day exploring with the tour, and it’s very impressive.  We take advantage of the car again, stopping a few times for more photos and quiet moments spent alongside the barely trafficked road enjoying the natural quiet of the Andes mountains.

None of us have eaten lunch and we’re all getting pretty hungry so As Yann drives us down into a valley and we see a small roadside dinner complete with captive llamas and a german shepherd as a jailor we stop and grab a quick bite to eat, snapping more photos of the incredible scenery all around us, and feeling bad for the poor lamas who are dealing with a maniac of a dog hounding and harrying them around their pen.  The poor silly animals can’t seem to figure out that one properly placed kick would send the dog running.

We eventually climb back into the car and start one last ascent, eventually climbing to over 4000 meters.  Unfortunately the fog rolls in making the driving stressful for Yann, the views mostly shrouded and the pictures few and far between.

After driving in the heavy fog for over an hour we finally emerge to bright sunlight in a huge high altitude plain covered in scrub plants and not much else, until we see a group of what I thought were Vicuna’s but turn out to be the slightly bigger Guanaco.

As we reach the far end of the Altiplano we stop at a lookout to the slightly lower plains which stretch on ahead of us.  The three of us  climb out of the car and quickly climb up the rocky hills for better views, cresting the peak and revealing a stunning seemingly endless landscape below us, highlighted by strange coloured pyramid like rock formations in the distance at the edge of the fog lines.  A French/ Swiss couple shows up in there own car so we even get some pictures of the three of us.

The next step is probably pretty easy to imagine, heading back to the car and continuing down the long straight road as seen in the photographs above.  As we keep driving the colour of the mountains to our left and the sheer number of cactuses all around us force another stop for lots more photos, and we also spot some more guanaco’s who watch us nervously from a distance.  Tiny yellow flowers grant the dry plain colour to pair with the multi coloured stone of the incredible Andes.

We eventually keep going, heading down slowly and eventually taking the turn off to the left through a small town just a few km away from Cachi.  It’s not well marked so we stop at the crossroads and find someone to ask.  All the locals are super friendly and it’s so nice travelling in a country where I can speak the language to some level of decency.  Soon enough we’re back on the road pulling into Cachi about a half hour later.

We park the car and walk up towards the centre of town looking for a place to stay.  At the far right end of the first street you come to with restaurants and such there is the cheap option, a hostel charging 90 pesos a night, but we decide we want a private room and end up finding a triple a half block past that intersection and a half block before reaching the main square for 550 Pesos.  It claims wifi and while there is a connection I wouldn’t count on doing anything at all substantial while driving through these mountains, the connections are very slow.

Together we head out to the main square walking around town looking for a place to eat dinner and eventually settling on a restaurant with a plaza patio and tasty steaks.  It’s a nice hearty meal after our first day on the road, and tomorrow holds plenty more excitement.