This spot was amazing, we found it along the way to Cafayatte. Garganta del Diablo means the "throat of the devil". The mountains have natural cut out areas created by the rivers and snow melt off in the Andes. This cut out was especially picturesque because it formed a huge gorge space and canyon. We hiked up inside of the space until we reached the back wall. Incredible!
This town was even smaller than Cafayatte, but is also a tourist stop along the winery route. It was quite a challenge to get to however. It took us 5 and 1/2 hours on dirt roads that were very curvy and had no guardrails on the edge of the mountains. We stayed in a very pretty hotel on the edge of town. We went into the cathedral that is entirely made of cactus wood, because it is the only thing available to build within that part of the country. It is a very rural area with a lot of mud homes with bamboo roofs, built on the side of the road and down in the river valley.
This small town is known for its wineries. We visited 2 wineries for tastings and wandered around the town. We stayed in a quaint hotel with a beautiful patio space in the center.
We continued traveling past the mountains and down into an old lake bed that is now salt flats. They were unlike anything we have seen before. They were dry and extremely windy. The cut out areas are where they mine the salt. They cut away chunks and carry them by truck to mills to make salt. The ground cracks naturally into pentagon and hexagon shapes. It was a very interesting space.
This area of the country is called "Colorado" for its amazing mountains--there are seven colors visible in the rock formations of this area. We took a long drive in the mountains and enjoyed the amazing coloration.
Tilcara is a small town in the north region of Jujuy, which is known for its markets with local artisans and crafts. There is a pre-Colombian settlement outside of town that had been excavated and shows the original foundations of some of the buildings.
San Lorenzo was a small city outside of Salta. We went on a horseback ride for 3 hours, called a calbalgata. We had our own guide, a gaucho (the name for cowboys in Argentina), his name was Omar. We rode through the mountains and hills and could see the two towns from a distance. It was really neat experience.
We traveled to the northwest region of Argentina. We rented a car and drove around many of the most picturesque regions of this country. We photographed many of the areas to show the vast coloration of the landscape and the diversity of the culture. Salta is known for its spicier food and access to the mountain regions for tourists. We stopped off in many small towns and stayed in several places along the way. In Salta, we enjoyed their multiple cathedrals, painted quite elaborately, and the cable car ride to the top of the mountain. The weather is quite different than BA, because it is much hotter and drier. The vegetation and the terrain looked very much like a combination of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico to us.
