Cafayate - Cachi

So I chickened out. I could have tried to get directly to Cachi from Cafayate, but there's a 50km stretch which I would have had to hitch or get a taxi, and the bus timings would have meant it would have taken me at least two days, so I took the easy route, back through Salta.

While I was in Salta the first time, I actually tried to hire a car with a couple of people to do a similar route. I don't have my driving licence with me for some stupid reason, I mean, what does it matter if it gets lost or stolen? Anyway, to my surprise, the guy in the hire place said I could take a car, without my licence, and the police would be ok and everything so long as I had my licence number. So I emailed Mum for my real licence number, despite our doubts that they would be able to tell, and went back to the hire place. There was a different guy there, who curtly told us that there were no cars available. So we went to another place where we were told in no uncertain terms that I would need my licence. However, he advised us that the best thing we could do would be to report my licence as lost or stolen to the police, and that way he could pretend that he'd seen it and let us have a car.

I think that Cafayate might have been my favourite place so far. I'm not sure why, maybe it just reminded me of Steyning :) It was small and quiet, great walks and fantastic weather.

The fantastic walk was along a river to a waterfall. We knew that we were walking to a waterfall but of course not how big it was or what it looked like. After the allotted hour's walk the sides of the hills either side of us got more and more like cliffs until we eventually came across a small waterfall and could go no further. We sat, bitterly disappointed. Then this guy just walked straight past us along some invisible path, so we continued, all be it a little slower, and the waterfalls kept getting more and more impressive, and I really enjoyed the rock climbing we had to do at the end.

Cachi is also nice, and a lot smaller. The cemetery is recommended for its views, but for me it was the cemetery itself that was amazing, it's the sort of place that I've only ever seen on TV.