Dry and Dusty to Cachi !

After yesterday's less than thrilling intro to driving and navigating in Argentina we set off again leaving our ranch style motel aiming to make our way into the mountains and the Andean styled village of Cachi.

A quick check on Maps indicated that the 140km journey was going to take at least 3hours suggesting some challenging driving ahead (where's Henley when you need him !)

Day 2 got off almost as well as Day1 when a);I nearly entered a highway going up an exit ramp (no signage) and b) Monika wiped off the GPS display causing us to drive blind for a few minutes.

With the days quota of expletives already used things calmed down and other than an abundance of police checkpoints it was smooth sailing as we worked our way through numerous small dusty villages on to Route 33 to Cachi.

This 100 km segment was stunning as we climbed and climbed leaving our bitumen road going on to a dust bowl where we finally made the pass at a breath taking 3'500 metres

I must have had an oxygen depleted brain as I momentarily thought that this would be a great route to cycle !!

Heading down off the pass the bitumen returned as did another type of stunning scenery. Gone were the startling layers of red soil to be replaced by row upon row of gigantic Cacti . These can grow up to 10metres in height and painted the plateau as an incredibly dry and arid landscape.

Eventually we reached the delightful Andean styled village of Cachi - a sleepy village of white wall washed buildings against a backdrop of snow capped mountains one giant being over 6,300 metres tall !

Day 3 provides a real challenge to driver and car as we seek to drive off road to Cafayate across some startling red canyon like scenery - this time Google reckons our 150+ km journey will take upwards of 5 hours !!!
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