Cafayate-Salta-Buenos Aires

Crazy rock formations on Ruta 40

Joel, Jeffrey, and Keenan walking into the Quebrada

Salta in the evening

Buenos Aires looking like Paris

Steve planned a secret excursion for everyone the day after the wedding.  It turned out we were going to Colomé, which has the highest vineyards in the world!  A bus picked us up in the morning, and we drove ~4 hours up Ruta 40, which was mostly a bumpy, sandy dirt road, with absolutely breathtaking scenery.  The rock formations were absolutely unique – layers of rock that looked like they’d been violently upheaved, insane colors, and llama farms at the bottom of the valley.

When we arrived in Colomé, we immediately took a tour of the James Turrell museum on the premises.  The museum was really fantastic – mind-bending exhibits using light to distort perceptions.  We all wondered why this amazing museum was in the middle of nowhere (in fact, 4 hours from nowhere).  It was fantastic.  Afterwards, we had a great 4-course lunch at the onsite restaurant, followed by a tour of the winemaking facility.

Kristen’s family left the next morning, but not before Barbara baked us a wedding cake.  She realized she forgot to bake us her famous chocolate cake on our wedding day, so she woke up extra early and baked it from scratch before they left!

After Kristen’s family left, it was just the 6 of us.  I promptly came down with the flu, and so missed out on the activities for the next couple of days – everyone went to the ruins at Quilmes, and hung out around town.  After my second morning of misery, I was finally feeling well enough to leave the house.  And so it was serendipitous that Kristen came running in saying “feeling better?  We’re going to go on an ATV trip, get your clothes on!”.  Kristen, Cara, Keenan, and I rode ATVs up to Yacochuya and in the surrounding hills.  It was a blast.

The next day, we packed up and made the drive to Salta.  Since my family was zonked out and slept on the way down, we planned to do all the sightseeing possible – including some short hikes into the hills, the Garganta del Diablo, the Anfiteatro, and lots of other picture-taking opportunities.  Our driver stopped at some place Kristen and I had not yet been, and which now may be our favorite spots in the Quebrada.

Salta was pretty relaxing.  We stayed at the Sheraton, which has a gorgeous pool and a nice view of the entire city, so we ended up spending both of our afternoons at the pool.  The issue otherwise was that there wasn’t that much else to do.  Mostly we shopped a bit and ate.  Keenan and Cara found what they wanted, though – a cow skin rug, and a street market where everything was $5 and crazy.

After Salta, we flew to Buenos Aires for 2.5 days.  We had booked an AirBnB apartment in Palermo Soho, our favorite neighborhood.  We spent the first afternoon/evening just walking around town, through Palermo, Recoleta, and Retiro.  Everyone commented on how Parisian the place looked.  That night, however, Keenan started feeling sick again and had to go to the hospital, where he stayed for several hours.  He came back to the apartment around 5am, though, thankfully feeling a bit better.  The next day we woke up early (though Keenan wasn’t yet feeling well enough to join us), and went to the Recoleta Cemetery and to walk around San Telmo.  We spent the afternoon back in Palermo, and had a great seafood dinner (a welcome change) in Palermo Hollywood.

The following day, Kristen and I headed for the airport back to Salta in the morning, while the rest of the family enjoyed BA.  In all, it was really great to have everyone in town, and to show them the sights, sounds, and tastes of where we have chosen to live for 6 months.  I hope they enjoyed being here as much as we enjoyed having them here!

Buenos Aires + Salta

Kristen at Recoleta cemetery

Jeff in Plaza 9 de Julio in Salta

We landed in Buenos Aires on the morning of December 10 to 90 degree weather – a far cry from the New York winter.  After taking a cab to our hotel, we napped for a while and hit the streets.  The first day in a new country is always weird.  My Spanish was pretty rusty, and we didn’t really understand how things worked.  We were super thirsty, but couldn’t buy water because we had no pesos and there was no ATM at the airport.  So job 1 was to find a working ATM, which was no small feat.  It took 2 hours and tries at 4 different banks before we found one that both took our card, and had money to dispense.  Ugh.  Finally we were able to buy some water and a light lunch.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon walking around our neighborhood (San Telmo-ish) in the heat.  It wasn’t very nice, to be honest.  There was a significant amount of trash in the streets, and things looked a little run-down.  At night, the place felt a little sketchy.  After dinner, we decided we were not fans of Buenos Aires.

The next day, we spent a solid 8 hours walking to various neighborhoods – Microcentro, Barrio Norte, Recoleta (including a visit to the cemetery), Retiro, and Palermo.  As it turns out, Buenos Aires is gorgeous and nice!  You just have to be in the right neighborhood (far from our hotel).

The next morning we were scheduled to fly to Salta, the capital city of Salta province, where Kristen’s parent’s house is located.  Salta felt WAY different from Buenos Aires.  It’s a colonial city, with and old layout and architecture, and a significant amount of native (ancestral Incan) influence.  It felt more . . . authentic.  It’s certainly not the international metropolis that Buenos Aires is, and the pace was a lot slower – in fact, they keep siesta hours there.  And wow were the people friendly - an old man stopped us on the street, asked us where we were from, and said ‘welcome to Salta!’.  Welcome, indeed.