In Molinos, along Rt40 on way to Cachi

Hola!

Yesterday we spent the day first half of the day searching out wineries in Cafayate. We found two distinct flavors: the huge winery a la Walla Walla and the very small winery in your garage type. Our first two were of the latter. At each we were the only visitors and it was like being invited into someone´s home, only we were outside. We were showed their wine making process and given tastes of fruits of their labor, which were a little, how do you say, homemade tasting. Despite the wine not being our favorite, we bought a few bottles and the experience of seeing how wine is made in a small-time bodega (spanish for winery) in a backyard was facinating.

After that we stopped at a behemoth winery that you had to buzz yourself into so the gate would open to let in our car. Due to time, we passed on that after seeing it and headed to the one we definitely wanted to visit, called something like Finca de la something (I´m blanking on the name right now, though fyi Finca means farm in Spanish). We passed on the tour since it is given entirely in Spanish and headed straight for the tasting. As we did, a very American accent behind us said, "We´ll follow your lead" as they also decided to skip the tour. I asked where they are from and they replied Seattle. They asked what neighborhood and we replied Green Lake. Turns out they live only two blocks from us! It was a very odd meeting. They are Greg and Peggy, and the four of us sat outside looking over the vinyard and Cafayate getting to know one another over fantastic wine and cured meats and cheese. Oh, and lots of guacamole, which none of us had tasted since leaving home.

After our visit and the purchase of a few more bottles of wine we hit the mosty dirt road to drive about 75km to Molinos. The road is not bad most of the way save for a lot of washboarding, though there were a few one-lane hairpin sections where you hope a truck isn´t coming the other way. The scenery is breathtaking with desert, stunning mountains, jagged rock formations, then some green spots near lakes, all the while climbing to 6500 feet or so. For you Star Wars fans, some of the Empire Strikes Back was filmed along the desert portions of the road. And, we saw two foxes to add to our list of spotted wildlife in Argentina.

Molinos is a stunning little t0wn of about 1000 people with adobe houses and peace and quiet. There are few cars, most of which I´m guessing belong to tourists. The town constantly smells like a campground because most of the cooking is done in conical adobe fire stoves that are in backyards. At night the town is dead silent save for a few birds, the occasional dog bark, and from time to time a brief roar of laughter coming from one of the homes.

We are staying in the fascinating Hostal Provincial de Molinos, which was the 18th century residence of Nicolas Severo de Isasmendi, the last royalist governar of Salta. There are no televisions or radios in the hotel, making it a tranquil, peaceful stay. We hope to visit the museum in the hotel in the next few minutes which reportedly contains some human bones.

In about an hour Allison and I jump into our tiny rental and hit the dirt road for the 1-2 hour drive to Cachi and then hopefully will make our way to a national park this afternoon. Tomorrow morning we drive 4hrs from Cachi to the Salta airport to fly to Buenos Aires for the final leg of our honeymoon.

It´s been long enough that this country is growning on me like I didn´t think it would. We can´t wait to return in a few years to see what we will have missed.

Thanks for reading. Ciao ciao,

Mark