A taste of life at La Estancia de Cafayate.

We've had a little taste of life here at La Estancia de Cafayate, and we've decided that we like it enough to rent a house here and extend our stay by about 17 days before heading back to Buenos Aires. We had thought of going to Iguazu Falls, but we'll have plenty of time for that later. This place is very remote, and not so easy to get to, so this is the time to just extend our stay and experience life here in the comfort of a private home.

Our day today started with a walk through the vineyards and feeding the ducks at the lake by the golf course (the largest golf course in South America; unfortunately I don't have time to play). We then ate a nice lunch in our back yard; put the kids down for a nap; woke them up to take them swimming at 4:30; came back for baths at 5:30; Alessandra and I took a private Karate class together at 6:30 from a 25 year old Norwegian national championship and international contender- and new friend; and then finished the night off with a nice dinner with some friends at their place down the road.

The kids have been swimming in a pool that you probably couldn't even imagine every afternoon, riding their Striders, riding horses almost every day (Alessandra has ridden on her own horse a couple of the times), eating good food and drinking nice wines, and enjoying the company of the most amazing international group of like minded people I could possibly imagine. 

I'll get another post in soon, and here are some pictures from the last week:

We've made it to Cafayate!

We're here in Cafayate. It's been quite a journey traveling almost 1000 miles into northern Argentina, much of that on small two lane roads, but we've made it safe and sound. The drive from Tucuman to Cafayate was the best leg of our trek from Buenos Aires, which ended up being four travel days over the period of one week. We had no idea of what to expect heading up into the mountains leaving Tucuman, but what we saw greatly exceeded our expectations. We started out heading up the mountain on a beautifully paved road through lush vegetation, rivers, and waterfalls that was on par with any of the most beautiful places you could imagine. Unfortunately we didn't get many good pictures, as we had no idea how abruptly the landscape would change.

As we crested the climb out of the lush mountain side we came into a large valley called Tafi del Valle. It was a pretty amazing tourist destination at close to 7,000 ft. that we had never even heard of. We climbed a little more to the top of the valley above Tafi before starting our descent into the next valley, where Cafayate is located, and where there was another dramatic change in the landscape. This time transitioning to a very arid desert landscape. We were hoping to make a stop at the Incan ruins of Quilmes before arriving in Cafayate, but they were unfortunately closed.

It's after midnight now, and I'm fading fast- good night!

Back on the road to Tucuman

It was nice having a five night break in our road trip to Cafayate here in Cordoba, but it's time to hit the road again. We'll be taking off early on Sunday morning to head for Tucuman, where we'll spend the afternoon and night before finishing our trek of the first leg of our road trip to Cafayate, where we'll be staying for a week. Sunday's drive will be the longest driving day of our trip so far (about 7 hours). Normally 7 hours is a short day for me in a car, but with three small kids packed in tight things can go south quickly, which we don't need since we're hearing north.

Here are some pictures of our last night in Cordoba, a few shots along the road to Tucuman, and a few from this afternoon and evening.

Cordoba II

We set out walking the complete opposite direction from our first day, and actually found it to be very charming. Unfortunately, aside from the walking only streets (which is really nice with the kids), there just wasn't too much for the kids, but they were able to keep themselves amused part of the time. 

Alessandra really like walking through the churches

We locked our key in the apartment so we had to have lunch up on the roof while we waited for the girl to bring us another key. Can't complain too much; pretty nice view!

A day trip to the Cordoba sierras.

We were out of the house this morning just after 9:00, which is an accomplishment in itself, and on the road for a little excursion to the countryside of Cordoba. We started with a quick spin at the base of the foothills through a town called Alta Gracia. Che Guevara spent a lot of time in this town as a teenager because the dry air soothed his asthma; there's a Guevara museum in town, but we just drove through quickly, and didn't stop.

We continued into the hills on our way to a German town called Villa General Belgrano. There are two mountain ranges outside of Cordoba: las sierras chicas, and las sierras grandes. Villa General Belgrano sits in the valley between the two mountain ranges. There are several rivers and lakes in the area, and aside from Mar de Plata (the beach area south of Buenos Aires), this is the most popular vacationing region in the country. We happened to come through on the last day of summer, and during the week, so we missed the crowds- thank goodness. We had a very nice drive in, and were able to park in the middle of town with no problems. We spent a few hours there, had a little lunch and some ice cream, and then headed back around 2:00 when the kids get a little sleepy

And, another protest. This one fizzled out in less than an hour.