When: July 20-22, 2009.Where: Chicken-Dog Campsite to Cafayate, Argentina
We left the Chicken-Dog Campsite early (6AM) and started towards Cafayate. I remember it was FREEZING in the truck and we were all wrapped in the blankets we'd bought in Buenos Aires. When I woke up and looked out the window I discovered that we were in a cloud going up a mountain! Pretty...
I saw my first non-zoo llama and when we stopped at a gas station we encountered a shop full of llama wear. We begged Fred and Jo to buy matching llama sweaters but no luck (the shop owner wouldn't lower the prices). 
(Katja chillin' outside the llama wear shop)
Looking at the photos on my computer, this must be around the time that Tania, Abby and I started to rate the toilets we were forced to use. A '1' on the scale was the absolute worst (just be thankful I didn't take any pictures of the two 1's we actually encountered!) and a '5' was pure luxury.
(gas station: no toilet paper but otherwise not too bad...maybe a 3?)
(gas station: eeee gawd...um no toilet paper, no seat and thank goodness we can't see closer...um a 1.5/2?)
After our trip up into the mountains, we came back down into a valley and stopped at the Quilmes ruins. Some people chose to stay on the truck, but Sebastian, Abby and I decided to walk up and check them out. There were lots of cacti...
(Abby and Seb and a GIANT cactus)
(We couldn't read the signs but I'm sure they were telling us not to destroy the ruins...did you hear that Sebastian?? No destroying the ruins!!)
(Dead and alive cacti)
(Seeing if I could fit through a hole in the rock. Yup.)
(We all enjoyed finding a llama in the wall)
(Ruins: here's a 4.5. I remember it would have been a 5 if the toilet paper had been better quality)
We arrived in Cafayate and set up our tents in yet another dog-filled campsite just down the road from the wineries (As I'm sure you can tell, I'm not a fan of the dogs in S.A.).
THE HOFF!!
(The Hoff in action.)
The first wine tour we went on was in Spanish and was quite short. Jayson was nice enough to translate but really I think we were all ready to get to the tasting part.
(Part of me really wants to live in this building.)
Our second tour was at a very nice winery which was less modern wine factory and more traditional winery. The tour guide was very sweet (she said 'ya' at the end of every sentence) and Jayson jumped at the opportunity to drive her nuts. He grabbed Katja's video camera and filmed her talking for the entire tour! You could tell she was trying to be nice but probably would have slapped him if she could have. 
We walked around the main square and then returned to the campsite where we sat around talking. Our discussion turned to the subject of our up-coming higher altitude destinations. Katja was very adamant that the one bottle of wine Jayson was drinking at the time was actually equivalent to about 4 bottles of wine due to the altitude. Altitude makes us cheap drunks. Good times.
That night we went out for a group dinner. Disgusting amounts of beef were eaten. We were given a Dragoman shout-out by the singer in the restaurant. After dinner some people managed to eat ice cream and Seb, Abby and I spent some time in an internet cafe. When we got back to the campsite Abby and I were a bit freaked out to see the Hoff surrounded by creepy looking campsite dogs. They followed me to and from the bathroom and I had to resort to throwing a boot at one. 
The next morning I woke up to what I thought were the dogs ripping at the Hoff but quickly realized it was a sand storm. With every blow of the wind, sand came flying through the windows and into the tent! We quickly packed up the tents but there was already sand and grit everywhere. 
We left the sandstorm behind and stopped for breakfast near some beautiful rock formations. Freddie made some tasty oatmeal (I wasn't allowed near the oatmeal after my previous watery disaster) and I was starved. Unfortunately, just as the oatmeal was ready, the sandstorm blew in. 
(Red sand in my oatmeal? Not so yummy. Unfortunately, this wasn't the only red sand oatmeal on the trip...but that's a refuge story so you'll have to wait for it...)
The plan was to drive to outside Salta to do some rafting and zip-lining but when we arrived, we saw that the sandstorm had blown down many of the powerlines. At one point we couldn't continue down the road due to them. We had to turn around. Zip-lining was out. boohoo...off to the city of Salta we went. We arrived at our planned campsite to find that trees had been knocked down and the people who were staying there were moving all of their stuff to the washroom area to get out of the storm. We hung out in the truck while Jayson tried to find a hostel for us (thank the lord!). 
(Jayson chatting with the local police about the downed power-lines.)
(Freddie with his HUGE steak and his HUGE beer)
Our hostel turned out to be pretty basic. Tania, Abby, Katja, Fred and I (along with some random Spanish guy) were in one room. No hot water. The heater did nothing. Over the next 3 days we managed to break the sink off the wall and the handle off the toilet. Oh Salta...
Next time: learn how to play the Salta vs. Hull game, hear how reading Anthony Keidis' autobiography aloud can be awkward and how we almost all went insane in the city of Salta.
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