Day 37: 6/8/12
So today I had a day trip to Cachi. I was picked up at 7am in a jeep and then we collected two others. I presumed I'd be with a bus full of people but it was jus the jeep. The two others were a couple in their fifties I'd say who had no English. Considering I'd no Spanish it wasn't a very talkative day! The guide spoke Spanish and English but he didn't have too much to say either!
Cachi is a little town outside Salta. In South America, saying somewhere is just outside the town means its three hours away at least! The name Cachi has three possible meanings from three different languages- salt, lonely stone or beautiful valley.
We drove through mountains and a gorge, passed a national park of cactii and went up above the clouds! Scenery was lovely- as always. Took more pictures of mountains! There wante some nice lookout points that we stopped at. We followed he road along the river/gorge for a while and then we went uphill on a road called the bishops slope (some bishop slept there while trying to climb up). Thete was a lookout point looking over the whole road and a little church with a mill stone outaide from long ago- mullingar isnt the only place famous for a mill! After that there was another part of the road that was dead straight. It had been an old inca trail. He said it went on or 11k but it didn't look that long.
We got to Cachi before midday. It is a lovely pretty place- all the buildings are really old, from colonial times. We were given free time to potter around and have lunch til 2pm. It was nice to potter round but a guides tour, or at least some English speaking tourists would have been good!
The guide drove us back then. We didn't stop as much in the way home. When I got to the hostel, I decided to walk towards an area where there are supposed to be pubs and restaurants. I got to the street and walked along it for a while but I didn't get as far as he restaurants. It was getting late so I decided to have dinner in a restaurant near the hostel.
No other excitement today- relatively quiet day!!