Saturday 2nd February; early flight to Tucaman in the North West of Argentina. Tucaman is the city where independance from the Spanish was announced on July 9th 1816. In the heat of the day we drove up into the mountains from our excellent B & B Posada Arcadia. The north west of Argentina has had very unusual weather and it had rained for 20 days until the day before our arrival. Evening visit to Tucaman to see the house where independance documents were signed and the announcement of independance was made. We are now beginning to see why every Argentinean town and city has similar street names, they are often the names of those who signed the independance document or the dates on which important events occured e.g. Plaza 9 de Julio.

Monday 4th Feb; drove to local ruins of indian town dating from 1000 AD; Quilmes. We were shown around by volunteer guide who is a decendant of local indian tribe the Quilmes. The Quilmes survived contact with eth Incas but could not outlast the seige of the Spanards who, in 1667, deported the last 2000 inhabitants in chains to Buenos Aires. The desendants are trying to regain ownership of the site of Quilmes. We drove on to Cafayate to visit a winery and complete our wine tour by visiting a high altitude winery San Pedro de Yacochuya. All the local wineries were closed as the winemakers/guides were having a get together. However one of the owners family Cecilia Echart showed us around and explained the history of the family and winery. The Echarts have been making wine for 1000 years mostly in France. They sold a large winery in Argentina [which still bears their name] and set up Yacochuya as a specialst small winery. We bought six bottles of their wine to taste including a 96 point 2003 Malbec. So far we have tried two varieties and they are excellent; 96 pointer still to be consumed! Drive on Ruta 68 to our hotel in Dique Cabra Corral was an unexpected dlight as we went through the spectacular Quebrada [canyon] del Rio de las Conchas; eroded bright red sandstone.

Sunday 3rd Feb; drove 110 km into the mountains to stay at Tafi del Valle [2000 m]. Tropical vegetation at first which turned gradually into high sierra. Indigenous indian standing stones on the way in El Mollar. That evening we ate in town in a restaurant connected to a local silversmith's shop. He is part of the local artist community and designs his peices around old indian piantings or symbols. He has contributed to an academic work on indian art. We bought a small example of his work.