A day in Tafi del Valle

This is the kind of place we're at: horses walking the streets between cars, browsing the grassy sidewalks (and sometimes pulling plastic bags with garbage from the garbage cans, tossing them out just for the fun of it!)

Tafí del Valle proved to be a wonderful place for us. The drive from Tucumán, though only 125 km, took about three hours and led through spectacular landscape. We left the fertile plains to ascend once again into hills, and within a short time entered a subtropical cloud forest. This time the ascent was so steep that the bus had to negotiate one tight switchback after the next. It felt almost like Columbia when I looked out the window and had only steep, thickly forested drops beside me. The road was amazingly good, however, and the driver very careful. 

A clear river tumbled over big rocks along the way, at first close by, later sometimes deep down in the gorge, and we often saw people fishing. It looked like a wonderful area to spend holidays. I already envisioned myself walking along the river, in this lush vegetation during our stay in Tafí del Valle. 

 

What a surprise, then, when suddenly the forest gave way to much drier hillsides again and then dropped down a little to a valley surrounded by only partly and much more sparsely forested flanks. It was as if this misty paradise had been an illusion.

Yet, when we arrived at our destination it was not a disappointment, even if the landscape was rocky once again. The little town looked quiet and inviting, and we shouldered our bags and headed for the hostel we had chosen as our starting point. I was anxious: we had 10 Argentinean pesos left by now, and still didn't know if we would find a place to exchange money. The first relief was the hostel: not only did they have a room for us, a sign on the door also said they accepted Visa – if things got really tough we could always pay that way, even though it would mean we'd have to pay a lot more. The hostel felt like a wonderfully welcoming place. Small and relatively new, it is about a fifteen minute walk from the town centre. Its services include not only breakfast but supper, too, so we wouldn't go hungry either. They gave us little hope that we'd be able to exchange money that day: not only was it a Sunday, but also the day of the presidential election. The bank was definitely closed until the next morning, and nobody knew of any 'grey market'. 

 

Thus we headed back into town soon. Johann's idea that we might be able to change money at one of the better restaurants didn't pan out: yes, Tafí was very much a tourist place, but obviously for Argentineans way more than for foreign tourists: again, we didn't see any. Someone directed us to the gas station as a possibility, someone else mentioned a supermarket – nothing. We were almost resigned to getting the regular exchange rate at the bank the next day when Johann suddenly headed into one of the many souvenir shops. Here, unlike most of the others, an older man sat in the back behind the till. Marvel of marvels: he was very willing to do a deal, not at 14.4:1 as in Mendoza, but 13:1, which is very much acceptable for us. Now we could breathe easy again! He would have taken more than $200, assured us there would be no place to exchange money in Cafayate, where we will be heading next, nor even in Salta, a sizeable city definitely visited by tourists – but of course he wanted our business, and it is hard to imagine that he is right..

A wonderfully fragrant  broom-like shrub that grows along roadsides everywhere

Verbenas

These worries behind us, we could concentrate on pleasant things again. Yesterday morning we decided to hike up to the Cerro de la Cruz, a hike of about an hour up a rather steep rocky hillside, from where we had a wonderful view of the valley. 

 Again I was delighted to find many blooming flowers, some of which I know from my own flowerbeds in the summer, like the verbenas that bring colour to dusty roadsides and rocky paths alike. Here, I found them not only in red but in a very pale lavender as well. It's always wonderful and still surprising to find them growing in the wild. 

This beautiful plant was visited by a hummingbird while we watched, vibrant metallic green and much larger than our ruby throated hummingbirds at home.

About a quarter of the way up we gained a hiking companion: a large brown dog who followed us all the way to the top, lay down beside the cross while we sat there to enjoy the view, and came down with us again - until we encountered another group of hikers, with their own following of village dogs. There are many dogs - all of them friendly - in these little towns, and they readily attach themselves to anybody walking anywhere for a little while.

 It's time to say goodbye once again to a group of nice people. Best of luck and a big thank you to Tony and Silvina, the hard-working owners of the Nomade hostel, and their two cute little boys Gaetano and Timoteus. They are in the process of adding on a second floor, a sign that the hostel is becoming better and better known. 

This is the view from the front steps of our hostel this morning. The misty, cool day yesterday has given way to a warm, sunny one today. I wish I could capture the fragrance of those white blooming shrubs on this blog!