Driving and geography in NW Argentina

I think you know that “geography” is a euphemism for pretty pictures. ;-)

As we drove from Cafayate to Molinos (a tiny “one horse” town - not really, there were 20 horses tied up outside the church for Sunday morning Mass), we passed through Quebrada de Las Fleches, which means the Canyon of the Arrowheads.

It was 100 km of dusty, bumpy driving, but with gorgeous views around almost every turn:

If you had a big rock on your property, wouldn’t you fence it in? -

As we progressed down the road, we passed through some pretty impressive formations…

…before leaving the area -

We then had lunch at a fabulous winery (which to reach, we had to drive 30 minutes on an even bumpier, narrow, winding dirt road than we’d just been on). It was like an oasis:

I took lots of pictures of different grape varietals, and it was fascinating to see the different shapes of grape clusters. I liked this one the best because it was so colorful (I have no idea what varietal it is):

On our way back to Salta (the first town in Argentina that we stayed in), we drove through the National Park of Los Cordones (a cactus species). Still the dirt roads continued, but we got our first glimpse of snow capped peaks…

…and pampas grass -

As we passed out of the park, we began climbing to 2900 m (9500+ ft) and saw our first guanaco:

We also were stopped for our first time by the Argentinian police, to check our papers, and they even wanted to look in the back of the car. Later, there were numerous traffic stops or slowdowns on various roads, and one even included a Breathalyzer test. This was on Sunday morning! Steve found out later that this is common because of people driving home after celebrating a lot the night before.

Returning to the drive… we topped out at 11, 340 ft… (we were level with the clouds)

…before descending a very narrow, curvy, dirt road (noticing the common points here?) -

Some more driving tidbits - in Argentina, even in the bigger cities, there are no stop signs or lights at most intersections. We found out that the legal rule is that the person on the right has the right of way. In reality, it’s the person driving faster, more aggressively or in a bigger vehicle (i.e. bus). Basically, you slow down as you approach an intersection (if you are timid or foreign), and if no one is coming, you proceed on. If someone is approaching, and you can beat them to the punch, you proceed, or you can hesitate (and throw in the towel) and anger the drivers behind you.

You know what solid double yellow lines on a highway mean, right? Well, in Argentina, they are basically ignored if you are behind a very slow semi-truck, even on a curve, or going uphill. The few traffic lights we’ve seen are pretty cool, with a yellow light showing up beneath the red, just before it turns green.

One last pretty picture before shutting down for the night -