Copied from the New York Time Travel Section and a place I plan to visit this coming Fall. It will be Spring in Argentina when I go.
I am surprised the amount of travel articles the New York Times has published recently on Argentina. Makes you think they are bias to Argentina compared to other well know countries that people travel to.
Enjoy!
Bill
July 2, 2006
Next Stop
Salta, Argentina: Wind-Carved Land of Strong Wine and Difficult Love
By DANIEL ALTMAN
MENTION Salta to an Argentine, and the response is often the following: "Ah, Salta the Beautiful." That this northern province isn't better known to the rest of the world is an injustice. The road south from the province's eponymous capital to Cafayate, home to a cluster of vineyards, boasts breathtaking scenery, with cliffs of many hues shaped by water and wind. With the addition of tasty food, a rich musical tradition and powerful wines, the place should not be missed.
The city of Salta used to be known only for its colonial charms, like the late-19th-century cathedral whose pink and custard- facade looks down on the orange trees that line Ninth of July Plaza. But modern Salta has carved out a place as the leading city of Argentina's northwest, displacing nearby San Miguel de Tucumán.
Sitting under an umbrella on Balcarce, a street brimming with snazzy cafes and night spots, a local agronomic engineer, Lucas Norris, talked one midmorning in May about how the city and the province have grown. "The whole area around Balcarce is new, just about five years old," he said while sipping strong coffee and fresh orange juice. "Before, it was half-abandoned, without places like this."
Mr. Norris gave much of the credit to Juan Carlos Romero, the province's governor since 1995. Mr. Romero's government paved the road to Cafayate and much of the route to Cachi — where, Mr. Norris said, the views from high in the mountains are even more stunning. Governor Romero has been negotiating with airlines for flights into the city and has helped to get hotels built.
Marcelo Córdova, whose family owns the Vasija Secreta winery in Cafayate, said that Salta used to be a backwater, and less secure for tourists. "When I went to Córdoba to study, I was thinking, 'How boring Salta is,' " he said, his mirrored sunglasses reflecting almost as much light as his new Mini parked a few feet away. "Now, it has everything."
The new Salta is on show at innovative restaurants like José Balcarce, where you can try Lalo Angelina's modern takes on northern staples, including supple llama carpaccio and beef tenderloin in a creamy sauce enriched with quinoa. Salta's new restaurants and bars would give any big city's night life a run for its money, but the city's more traditional spots offer an entirely different — and more distinctive — experience.
To start with, you can eat home-style favorites like oven-baked empanadas, tamales, humita (corn paste with cheese wrapped in corn leaves), locro (a stew of meat and corn kernels with chopped scallions) and mondongo (a rich tripe soup flavored with red pepper) at La Criollita. It's a modest place, but the food attracts men in business suits by the half-dozen along with older couples and working-class families.
The logical next stop is a peña folclórica, or folk tavern. The locals all have their favorites, but everyone agrees that El Boliche Balderrama is unbeatable for pure history. For 53 years, the Balderrama family has presided over a seemingly endless procession of acts in a triangular hall decorated with animal skins as well as photos and caricatures of the great names of zamba, the heartfelt local music inspired by country life. A recent night began with young men dressed as gauchos and women in frilly dresses and knickers, all dancing the zamba. Later, a succession of singing groups took the stage, ranging from a modern sextet to a troupe playing Andean music with indigenous instruments.
The songs were of nostalgia and difficult love, the two great common denominators of Argentine music. The audience was mostly Argentine, too, and mostly from other provinces. But they knew the tunes; they clapped and cheered, and the women waved their napkins like handkerchiefs. The show went on all night.
At the back, behind the bar, sat Juan Balderrama, a round man in his 70's whom everyone calls Don Juan, with not a little deference. The clientele changes with the season, Mr. Balderrama said. There aren't many tourists from the United States, but there are plenty from South America and Europe.
To Don Juan, the spread of Salta's music through tourism has been gratifying. "I'm very happy," he said. "This is our music — Argentine, Salteña." He also gave credit to the authorities. "The government has been doing a lot to increase tourism — cleaning up and putting things in order," he said. "It's not just here in the capital, but also in the interior."
And what about that interior? An afternoon drive down to Cafayate, about 110 miles down Route 68 from Salta, is an unforgettable experience. The first 30 miles or so take you along a tree-lined two-lane road, passing through tranquil villages with buildings of deep red earth. Then the trees drop away, and the mountains are visible in the distance. About 30 miles later, you enter the land of dreams.
In the Quebrada de Cafayate (Cafayate Ravine), the cliffs and crags come in every color: brick red, pale orange, yellow, white, green, slate blue and rich purple. They appear in stripes and splotches from a few feet across to the size of an entire hillside, like the palette of some celestial painter.
A couple of formations have names, too. The Devil's Throat is an enormous atrium of red and lavender rock whose floor slopes upward at a sharp angle. The echoes inside are stunning, clearly repeating four or five times. At the Amphitheater, another open-topped cavern just a few seconds' drive away, you can meet Octavio Pérez, a clean-shaven man of middle age who has been playing his guitar and singing there for eight years.
He took a break to explain the small piles of stones, some of them stacked at precarious angles, along the floor of the Amphitheater. "People put them here to show the custom of those who were born here," he said. Each is a little altar to Pachamama (Mother Earth) of the sort that a farmer might place at the beginning of his land.
THE road continues along the valley, past dunes of fine sand glittering with mica, and ends at the junction with Route 40. There sit three wineries: Bodega El Esteco, Vasija Secreta and San Pedro de Yacochuya; Yacochuya means clear water in Quechua, a dialect of the Incas who first colonized the area over 500 years ago. El Esteco also happens to have a luxury hotel attached to it, the Patios de Cafayate of Starwood's Luxury Collection. At the spa, you can bathe in cabernet or torrontés, the aromatic local white wine.
The wines from Cafayate are strong and flavorful because of the area's microclimate, which can expose the grapes to a temperature difference of over 35 degrees in one day, said Fabián Mirando, an oenologist at El Esteco. Marco Etchart, whose family owns San Pedro de Yacochuya, added that Cafayate wines have an intense color, too: "The wines of Mendoza may be more refined, but here they have luminosity and power." He's not kidding — a glass of the winery's signature bottling, with 16 percent alcohol, has more kick than a shot of tequila.
Wine has also been a big part of Salta's growth. Gustavo Vasvari, an agronomist at Vasija Secreta, said that "a worldwide change in consumption" had increased investment all across the valley. You can see the evidence in every winery: Vasija Secreta has new machines on its bottling line, as does El Esteco, where a new barrel room is waiting to be filled. The winery at San Pedro de Yacochuya, where green parrots flit around in the afternoon sun, dates from only 1999.
The mountains whose water nourishes Cafayate's grapes have given birth to music, too. José Pintos plays a suitcase full of Andean instruments in the evenings at Las Tinajas, a restaurant close to Cafayate's main plaza. "My parents were shepherds" who believed that playing to the animals improved the quality of their meat, he said. "Our grandfather played the instruments to us so we would pick up a feeling for the music," he added. "The music was born from the feelings in the heart the come from contact with nature."
There are still a few herds of goats and sheep in the valley, but wine and tourism are rapidly taking over. With those industries come people like Mr. Mirando, who moved from Mendoza, Argentina's biggest wine region, four years ago. "Socially, it's a very difficult place at the beginning," he said, citing the conservative bent of the town's older families. "But the people have become accustomed to seeing new faces. Every time, it gets easier."
VISITOR INFORMATION
GETTING THERE
Aerolíneas Argentinas and other local carriers offer several flights daily from Buenos Aires. Economy fares cost around $200 round trip. The country code for Argentina is 54; the city code for Salta is 387, and for Cafayate 3868.
WHERE TO STAY
Hotel Papyrus (Pasaje Luis Linares 237 in Salta; 422-7067;
www.hotelpapyrus.com.ar), a nine-room gem of a boutique hotel, sits perched on the hills overlooking the city. Prices start at 240 pesos in low season (about $80, at 3.14 Argentine pesos to the dollar) and 265 pesos (or $88) in high season (July through November and Easter Week), for standard rooms with modern décor.
Patios de Cafayate Hotel and Spa (junction of Routes 40 and 68 in Cafayate; 421-747;
www.starwood.com) comprises a gracious hacienda and a free-standing spa. Its 27 rooms and three suites start at $229.
WHERE TO EAT
José Balcarce (corner of Mitre and Necochea in Salta; 421-1628) serves northern haute cuisine. A three-course dinner for two with a nice bottle of local wine costs about 160 pesos.
La Criollita (Zuviria 306, Salta; 431-7342) offers traditional delicacies, with a selection of beers or rather overpriced wines. Two people can try almost everything on the menu, with beer, for a total of 40 pesos.
Las Tinajas (Mitre 25, Cafayate) serves a wide selection of meat and seafood dishes in a casual setting. Dinner for two with fine local wine and José Pintos's music comes to around 70 pesos.
MUSIC
El Boliche Balderrama (San Martín 1126, Salta; 421-1542;
www.boliche-balderrama.com.ar) provides refreshment, dancing and all the music you can take. Arrive on the late side and pay about 30 pesos a person for drinks and dessert. Octavio Pérez can be found in the Amphitheater, a little less than 90 miles from Salta along Route 68 to Cafayate (Octavio-anfiteatro@yahoo.com.ar). José Pintos's group plays at Las Tinajas and can be contacted at Yerba-altiplano@hotmail.com.
WINERIES
San Pedro de Yacochuya (421-233;
www.sanpedrodeyacochuya.com.ar) is on rural Route 2, a dirt road that branches west off Route 40. Bodega El Esteco (422-184;
www.micheltorino.com.ar) is on Route 40 just south of the junction with Route 68. Vasija Secreta (421-850;
www.vasijasecreta.com) is practically across Route 40 from El Esteco.
It sounds like you will find a way to get back there too. Buenos Aires is an amazing city.
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