Backpacking South America

Our plans aren’t always well suited to the weather forecast. For example, we decided it was a good idea to rent bikes on the hottest day of the week – which was also the hottest day of our time in Argentina.

We left early (9:30) and headed to Bodega Etchart (3km outside town) and got stuck on a tour with high school students from Jujuy. It was by far the worst Bodega we’ve visited. Etchart is a huge winery, however, we only had the opportunity to taste two wines, both of which were Torrontes (white wine), one was dry and the other was a sweet wine. We didn’t even have the opportunity to taste any red wines. So, we quickly hopped back on our bikes and pedaled as fast as we could to get far, far away from there.

Our next planned stop was Finca De Las Nubes. We had heard it was a bit outside of town (5km) and on a hill, but completely reachable by bike. Someone forgot to mention, however, that the hill was steep and the road we needed to travel was not gravel, but ROCK with RIDGES. By the time we arrived, we were extremely hot and exhausted. We took some time to cool off and rehydrate (with water first) and then tasted some delicious wine.

We had the best Torrentes we’ve tasted so far. We met a Brit in our tasting. He had actually walked all the way to Finca de las Nubes and ironically enough, he was staying at our same hostel. We befriended him and he joined us for tapas on the patio and shared an ice cold bottle or two of Torrentes. We had a gorgeous view of the whole valley, good food and great conversation.

Two and half hours later, he left for town and we continued up the road to the river, where we had heard there were some beautiful waterfalls. I would say that we happened upon this man who asked us if we would like to go see the waterfalls, but it turns out that he really happened upon us. After finding a place to store our bikes, this man said “to come.” We weren’t quite sure where to “come to,” but we thought perhaps he was just going to show us where the path started, but we soon realized that perhaps he was going to be our guide.

As we traveled along, scaling the mountain, we soon became very comfortable with the idea of having a guide. We would have never found these waterfalls without him. They were hardly trails that we were on.

After 2 hours of hiking in the heat, we finally arrived at our destination. The waterfall was beautiful. Jared decided to go for a quick dip, while I decided that cooling off my feet to the point of numbness was enough for me. The water was freezing.

On our way we found a fresh water spring where we were able to refill our water bottle and it was some of the best water we have had here, cold and refreshing.

We had learned that our guide had been navigating this river since he was 8. Now he looked to be in his 30’s.

On our way down, we detoured a bit to view a second waterfall.

To get back on the trail home, we decided to take “the road less traveled,” since our guide said it was much faster. While demonstrating this faster way, he completely disappeared into a cliff and scaled to the top behind the rocks. I was beginning to wonder what this faster path was going to look like. We followed him through the hole in the cliff about 7 feet off the ground. Once he was through and we could see him, we descended a bit to help us out. Once we saw him again, he said, “You’re adventurous” and proceeded to give me his had to help pull me through the hole. “Here we go,” was all I could think. “I’m now committed.”

When we finally arrived back at the starting point, an hour and half later, we sure worked up an appetite. We hopped on our bikes and road the rocks home. My whole insides got jostled around to the point where I think by body was still vibrating several hours after I got off the bike. Thankfully, the whole ride home was downhill. My main focus the whole way down was not to flip over the handlebars or fall off the bike.

Fortunately, there were amazing views of the sun setting on the valley.

We made it home safe and had a great dinner, but I had bruises on my hands for 2 days straight from just holding onto the bike. This was easily the worst bike ride of my life.