Cafayate pronounced Cafajate

We had a couple days off, free to roam around, so we thought we do a day trip, 189km south of Salta is Cafayate- a sweet little town centered around wine country (the only better wine country is Mendoza according to Ivanna!- they were all very proud of their home states and competitive about too).

Yes, I don't booze, but the drive up was marvelous! Driver and tour guide extraordinar was Pablo- really nice guy, chewed on coca leaves like his life depended on it!! Loved collecting rocks like me, and tried to educate us on the subtle intricacies of the Spanish language in salta. Of course the intricacies are useless when one is still getting a handle on the basics! We learnt a lot though.

We also shared the tour with Martin and Ivanna. A lovely young couple that moved to salta recently- who were happy to engage in conversation with us thru the tour and had tremendous patience with our ignorance.
What we learnt:
1. How to roll our r's
2. The word for dog, bitter and the two tallest mountains in South America!
3. How to brew matte properly per Martin and Ivanna
4. How to clean a wooden matte cup per Ivanna's expertise
5. How to select a good matte cup
6. The culture around matte, Salta and Mendoza
7. How my beloved iPhone phrasebook app is far too polite for casual conversation- I would get beaten using that kind of language in the real world.
8. Difference between portanians, saltanians and mendozians
9. Martin and Ivanna love locro (spelling is butchered I am sure)- I asked what it contained and they said 'a bit of everything, meat, veggies, corn, other meat, more meat'-- I'll take their word for it ;o)
10. They all loved Obama and hated Christina or El Presidente

We also ate at a great local place in Cafayate, Pablo graciously ensured our veggie order was indeed veggie, then had his lunch and took a nap!

As evening approached we drove back stopping at what Pablo called 'the theater', which was a huge amphitheater with amazing acoustics! We met some cool peeps singing at the base and it sounded simply magical!

We all dozed off in the car, while Pablo zoomed us back to Salta with lightening speed!
Long but brilliant day was had by all.

Thank you Pablo, Martin and Ivanna!! Cheers (or ¡Salud!) to new friends!!