Angastuco and Molinos

on the way out of the quebrada, somewhere, i lost conciousness. woke up again at the plaza of san carlos, where we stopped for getting coffee. and sitting there we enjoyed the extraordinary view, alongside the cathedral over to the mountainranges of the andes. you might think, its possible to get bored of this view? nah. the topping was another two guys on horses riding by, pure farmlife.

after that we went on, back on ruta 40. well.. whats there of ruta 40. i thought, personally, that a route, important and well known, might be.. a good route. a highway. or at least paved. but nnoooouu. some kilometres after leaving san carlos the asphalt ends and we are driving along on the dirt. an adventure i tell you. cactus all around. desert, houses made of soil and stone, cattle and sheep and whatever animal living here along the road. driving into the sunset in between the coloured canions of salta. if i would be any sentimental i would have had tears in my eyes.

finalizing that emotional ride and with the last daylight we entered the valley of angastuco. angastuco is another village of.. uumm 1000? inhabitants. probably less. streets of sand, cactus, dogs, dirt, village people. everything my heart needs. a sky with all the stars you can imagine at night. theres like one "hostel" in town, an old lady renting out beds in her huge house, one hotel, three places where they sell food.

next morning we continue on our dirt road, stopping at el carmen. thats an old chapel built in 17hundrets on a hill with an extraordinary view. its not right away a beautiful chapel, but it got this magic of bein reeally old. and the farm right next to it got again the wild wild west charme.

ooon we go, next stop molinos. the name means windmills. didnt find any. but what we found was another charming church, lunch, aaand vicunias. another kind of llama. extra-size sheep :) apparently an almost extinct type of llama, living here in the sierras. in molinos theres a breeder of vicunias and we had the great opportunity to shoot some pictures. cuuute :)

aaand back to the dirt road, finishing our trip of this day in cachi del valle. cachi is something like the last stop before salta on this mountain track, and the last town on ruta 40 for us. the ruta would go up up and uup the mountains to villages that have never seen asphalt. we turn right the next day, towards the andes to cross to the next valley of salta.

in cachi we went to the cemetary, which is out of town on a hill, with a beautiful view of the sierra. pics following.