After probably the best breakfast that we have experience on the trip so far, we left Chañarmuyo Bodega y Huéspedes and headed north on our 6-hour trip to Cafayate.

While settling our account (which turned to be nothing because everything was included), we bought a hand-carved black rooster piggy bank. The cost was 2000 pesos AR, which exchanges to about $7 US at blue dollar rate.

Final thoughts on Chañarmuyo Bodega y Huéspedes:

• Beautiful property, surrounded by vineyards and desert gardens

• All the Chañarmuyo Bodega wine you can drink, all included

• All of the meals, breakfast and supper, were delicious and all included, although we didn’t stay long enough to experience the lunch meal.

• The only negative that we could think of was the language barrier, which we were able to overcome with the exception of the confusion about ability to do laundry.

Driving north, we passed from the La Rioja province into the Catamarca province. The city of Catamarca was not on our list of places to visit, which more than one of the locals had told us was fortunate. If I understood their reasoning correctly, this was because (and I will try to express their intent as politely as possible) Catamarca does not have anything in which tourists would be interested.

New animal sightings today to add to our list from yesterday: sheep, burros, and goats. There is no fencing along the highway so we assume that these animals are wild. We only had to slow or stop a couple of times so far to let animals cross the road.

The highway through Catamarca province looks strikingly like the California desert, particularly interstate 10 through Indio and Blythe. Mountain ranges on either side of the highway,  creosote and miscellaneous low-growing scrub, and not a cloud in the sky.

Shortly after passing from the Catamarca province into Salta province, we arrived in Cafayate.

Cafayate is in the southernmost region of Salta province and is the most popular region in the Salta province for tourists because of the prime terroir conditions for growing grapes. Having planned to be in Cafayate for two days, I had originally put together a list of bodegas to visit, but we were already planning to abandon the striking out on our own approach and hire a private guide to take us to a few places that represent the best in Cafayate wine.

Viñas de Cafayate Wine Resort

Nearing the end of the day, we arrived at our accommodations, Viñas de Cafayate Wine Resort. The resort was the largest that we have seen thus far, featuring more than 20 guest rooms. The wine and desert-themed crafts were not unusual for what we have seen so far, but did contradict our earlier observation about the lack of color.

Our favorite feature was the availability of many quiet places across the property with seats in which to enjoy the weather, amaneceres (sunrises), or atardeceres (sunsets), depending on the time of day and orientation of the sun.

Upon arrival, we checked in with a desk agent who spoke English, although at this point, I wasn’t speaking English to anyone unless I needed to. There were some tourists from London that we exchanged greetings with, as well as several others, speaking languages other than Español.

The good news on the dirty clothing problem was that they had laundry service. All I had to do was to call servicios (room service) and they picked up the dirties, to be returned the following day cleaned. With charges per item, of course, but at least we didn’t have to find a laundromat in town.

After decompressing a bit from the long drive, we made arrangements for dinner reservations and then bought a bottle of Torrontés to enjoy while watching the sunset over the vineyards. The Torrontés did not last long, so we chased it with a bottle of espumante (sparkling) Rosé of Malbec.

Supper was among the best that we have had yet. We chose steaks, accompanied by locally produced Malbec.

Next up - Day 10: Cafayate

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