Angastaco

Thanks to all of you who commented, Facebook’ed and emailed us over the weekend. It’s really hard to believe that we have been living in bus for 2 years. I wasn’t sure we’d make it 2 months when we started!

We left Cachi in the mid-afternoon and traveled several hours on a dusty road – the 150 kilometers from here to Cafayate aren’t paved. It was a fun drive with lots to look at. We were in no hurry, and there weren’t any others on the road so we were able to stop a few times.

We stopped outside the town of Molinas to visit a vicuna breeding center. Vicunas are related to alpacas and llamas, but are not domesticated. Their wool is worth something like $600 an ounce, and was once used only for Incan royalty. Now, they are endangered so these folks are trying to breed them. It was Sunday, so aside from the guard pointing in the direction of the animals, there was no tour.  We aren’t really sure about the success of this operation, but we did see a few babies. And, they are sooooo cute!

After seeing all the cool stuff in Cachi, I decided I really like cactus wood. Since we don’t actually have any use for anything made from it, I decided I just wanted to find my own piece and call it art. So we stopped on the side of the road and went hiking. We found tons, but we weren’t really sure if it was legal to take it. I got a couple small pieces anyway, and for now they’ll just decorate the dash.

By about 4, we were done with the slow drive. We had just passed the entrance to the town of Angastaco. Not really in our guidebooks or plans, but they had an image of a tent on the sign. So we pulled in, asked around and found out there was free camping at the municipal park. We pulled in under a pepper tree next to the basketball court and popped the top. Not much to this town, but we were just there for the night.