Before and After

We hired a car to drive 3 hours into nearby Cafayete wine country, passing through a Martian landscape of melted wax like rock formations and through a steep redstone canyon valley. As we approached Cafayete town we could see rain clouds up high in the mountains beyond, and regretted not packing any coats. But the rain held off all afternoon, while we sampled wine sorbet ice-cream and toured the oldest bodega in the town.
As we set off back to Salta, several bottles of Torrentes richer (on board, not consumed) the heaven's opened. Rising higher in the canyon, the rain turned to a lashing thunderstorm, and waterfalls started appearing in the rocks around us. Our initial excitement turned to frustration when progress was halted by a torrential red river across the road, and huge mudslides which had collapsed around several cars ahead. We sat it out for a couple of hours, before turning back to Cafayete as a precaution - our bags were 160km away and we had no warm clothes.
By 10pm the road was pronounced clear by the Policia, so we decided to risk it, rather than stay over. After a slow and sometimes scary journey through still flooded roads, slipping over piles of compacted (but not exactly cleared) mud and avoiding fallen rocks, we finally made it back to Salta at 2am - car filthy, all tired - but glad of the adventure.