Siesta

Even if you don't speak any spanish what so ever, you know what the word siesta means, nap time! I've lived in two countries in South America, Chile and Argentina, and I can say, they have it down to an art! Cafayate certainly is an "over achiever" when it comes to siesta time. In Cafayate, lunch begins at 1:00 which you then proceed to nap time, for some this lasts until 7:00pm. What that means, if you forgot to get some bread for your sandwich at lunch, too bad, you have to come up with something else. If you wanted to work on a few projects at the house but need to run to the hardware store, not until 5:00 p.m., if you run a restaurant (like we do) and you don't get all of your shopping in by 1:00 p.m., veggies, meat markets, paper goods, etc, you wait until all the markets open again at 7:00 p.m. If you forgot to go to the bank, you have until 2:00 p.m, thank goodness - but if it's after 2, it's not open until the next day!! Now, as you can see, owning and running a business accustomed to having everything available to you at any time you would like, it can get a bit frustrating. It's not until you start embracing it, because you can't fight it, that life really becomes good! Life no longer goes at the speed of lightning. I used to not even take a lunch, just work straight through, now sometimes I take two hours for lunch, then maybe a nice walk afterwards, or maybe I've shared a nice bottle of Torrontes white wine and head directly to nap time. I take my time in waking up and then start the evening refreshed, usually with a cup of coffee. Long nap times make late nights in Cafayate. It's usually a ghost town at around 3:30 p.m., but if you walk the streets at 10:00p.m., it's a bustling town, that doesn't really start going until mid-night!