Advertisement
Published: April 15th 2011
Edit Blog Post
P4050775
Plaza in Tucuman The lack of cabin fever meant we all arrived in Tucuman feeling pretty good, so squeezed in one taxi with all our stuff somehow - a show of sheer determination considering the size of the taxi and only seen before and matched by our taxi driver in Pisco, incredible! - and made our way to Tucuman Hostel (imaginatively named!). The taxi driver was a chatty fellow who at hearing we were English declared his passion for rugby over football and proudly told us that the Tucuman team was currently number one in the country, well done them. The Hostel was a place with a nice courtyard, friendly people, decently priced but unfortunately the pool boasted on the website was un-swimmable, if you planned on exiting it in the same health as you entered. We were all starving and so headed out for a taste of some famous Tucuman empanadas which were good but pretty small. 3 weren’t really enough! If truth be told we probably should have searched harder for the traditional empanadarias but our stomachs were working on the principle of first come first served and so we settled. We ate them back at the hostel while drinking a beer
P4050779
Young Joseph, acting the Gaucho and all agreed that we could not really taste the difference between those we ate back in BA. Next up was the extravaganza on everybody’s mind - Real Madrid v The Soon-To-Be Crouchless Spurs (thanks for that mate, 77mins endured sitting next to a gooner who thought it was Christmas!!).
We then sorted ourselves out, which essentially meant showering, a very welcome event as a couple of the party were truly starting to hum and could almost be mistaken for hobos. The next course of action was planning our onward journey as Tucuman was a stopover to recover from the train and as nice as the people were there was diddly squat to do there. Decisions made, it was the sound of the empty belly that called, so a parilla was decided on for dinner so off to the supermarket. Supermarkets are not Argentina's strong point really, everything is fine until you get to the tills. Patience is needed at this point and, in hindsight, a book or some travel scrabble, because urgency and logic do not seem to be incorporated into the interview process for 'beeping people' (technical term I believe) as they beep and pack, beep and
pack making the whole process take forever. Let the customers do the packing, we're better and faster at it and the beeping thing seems to be more than enough to deal with. We are definitely getting grumpier with age but after watching 'An Idiot Abroad' (if you haven't seen it, you should!) we still have a way to go!!! All said and done we left with some of the tastiest vacio and tapa de asado we'd had (parts of a cow, see cow parts picture). We returned to the hostel, got the barbeque rocking, cracked a few bottles of vino and ate heartily. We were then all happy to get to bed early and be horizontal for the first time in 48hours. But it was not to be, as we were sleeping in a room seemingly next to the noisiest street in the whole city, which was hot and full of bugs with no effective fan, added to which some bright sparks decided that Tuesday was party night and so played loud dance tunes until the early hours of the morning (although I don’t know if it truly counts as a party when there’s only 3 of you sitting around
P4060809
Rio de los Sosas listening to techno?!) Grumpier!! Not a good night’s sleep again for any of us...oh, apart from Ian again who it is now apparent can sleep through anything, anytime, anywhere!
Next morning Ian and the sleepless grumpy gang were up early to get back on the road again, grabbing a couple of taxis (where was yesterday's super taxi driver???) to the terminal to catch our 10am bus. After fighting through the city traffic the journey took us through some beautiful mountainous scenery that looked almost jungle-esque with hanging green trees, following the Rio de los Sosas through the gorge and along winding roads until we arrived in Tafi de Valle. Tafi is a small hilltown of about 3000 people, overlooked by the Sierra del Aconquija, and a hit with folks from Tucuman wanting to escape the summer city heat. Luckily for us it was almost deserted. It has to be said that Tafi is not your typical mountain town because this is the weekend getaway of the wealthy Tucumanos and was suitably filled with good restaurants, big houses and high prices for everything (especially the booze).
Luckily for us impoverished travellers we found the Hostal Nomade, a basic but
fine place, where we bargained for the cheapest room possible and ended up in a room with mattresses laid out on the floor (a slight crack den feel there) but with breakfast and dinner included all for 6quid! The town sleeps in the afternoon but we found a place open for some tasty pizza, empanadas and milanesa, El Gordo aka The Fatty. 'El Gordo' is obviously not frequented by the upper echelons of society but was a cheap and surprisingly delicious experience. After lunch it was time to work some of it off so we went for a wander around town. We checked out the artisanal shops and quickly picked up a crew of 4 dogs who kept us company as we walked (Ian was not particularly happy on either count!). But as the sky started to cloud over we went back to the hostel for Tom and Joe to have a nap while Ian and I read and Interneted (Tom and Joe are both in their twenties but were clearly no match for the SoodPav combo and were rightly abused for this fact!). Joe then continued to sleep for what seemed like forever, waking for dinner and a quick
P4070816
Crack Den II Facebook fix and then going back to bed. We were soon to discover that this boy could sleep for England...and Wales...and Scotland... Once Tom rose from his slumber, we nipped into town to grab some vino for the evening ahead. Dinner was not what we had expected as we’d been told it would be some kind of meat stew with rice and veg - mmm, filling and substantial we thought and for such a cheap price...Instead we got empanadas, little pasty pies (which we looked upon cynically) for the first time for us cooked 'al disco' (a round dish not a place for dancing) over the parilla. But they were really good (cynicism unwarranted) and 7 was more than enough for dinner! Wine finished, bellies full and so to bed again where Lisa was surrounded and trapped in a room with no ventilation by 3 farting, snoring boys, mosquitoes and heat. (Lisa obviously did not hear her own actions but who is to say otherwise). Another bad night for Lisa. The boys however slept soundly, if not silently. Ian then got up early (6.30am!!) for a Skype interview for a job in Vietnam (which he has since been offered! Good
work Ian!) and as the boys had had such a good sleep they were full of energy and went for a wander up a hill. Lisa on the other hand was not fresh and sprightly so went with Ian for a yummy breakfast of homemade bread, homemade carrot and orange jam and coffee. Just what the doctor ordered! Ian has learnt what to do with a tired and grumpy Sood...phew! It was then back to the bus terminal and onto another bus, bound for wine country via Amaicha.
Big Welsh lovin from SoodPav xxxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.105s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 54; dbt: 0.0662s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb