15. Don't cry for me Argentina

Hello my lovelies!

Well behind schedule again, did a whirlwind tour of Argentina...I have seen whales, a little bit of Wales, some penguin lovin' and a lot of wine tasting (I am a connoisseur don't you know?)

Crossed the border on the 6th September. They like to have a check of your bags, the guards I got were obviously bored and took great delight in trying on my glasses and looking at where my moisturiser came from!
"Ah, Inglaterra! Volver para las Islas Malvinas?" He quipped. (Ah England! Have you come back for the Falkland Islands?)
"No, just the wine!"
Stupid me forgot to change my watch forward an hour and I missed the first bus I had bought a ticket for!

Salta
Nice place, very cosmopolitan, nice shops (including an AVON). Feel now that you need to make more of an effort than before. Everyone in Argentina is well dressed and groomed..no good for the scruffy traveller in me. You
know when you're past caring much when you start to wash your clothes in the shower! To be honest, I didn't do much here but can recommend a good hostel with a rooftop bar!

Cafayate
This is a small village 3 hrs south of Salta. The journey here passes through the Quebrada; a strange landscape of rock formations and multi-coloured mountains. Kind of a posh weekend hang-out, lots of designer artisan shops, a wine tour and goat cheese farm but nothing really to hold your attention...oh, apart from the wine ice-cream!

Tafi del Valle
Hot weather but just the sort of place families come for the weekend, have a meal and go home again. Saw a Jesuit chapel and bought a bus ticket!

Tucuman
A hot busy city, saw all the museums in the morning and left in the afternoon. More polluted than the colourful and energetic description in the LP, left with the dirtiest feet I've ever seen!

Cordoba
Great city, met a lot of cool people in the hostel here. A highlight was visiting Alta Gracia where Che Guevara grew up. The house where he spent most of his life is now a museum with a replica of his Norton motorcycle and copies of letters he wrote to his children..."always believe in the revolution my little one's"...what a hero!

Mendoza
The bus here was so great..after an edible dinner they served up red wine, then CHAMPAGNE in real champagne flutes! I was so excited that I got the man next to me to take a picture! Went wine tasting in the afternoon, Malbec is the grape that Mendoza's particularly famous for. It's said to be the best wine to have with beef, look out for it next time you're in Asda! Quiet night on Friday as Saturday was SKYDIVING...oh my God, this was soooo good but over too fast to fully appreciate the beauty of falling 3000m towards earth! The plane was more scary than the jump, especially after the pilot told us he wasn't actually licensed to carry passengers. He kept on having to repair bits, mainly with Sellotape and the thing didn't even have a door!

Bariloche
This is just a pretentious skiing tourist destination, beautiful surroundings but the town is soulless. Also perhaps my judgement was slightly marred by losing my favourite green Peru jacket. On a good note, they have lots of chocolate shops that give out free samples and St Bernard dogs!

El Bolson
This is more like it, small town set in the snowy Andes. Really great hostel set in a field full of horses with the mountains as a back drop. The guys all cooked together and made me dinner and we sat around jammin', me
with my new plinky plonky thumb harp! The big weekend market attracts all the hippies and we sampled the local micro-brewed beer and saw a surprisingly good Rolling Stones cover band.

Trelew (pron. tray-lay-oooo)
Bleak and windswept would be the best way to describe this town. Welsh settlers came here in 1865 to escape English oppression and have kept their culture alive in a little village called Gaiman (pron. gay-man)(the only gay in the village joke springs to mind)! Funny little place, the locals speak Spanish with a Welsh accent. I went to Ty Nain for my two pint teapot of proper tea and a huge plate of cakes, the cafe was complete with ticking clocks, doilies and other quaint antiquities, all genuine Welsh! PLUS, Princess Di also came here in 1995! The language is kept alive by a government sponsored welsh teacher exchange. Also in Gaiman is the most remarkable recycled material park (appeared on the BBC and Guinness Book of Records) which is full of plastic bottle flowers and old beer cans jangling in the wind, dinosaurs, quotes about life and a large whale. Weird but cool.
Did you know that dinosaurs also roamed these subtropical plains before the formation of the Andes totally changed the climate?
The main attraction here is Punta Tombo...the largest penguin colony outside Antarctica gathers here every year for the mating season. The male Magellenic burrowing penguin arrives first at the beginning of September and
prepares the nest. Thousands of them then honk and howl for their mate to arrive (normally mating for life). A few females had got there already and we were treated to a live sex show on the footpath by some lusty pingus! They are quite happy for you to get up close and take pictures and probably wonder what these large multi-coloured penguins are doing looking at them so much.

Puerto Madryn
It was mating time further up the coast too with the Southern Right Whales stealing the show at Peninsular Valdes. Unfortunately we saw no love action here but did see lots of mothers with their calves; little white whales that playfully keep close to the mothers giant tail...kind of like the closest a whale can get to hugging! Killer whales, sea lions and elephant seals are also prevalent here. So why so much wildlife? The hot Brazilian and cold
Malvinas currents form a 'front' here. The currents collide due to the deep Patagonian continental shelf, thus causing phytoplankton growth, which in turn brings shoals of fish. Thus prime feeding ground equals prime breeding
ground.

Buenos Aires
The capital for the weekend...funny that such a large city can be totally devoid of people at 5pm on a Saturday with EVERYTHING CLOSED! Argentineans live in a crazy time zone; generally not going out to eat until at least 10pm and arriving at the nightclub perhaps at 2pm...just when us Brits would be staggering home! Saw San Telmo's antiques markets and street theatre on Sunday and caught a Tango show in BA's oldest cafe. I'm coming back here to fly home so saving the rest for later!

Rosario
The birth place of Che and a great city but who brought the rain! Too cold to go to the famous river beaches but saw the impressive war monument and the house of Che (from the outside only). Great hostel here, Cool Raul, if
you're in the area, it was hard to leave but needed some sunshine and have headed North.

So what's the crack with Argentina?
Beer’s cheap, at 4 pesos in a hostel (6 pesos to the pound). The top drink's Fernet, an addictive herby liqueur made in Italy and drunk with Cola.
Accommodation's a lot more expensive, averaging 5 quid a night - for a dorm (and you have to make your own bed)
Buses are super comfy with service and food, including wine and champagne, but they eat away at your budget with 20 hour journeys costing 160 pesos.
Food is always good quality and the free basket of bread and breadsticks is always useful as a handbag supplement. Coffee is bad, really bitter but always well presented with a sweet on the side, 4 giant packs of sugar (I guess to hide the bad taste) and a glass of soda. Breakfast is a cup of coffee and a bit of sweet pastry. The locals are all yerba mate mad, and take their little gourd cups and hot water flask with them everywhere.
People, well there are obviously a lot of nice people but there are also a lot of people who have a real attitude problem and are extremely arrogant. But perhaps that's just a British perception...being a nation that knows how to wait in line and say please and thank you!

Anyway...hopped up to Paraguay yesterday...it ROCKS!! Such a big difference, it really feels like I'm back in South America...but more on that next time...

BIG LOVE to everyone! xxx HRH

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