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Published: October 1st 2010
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When we left San Pedro in Chile, we caught a bus across the Argentinian border to Salta. We were greeted at the bus station in Salta by a guy from our hostel which was a nice surprise. He took us to the hostel, paid for our taxi and basically made us feel very welcome and comfortable there for the next 4 nights! Salta is a really nice city which is much more westernised than anywhere in Peru or Bolivia but it doesn't have a big city feel to it. It's just a really nice relaxing city.
One of the guys running the hostel cooked an amazing BBQ every night. We just picked up whatever meat we wanted from the butchers and he cooked it up for us! Argentinian beef is unbelievable! One of the nights we decided to go to a restaurant called 'El Viejo Jack' and I can definitely say that was the nicest piece of meat I ever tasted! OK, thats enough about steak for now but its safe to say that our love for steak continued right throughout Argentina!
While in Salta we joined in the celebrations of a 3 day public holiday which was going
on while we were there. It was some religious holiday and 800,000 people gathered in the city centre on one of the days. It was crazy!
We took a cable car up St Bernardo Hill which had a really nice view at the top. The following day, we decided to exercise the legs and walk up that same hill. There were some nice parks for walking around in Salta too and of course we had to try out the paddle boats!
Then we got a 20 hour bus from Salta to Mendoza. Argentinian buses are so comfortable! In Mendoza we got the chance to sample some wine from the best vineyards in South America! We did a bike and wine tour one of the days which was really really good. As well as numerous wineries where we got to sample some of their finest products, we got to enjoy a chocolate & liquor factory and a beer factory. All of this made for a very interesting cycle by the end of the day! We could tell by the dramatic overtaking from the local cars and trucks on these roads, that they are used to wobbly cyclists!
From Mendoza,
we got another 20 hour bus down to Bariloche which is in the Lake region of Argentina. Bariloche is definitely one of the nicest places we have ever been and we will never forget it. First of all, the views from our penthouse hostel were breathtaking (Hostel 1004). We spent 5 days here and never got bored of this view or any of the amazing scenery we saw around this area. On our first day, we did a 35km cycle (Circuito Chico) around Bariloche along the shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi which brought us to some really cool sites and viewpoints. We had to stop oursleves from constantly pulling over and taking pictures! Along the route, we passed by Argentina's most exclusive hotel (Hotel Llao Llao) and managed to get a quick look around inside while pretending we were interested in having a coffee! The place was amazing and was only about 600USD for a night but we said we would settle for our penthouse hostel back in town!
The next day we decided to go skiing to Cerro Catedral which is the biggest skiing resort in the Southern Hemisphere! We haven't quite become expert skiiers yet but this
was a really fun day. Once again, the scenery from the slopes was breathtaking and I just couldn't stop looking at it which is my excuse for falling over so much!
We spent the next couple of days doing some hiking around Bariloche to more viewpoints. One of the best viewpoints was at Cerro Campanario which was just a couple of hours hike up and down. Excellent panormaic views of the lakes and snowcapped mountains from here.
We also climbed Mount Otto which was quite steep in parts and much more challenging. The ground was covered in snow at the top as well but we managed to make it there and once again enjoyed a picnic while taking in the scenery.
In the evenings, we enjoyed the many chocolate shops in Bariloche and just relaxed in our hostel where we met a great group of people.
Our time in South America was running out so it was time to move on and we were both very sad to be leaving Bariloche. It's a must for anybody going to South America.
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