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Published: December 22nd 2010
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Said Adios Bolivia by getting a rusty locals bus from Tupiza to the Argentine boarder. Quick and painless through customs and into the last country on our round the world adventure. Bit annoyed because we got lied to at the bus station. A bus company agent assured us we were on the direct bus to Salta but instead it was 2 buses and a long lay over in Jujuy. But while waiting in Jujuy bus station we did eat the most amazing Lomito (steak sandwich) and were befriended by a lovely chap who invited us to smoke cigarettes and sing songs in his parked car, so ever cloud has a silver lining! NB, we declined his kind offer ;-)
Arrived in pretty Salta city in the middle of the night and allowed a hostel tout to send us to a hostel as we were too tired to think for ourselves. We never usually do this but it paid off because we ended up at wonderful Casa de Central Hostel (winner of best complimentary breakfast award for our whole trip!!). Very hot weather, unpack our summer clothes which haven't seen the light of day in a while. Explored the city, nice
architecture and art museums but annoyed to find this is siesta country so EVERYTHING shuts between 12 - 6pm. Annoying if you want to get a bit to eat or want to browse the shops during that time. Ate our first Parilla, a huge mixed grill for two including all kinds of meat and sausage and 'jubbly bits'. Very tasty! The beef here is SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD!
One afternoon we went to a ranch in the hills outside Salta for an afternoon of Gaucho horse riding. After a yummy BBQ, we tried our hand at lassoing a tree stump topped with a cow skull. Holly was a surprise natural and always knew she should have been a cowgirl when she grew up. Ye-ha! Then when the sun started to go down we rode the horses (western style!) over the hills and past loads of cactus. We got to gallop back to the ranch, which was a new experience for Dee (he'd only ridden 3 times before!). Apart from nearly pooping his pantalons he loved it!
Wasted a couple of days in Cordoba, Argentina's second largest city. This must be a great place to live but not so great to
visit as a tourist. Then we got a 21 hour bus all the way north east to Puerto Iguazu, a fabulous place on the Argentina / Brazil / Paraguay boarder famous for huge Iguazu Falls and for great parties. Very hot and jungley here. We bumped into a guy we'd met in Santiago and ended up sampling the nightlife, which was very good. Too good! The main attraction, the falls were indeed huge and spectacular and it took the best part of a day to walk around the park and see them all (once we'd got over our hangovers!). Saw many butterflies, lizards, condors and cute racoons. The most incredible part of the falls is called the Devil's Throat, an almighty water fall in which the water looks like it disapears into a great hole that is obscured by spray so you can't see the bottom. We did a short speedboat trip, where the boat was driven right up close to the falls and we got a proper good soaking.
Then onto our last destination, Buenos Aires by bus. Treated ourselves to 'Cama class' bus (think big reclining arm chairs!), which was excellent. Good buses in Arg. Loved Buenos
Aires despite the heat. It was '2 showers a day' hot! We stayed in San Telmo in a great but pricey hostel called Art Factory Hostel. As the name suggests, the whole place was covered with art work, stencils and murals, very cool. We must have walked for miles and miles each day to see all the sights.....the colourful houses in La Boca and the amazing cemetary in upmarket Recoleta where the dead are placed in ornate tombs. Evita Peron has a plush tomb there in the city of the dead. We watched a lot of street tango and sampled the nightlife in trendy Palmero district.
We browsed the Sunday San Telmo antiques market and found all the stalls selling beautiful silver dinner services, chandeliers, jewels and furs left over from when the city was on of the richest and most fashionable in the world. We ate some amazing food....mostly beef and tried the local tipple Fernet. This was not good, if you could drink anesetic that is what it would taste like! Great underground system, any journey is AR$ 1.10 = less than 20p. We did the free walking tour of the city where we learnt about BA
history (many people are originally from Italy, Spain and France hence the beautiful European architecture!) and the fact that wealthy residents get a free plastic surgery every 2 years as part of their health insuance, hence why BA is the plastic surgery capital of the world! Great city to spend our final days in but 4 days was no where near long enough. We'll be back.
After 15 months away and 16 countires visited, our magnificent adventure is now at an end. We boarded our not cancelled BA flight to cold and snowy London. Did Holly find the perfect mojito? Yes, in Varkala, India (suprisingly, as this was an alcohol free village!). Did we make friends along the way? Yes, plenty. Did Dee find pie? Yes, the best being a steak & cheese one from Noosa, Aus. Did Dee find Chin? Yes, he was everywhere! (NB - ask Dee what Chin is, it's too complicated to explain). Did we find paradise? We think so. Was coming travelling one of the best desicions we've ever made? Absolutely. Are we already planning our next trip? Too right!
Thanks to everyone for reading our blog and keeping in touch. What would
we do without the t'internet!! We'd specially like to thank Sophie, Dale, Rachel and Sandra for their great advice when we started planning our trip. It's funny to think how anxious we were about everything. We asked so many dumb questions like 'what size bag should we take?' etc. No reason to worry in the end. Big thank yous to Chris, Zoe, Mum (Hilary), Graham and Jo for coming out to meet us. We can't tell you how good it was to see a familiar face and we had a brilliant time with you guys. Big thank yous to Auntie Stephenie, Uncle Ron, Uncle Tom, Christine and Steve for putting us up in New Zealand and providing us with some well needed home comforts (and laundry!) after we'd been on the road a long time. Thank you to Unilever (Vikki!) and Mum & Dad (Jenny & Chris) for the stay in the luxury Banyan Tree and to the fabulous girls (and boy) from old work for treating us to dinner for Holly's 30th. Softened the blow of turning 30 it did!!
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John McGarva
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Congratulations
Congratulations to you both on completing the trip of a lifetime. I think you managed to pack in a lot. And you have some great stories to tell. Have you changed? What do you think about UK now that you are back? Please write a blog entry on what you think about coming back home! Best Wishes John (Rachel's husband)