Cordoba and Salta

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Cordoba and Salta – Double Header

An overnight bus took us to our next destination, Cordoba, a university city in the centre of Argentina. We stayed in Babilonia Hostel, a great place which put on BBQ pizza and choripan (sausage and bread) nights, however it was noisy – probably didn’t help arriving early doors to find a bunch of hungover chavs!

We signed up for a one week Spanish and tango course, two things guaranteed to be about as far outside of our comfort zones as possible. The Spanish course as it turned out was great, and our teacher Luz was very good, although a lot more work on our Spanish is required! Tango was a challenge and we spent a good chunk of the lessons slow walking across the floor with our teacher shouting “Eso, Eso!!” at us. In Tango it is very important for the man has to be in charge, using “passion” to tell the lady which way to go – now anyone with first hand knowledge of our relationship knows that this was never going to be easy!! We did manage a bit of shuffle towards the end, although at this stage, Tory was both blindfolded and under a vow of silence.

One of the most memorable of our experiences so far was the local Tango dance we went to one night. After wandering the streets at midnight (it was a struggle to stay awake this late in the first place!) trying to find the venue, we arrived to find a ballroom with various couples and families dressed in their glad rags sat around large white tables or tangoing. We negotiated our way around the dancing couples to a back corner and watched fascinated. At 1am the dance floor cleared and our tango teacher’s troupe got up and did an amazing 15 minute set with many legs flying and stamping of feet.

Salta
Next up was Salta in the north of Argentina, we stayed at an out of the way house run by a Dutch couple which was lovely and more importantly quiet! We took a trip out to an estancia (ranch) for a three hour horse trek through the countryside, with a bit of galloping thrown in for good measure – Will very nearly fell off his horse much to the amusement of a local old man. The place is run by a very friendly guy called Enrique who put on a huge asado for us and kept on topping up our wine glasses, we finished the afternoon very full, happy and ready for a good snooze!

The next day we took a day trip further north up to the Argentinean salt flats - watch out for our overexcited photos! We also visited the mountain of seven colours in Purmamarca. It was a long day trip but well worth the journey. Salta itself is a beautiful city with a stunning cathedral and an interesting archeological museum. The museum displays the mummified bodies of 4 or 5 Inca children who had been buried alive at the top of a mountain as part of the Incan sacrifice to their gods. The bodies are so well preserved by the cold and lack of oxygen you can look the bodies in the face with an expectation of them coming to life at any minute.

Guilty pleasures: Sweet tarts - an addiction Tory has kept since early days in HK, not to be found in the UK.

Travelers tips: Balut premier suite buses were very good – you can actually choose your movies!

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Photos

Cathedral
One spire not completed apparently to reflect mans imperfection

Asado pizza!
BBQ and pizza brought together at last!

Gaucho Will
although he looks strangely like an American tourist

Will placing coca leaves in his cheek
Prevention of altitude sickness

Comments

[Kirsteen]

I love it!

[Helen]

I've looked at all your trip photos
and am pretty sure this is my favourite.