Mr Bibbins, a disappointing cukoo clock and goat eating in Villa Carlos Paz

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Villa Carlos Paz was described to us by the Lonely Planet as a 'mini Vegas' so we set off to the town with ideas of luminous Plazas, casinos on every corner and cheesy entertainment. It was a little bit of a let down as it was nothing like this, but we didn't mind too much because Blackpool style culture isn't really top of our agenda.

Our hostel was a bit of a hike from the bus station but we resisted a taxi and walked it in the sunshine. When we arrived they hadn't received our reservation so it was another two nights in a dorm which was a bit annoying, but that was all forgotten while we were unpacking our bags as Luke noticed a special surprise under one of the bunk beds, it was the hostel cat. His name was Thomas but we renamed him Mr Bibbins because he looked like he was wearing a bib and boots. There were also two dogs who lived with Mr Bibbins so of course we befriended all three of them.

We spent our first day checking out the town. Realising there wasn't a great deal to do we booked a trip to the surrounding areas for the following day. We also went for some lunch, I opted for a vegetarian 'Sting' sandwich and Luke had the weirdest looking chicken we have ever seen. It was grey and slimy.

The next day we went to the bus station to meet up for our tour. It turned out we were the only gringo's on the bus and with our Spanish not being excellent we spent the day not really sure what we were looking at, but it all looked very beautiful. The first stop we made was at a biscuit factory, we got free biscuits and a tour.

Our next stop was a small town that had some national gardens and also a really quite random ski lift that took you to the top of a mountain from where the views were stunning. Half way down you could stop and jump on a little kart and skate the rest of the way back down on a slide, we were really excited to do this but missed out out purely because we didn't understand what the men running it were saying to us! Note to self: LEARN MORE SPANISH.

The last stop of the day was at a little ranch where there was a nearby rock that must have held some significance as everyone was taking photos of it, what that was we were unsure of but it was sunset and we took some great photo's anyway.

All in all it was a pretty silly day out but we had fun and managed to see some beautiful scenery after spending quite a few weeks in cities.

The bus dropped us off at about 8pm by which time we were really hungry so went straight to a restaurant and we both ordered 'chivito' with mash thinking it was a cut of beef. When it arrived we decided it definitely wasn't beef and tasted more like pork. Then Luke found a few small thin hairs sticking out of some of the skin that was still left on the meat. Pig hairs are thick and coarse? We thought. Knowing it wasn't beef and assuming it wasn't pork, all sorts of things were running through our minds... please don't let it be horse!

We rushed back to the hostel feeling a little sick and got the dictionary out. Goat. It could have been worse, but we still felt quite guilty.

That night we hung out with some people from our hostel who insisted we drank their traditional local spirit with them, it had a really medicinal taste but was palatable when mixed with coke. We got talking to a boy from Tucuman who had recently been on some camping trips in Northern Argentina where we were planning our next move to so he offered to show us his snaps. Somehow we managed to find ourselves the audience of a slideshow of a mechanics museum he had visited recently, taking us through every picture of different types of engine components and explaining to us the importance of each. It was about 3.30am.

The next morning we packed our bags and said goodbye to Mr Bibbins and the dogs. Before setting off back to Cordoba to catch our bus to Salta, we decided we couldn't leave the town without visiting the famous cuckoo clock which apparently they are very proud of. Perhaps we should have visited it on the hour so we could have seen the full display, I don't know what we were expecting but it was very disappointing.

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