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Published: February 1st 2007
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Salta
Main Square We have been slack lately with updating the blog, so sorry to all of you who have been eagerly waiting for news....
We last left you in Salta, where we stayed for 4 days; a lovely little city, where we basically shopped and ate steak!! Was great to be somewhere that sold decent clothes after the market shops of Peru and Bolivia where all you could buy were alpaca jumpers and scarves!!!! (although we did aquire one or two of those aswell...)
The architecture in the city was wonderful, some really beautiful old buildings in the main square. Found a great shopping centre where Pierre bought a gaucho hat to accompany us on our travels. Stayed in a couple of great hotels, the quality was amazing for the price in comparison to Chile; so we made the most of it. It was hot hot hot in Salta, and we began to get used to having a siesta mid-day.
Next stop was a small town called Cafayete, just south of Salta, where the local people go to escape the heat of the city. If only we had thought a bit more before hand, we wouldn't have ended up walking
Salta
Main administration building and Coke around almost every hotel in town looking for a room. Stupid of us really as we arrived on a Saturday afternoon - lesson learned.... We were just about to get a bus back to Salta when a friendly guy who worked in a tour agency helped us out and phoned around for us. We ended up in a suite in a nice boutique hotel!!! A bit more than our budget was used to but it was that or the streets....
So I ended up being really grateful for the nice room, as I stayed in it for 2 days being ill.....it was meant to be. We were there 4 days, and visited a vineyard once I was feeling better. The tour was in Spanish, so we didn't understand much, but was good to see. The wine wasn't too great however.....
Another bus ride later and we were in Tucuman, a big, busy, hot city, with not a lot to offer, only stayed one night and got on a luxurious night bus to Mendoza. Best bus I'd ever been on - like airplane first-class, with fully reclinable bed-seats, steward service and wine and food included. We didn't book a
hotel in Mendoza so ended up walking around a bit again, forgot about the last time!!! Found a hostel, which looked ok, and when I pointed out the lack of air-conditioning to Pierre he didn't worry - should have been more forceful as it was pretty hot. Found another place for the next couple of nights. Mendoza was great, a mid-sized city, with wide tree lined streets, situated in a desert but irrigated by glacial run-off (Pierre's input), hence their ability to make some great wine. The province produces about 70% of the country's wine, and has many vineyards which make for great scenery. We also found a huge park about 420 hectares in size, of which we only saw a little. There were swimming pools, a lake, a cycle track, theatre and more. We had a bizarre experience with the swimming pool - you would think that once you've paid to get in, you can just go and swim - oh no, after eventually finding the entrance to the pool, we discovered that you could not take your bags in with you, so we then had to find the changing rooms and lockers. There was a helpful woman in
the locker room, however she only spoke Spanish, from what we understood we had to leave our bags there, I had to wear a swimming cap, and we had to have a medical before being allowed in the pool!!! We were so frustrated by this point, and with no wish for a medical exam.....so decided to go. We laughed about it afterwards, and on the way out of the park found another outdoor pool where no medical was required, so we spent the next day there. Desperately in need of a tan.
The following day - our last in Mendoza - we spent in the vineyards. We were going to do a bike tour as we needed the exercise, however there wasn't much cycling, and the wineries visited were not the best and not ones we wanted to see. So we did it in style and hired a driver for the day!!! Yeah, this travelling lark is soooooo hard. We first went to a lovely winery (bodega), 'Catena Zapata' and had a guided tour in English, after which we knew a lot more about the process of wine making, and had a tasting of a couple of great wines.
Red Post box in Salta
Argentines must have niked it... Needless to say, we bought some too. The next stop was a more traditional bodega ' La Garde' where the techniques were very different, and we saw how champagne is made. Really interesting, and tasted lots of different wines. Learnt why the wine we had been drinking was no good (mainly Cabernet Sauvignon) - too dry for the grapes, better for Malbec (hence the reason why it is so famous here). Bought some more wine, then drove to another bodega where we had lunch - yes all that wine tasting before midday. The restaurant was supposed to be the best in Mendoza, and it was wonderful - La Bourgogne. We had a great view of the vines and the food was french themed - really delicious. Spent about 3 1/2 hours there really enjoying the food, and surroundings, and drinking wine of course. Felt thoroughly spoiled that day and would go back like a shot.
We were sad to leave Mendoza, but we had another bus booked that night to Buenos Aires, the capital called.......
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