Love at first sight!

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Arriving in Salta around midnight, the night air is warm and heavy and I´m happy that the 300 or so kms south we´ve travelled from Tupiza have made such a difference. Our taxi takes us through the lit-up city park San Martin and I´m reminded of Clapham Old Town and Common. The next morning we walk through the park and it is similar to the common but with scores of jacaranda trees...their bright lilac flowers making it far more beautiful.

We take the cablecar up from the park to Cerro San Bernardo where you can look out over the city. It´s obvious we´re in another country...Argentina, it could be love at first sight. Salta´s setting reminds me of Barcelona, surrounded by hills. It´s very European and we feel ready to spoil ourselves for the day.

We´ve been dreaming of Argentine steak and wine for awhile now and logic has it to go straight to the top...we order the best cut on offer and match it with a suitable bottle. I thought I´d had good steak before, but I´ve never had anything like the tenderloin they serve at Viejo Jack´s Parrillada.

The place doesn´t look like much, identical to all the open-fronted Italian cafes that line this busy stretch of road which is like something out of the Sopranos...you almost expect Bada Bing to be next door. That´s a funny thing about Argentina...the Italian influence is really strong and the Spanish they speak has a totally Italian rhythm and emphasis which takes some getting used to. Alot of Italians emmigrated here along with Spanish in the 19th century and less than 2% of Argentina´s population is indigenous.

Anyway back to that steak. You could´ve cut it with a butterknife and we´re both rendered speechless which takes some doing 😊 Each arrives on it´s own large silver platter and we groan about the doggy bags we´re obviously going to need. But we both clear our platters easily and declare ourselves quite drunk on life, one glass of wine and one big-ass steak! We sit for awile in a happy stupor, drink the rest of the excellent bottle of local red and toast our luck that we´re heading to it´s origin, Cafayate in a few days.

Walking around Salta´s historic main square Plaza 9 Julio, it begins. I´m flattered at first and when Ritch mentions the constant male attention I say at least they´re just looking...there´s no catcalls and comments...yet.

In Argentina they go out late...dinner is a t 10pm and the restaurants are empty any earlier than that. We introduce a siesta, but still seem to be out too early...1am and the clubs are still empty on a Thursday night. We´re told another hour or so, but it´s too late and the drinks are too expensive so we go home, resolving to siesta even later next time.

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