38. 11-16 Feb 09. Salta and its amazing nightlife!

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11-02-09
I arrived in Salta around 11am after a very long bus journey from Iquazu. I knew the hostel that i wanted to stay in and thought it would be a good idea to try and the place on foot. It was a scorching day and i walked around for about an hour trying to find the place. I failed big time. I didnt even have any water since i gave it to an old lady who asked me for it. I changed my plan and headed to another hostel, Backpackers Home. It had a swimming pool (an oversized insect infected bath!ha) an a table tennis table so i was happy days still. After dropping of my bags i headed into town where i booked my trip up into the mountains and the salt planes for 250 pesos for the next morning. I got talking to the ladies son in the shop who has his arm all bandaged up. Through broken Spanish and Sherades, i found out he done it playing football. I showed him my finger and i thought he was going to be sick! That just proves my finger is disgusting wherever i am in the world! Great!ha I walked to the main centre Plaza to find the Mummie Museum and found my friend Matt from NZ who i met in B.A. We had lunch together then we both went to the museum. A very small and quite expensive museum but i think worth it. We got to see two out of the three recently found mummies and they were in amazing condition. To the point you could still see the wrinckles of skin on their elbows etc. I was in bed by 7pm to what i thought it was going to be a power nap before being social by the pool bar but i coulnt get up. Lazy i know but i need the sleep!

12-02-09
I was being collected at 7am for my day trip and becuase i didnt realise Salta was in a different time zone to Iguazu i woke up at five rather than six. I got collected on time by my Driver/tour guide called Pablo. I jumped into the front seat thinking this was going to be comfy. The next to people we picked up were two huge German lads then the last was a lady from Argentina. How could i not give her the front seat? I ended up in the back squashed up next to the two Arnie wannabes!ha The trip itself was amazing and the scenery with the mountians and rivers were awesome. We even got to see some Inca Rings ruins. We had lunch in a tiny village 3000m above sea level. We all had soup for starters and i felt pretty privaliged to be the only one who got given a huge potato in their soup bowl. Well i did until the driver told me that all the staff in the place were gay...ok then!ha Towards the end of the trip we visited the salt planes which were crazy. I have never seen salt planes before so that was something special. We had a 4 hour drive back but we did stop in another tiny village which had the so called famous Seven Couloured Mountains in the background. To be honest i was more impressed with the village and the locals playing music and dancing in the square. We all agrred we wanted to listen to Pablos ´romantic cds´and im glad we did. It was a hilarious experience. All the classics were played. Im talking about Meatloaf, Bryan Adams and many many more. It flet so strange to be in the mountians in Argentina stll listening to the cheesey music i would normally find in my local club in Fareham, Chicago Rock! The one song which i remember the most though was Jenifer Rush, The Power of Love. Every time i hear it i think of my mum doing her housework back in Saudi Arabia many years ago. Brings back so many happy memories. So yes mum. i was thinking of you and it brought an even bigger smilt to my face...if that possible! I was back at the hostel by 7pm and was in bed by...8pm. Boy im a bad arse!ha

13-02-09
At breakfast im bumped into a girl who i saw in Iguazu. An American called Cat. What a beauty! Seeing as i had been bitten alive over the last few days i walked to the pharmacy to get some stuff to stop the annoying itching. It doesnt sound hard but they didnt speak a word of English so once again Sherades came into action. I finally got what i wanted apart from one thing. I needed to buy some condoms (not that i have been a slut but my sister forgot to get me some from her work!) but i really didnt fancy acting out the actions needed to describe condoms! It would have been hilarious but i might have got arrested! I spent the day relaxing by the pool and then a few of us nipped to the supermarket before making lunch. Some hardcore table tennis was played then we had dinner by the pool bar around 11pm. With all of us in good spirit we headed out for a fun night out and boy was it fun! The cool thing with Salta is that all the bars and clubs are concentrated one one strip so the atmosphere is awesome. We danced the night away, about 20 of us from our hostel. It was us and tonnes of locals. I did get sandwiched by two beautiful girls on the dancefloor which made my night. When i walked out i had the same group of girls stroking my hair saying "blonde!" When we left the club it was pissing it down and there were no taxis so we decided to run and run we did. A few of us cheated and waved down a taxi and met the others back at the hostel. Every man for himself! I got back to my dorm room where the only other person staying in my room, a cray girl from Israel, kept me awake till about 8am. She kept talking and talking and even asked if she could sleep next to me! Nothing happened but when she asked me to hug her i did but only because i was scared she was going to stab me or something!

14-02-09
I woke up at 3pm opening one eye at a time dreading to see the crazy girl from Isreal still in my room. To my great delight she had checked out and left. She did however leave a not on the mirror addressed to me. Basically she apologised for keeping me awake last night and thanked me for my patience. I think she was a girl with a lot on her mind! I met the lads in the tv room and watched Bad Boys. At this point the mossy bites all over my body were driving me crazy as well! I looked like i had some sort of skin disease. The night was spent all sat round the pool bar enjoying the 15 year anniversary of the hostel. It was a fun party that the staff organised. It got a bit out of control and the police paid us a visit. I think we were making to much noise and for that to happen in Argentina, a party country, that was some achievement! Six of us ended up in a huge local club and we all felt famous. It was crazy! At one point my friend Wade disapeared and i ended up checking the toilets just incase he was geting raped or something! Dont know exactly what i could do though. Im not much of a fighter!ha We were all back on the hostel balcony by 6am and our friend Wade turned up so drunk 20 minutes after us. God knows where he went but he had funny photos taken with Policemen on his camera!ha Anyway we were all talking on the balcony when we heard a huge bang. Some car just outside our hostel had smashed into a parked car. The drivers limped off before the police arrived. We had breakfast then went to bed. A crazy night!



15-02-09

I got woken up at 10.30am by some blokes talking in my room. That doesnt sound to bad back in the real world but considering i didnt go to bed till 7am, i wasnt impressed. I spent the morning sunbathing by the pool then learning the hard way not to jump into a pool if there had been a pool party the night before. Let me just say it was very dirty and there seemed to be a yellow glow on the surface. I jumped straight out! Wade, Paul and I walked to the main square where we had an awesome steak sandwich with chips for 13 pesos. Just over two pounds! We walked to the main bus terminal and being a Sunday it felt like we were the only ones alive! It was a ghost town! We booked our tickets, mine being to Cordoba and we walked back to the hostel. Three did become four though. This stray dog followed us the whole way back. For some reason it took a liking to us. It obviouslt had good taste!ha Dogs are hilarious as well. As soon as we got into a different area, other packs of dogs were going crazy. Running up to our new companion and at times we thought our loyal dog was a goner! To be fair to him though he stood his ground and continued to follow us. By the time we got back to the hostel we all felt really guilty leaving him outside! We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and i even ended up cleaning it. People even said that i looked like a pool cleaner. I wasnt to sure how to take that! Im hoping i looked like a hunky pool cleaner from a cheesey porno!ha I went for a power nap and got woken up at 9.30pm by my Ozzie friend Allis to the words of, "Barrie its the end of hapy hour and i have bought you two vodkas and toncics!" Now thats how to be woken up! A load of us spent the evening sat round a large round table talking about random things. I got talking to one lad about clubbing in B.A and he showed me his video on his camera from Club 69 as i told him i went there as well. The video was of this amazing dancer being pulled through the crowd on a round table and who do you think was at the opposite side of the table dancing away...me baby! What are the chances of that! We all went on to a local pub where i spent most of the night talking to two local lads about football. Who the best ever player was, who is the best team in the world and so on. I wasnt to impressed though when they didnt know who Steven Gerrard was!



16-02-09

I decided to spend my last day doing a bit of clothes shopping. I spent about an hour n one shop in and out of the changing room. Their sizes didnt make any sense and i think by the end the girls working their thought i was a wee bit crazy! I walked away though with a new vest and two new tops so i was happy. As a reward i treated myself to another awesome steak sandwich and banana milk shake overlooking the main centre plaza. You could sit there for hours just watching the old classic cars going past and the Argentinian girls were quite easy on the eye as well!ha I got a tap on the shoulder and there was the rest of the gang sat on a table next to me from my hostel. They took turns in coming over to talk to me as i think a few of the girls from the group were doing peoples head in. They asked if i wanted to join them in going up the cable cart to the top of the mountian but i was far to tired and just wanted to spend the day relaxing on my own. Some days you just need your own time. So i spent the day reading my book in the park under shade. Back at the hostel i met a hot French girl who had just arrived with her brothers. Which was realy annoying as i was packing my bags and getting ready to leave to the bus terminal. I said my goodbyes to the friends i had made there and got a taxi to the terminal. I was on the bus by 10pm and was really looking forward to Cordoba.



As a whole i had a great time in Salta. The nightlife there was the best i had experienced so far in Argentina and the locals were very welcoming. A destination in Argentina not to miss!

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Photos

Table dancing.
My friend Wade on the right.