Argentina up to BA

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Our entry to Argentina was a delightful surprise. Gone were the days of uneven roads; to highways,roofed(and completed) houses and surrounding abundant greenery, much resembling home.



Our first stop was Salta. A quaint colonial town, its close proximity to a beautiful lake and associated rivers allowed my first experience of white water rafting. The great thing about it, was during the two hrs...there were periods of tranquility to enjoy the scenery, then mad runs of class3 rapids.what a great experience!





The next stop was Cafayte, a leading wine region in Argentina. Here we attended many, many wine tastings, and the best meal I have had yet on the trip( and for Argentina that's saying something!..more on that later!) ,at the beautiful Pianelli Vineyard. Wine is so popular here,that you can even have malbec and torrontes ice cream!yum yum.





Now..for the incident that was so chaotic...it's not only funny in hindsight, it was pretty hilarious while it was occurring. The next day we went to see the Quilmes ruins, and after were supposed to head to a campsite on our way to an Estancia.However, after a lunch by a lake, our truck accidently entered some boggy territory....and got bogged. We only had one shovel,so all attempted to dig the truck out, with all kitchenware available...but to no avail. Luckily, one of the many spectators who attended the scene called a fire engine, and a few hrs later it appeared. It attempted to winch us out backwards, failed and went to the front of our truck (despite advice not to) and subsequently got ditched too. It then attempted to winch itself out on our truck, set fire to the winch (which had to be put out by a fire extinguisher) and got bogged further. The firemen then attempted to lighten the load of their vehicle, but emptying the water out of the tanks...by its wheels. Over due time, two tractors appears...one a front loader, the second normal one. The front loader attempted to haul the fire truck out, but (likely because of the more soggy ground) the fire truck sunk even further. The front loader then went round to try and help our truck out...but then got bogged itself!(anyone see a theme here?!)Luckily the driver of the normal tractor took time to work out which land was safe, hauled the front loader out, then they both worked together to haul us and then the fire engine out. By this point, we had the kettle on and the wine out.I'll include a lot of photos for your amusement!





We decided to stay at the town we were already in,then continue the 12 hr journey to the Estancia the next day. An estancia is essentially a ranch, which we had the good fortune to camp on for three nights. Albeit thunderstorms on two of the nights there (bit scary!), the weather was hot and sunny.Perfect for three hrs of horse riding over the 6 thousand acres available to us, and learning how to lasso.. I fluked the wooden pole but was not so lucky with a cow!





The next city was Cordoba, a university area and the second largest city in Argentina.We spent a day there, enjoying yet another amazing steak dinner at a posh parrila, both of us eating for £30 pounds in total..What a bargain! The problem with steak being so available and cheap here,is that we have been eating it at least one meal everyday.Not complaining though! I tried having it for lunch and dinner, but suffered with really bad heart burn, so won't be doing that again!





We are currently on our way to Buenos Aires, where we will be for over a week (and for Ross' birthday!),so will give you a lowdown Tango capital of the world soon!





Shivany

Xxx

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Photos

IMG_6400
White water rafting

Comments

[Kat]

Happy new year!
Happy new year to you and Ross! We love reading what you've been up to - it looks amazing. Glad you're having a wonderful time xxx