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Published: December 14th 2006
Took a 12 hour bus during the day from Chile to North Argentina.. so got to watch the beautiful scenery.. and watch the desert turn into green valleys as we dropped in altitude.. at last! Was very excited to arrive in Argentina as am hoping to find a job in buenos aires and stay! .. first impressions are great.. friendly people, modern feel, cheap, but the Argentinian accent is a bit difficult to understand (so i decided to fit in another week of Spanish lessons before i arrive in buenos aires for job interviews!)
SALTA was great fun.. a very European feeling city, with a beautiful plaza where we spent a lot of time drinking coffee and watching the world go by. A great bar area, open till 5am, so watched the sun rise on Sunday morning after Saturday night dancing to Latino music and playing "mullet cricket" (kate was so talented!) .. some very bad hair fashions here!
To CAFAYATE .. After an all-nighter with Ollie and Matt in Salta we took a tour bus at 7am from Salta to Cafayate stopping at various places along the QUEBRADA DE CAFAYATE on the way.. beautiful stone formations
in a long, winding valley (which Kate missed as was asleep in the bus all the way.. but funnily enough she managed to wake up in time for the Bodega tour!). Spent a few days in Cafayate.. cycling round vinyards, tasting the local wine, and enjoying the free tasting. We did buy a few bottles (of course!) ranging from 3 pesos (50p) to 17 pesos (over 3 pounds!).
The food continues to be great (especially for meat eaters) though Dave and Ronald had an interesting meal in Cafayate.. they thought they were getting a mixed meat plate.. but got heart, intestines, black pudding, kidneys etc (and we're not sure what the etc was!).. it looked disgusting, but to be fair to them they tried it all!
To MENDOZA via a 6 hour and then a 13 hour bus ride all in the same day, which we thought would be terrible, but the argentinian buses are great.. loads of legroom, and we even got served dinner (of sorts!) and a glass of wine on our "ejecutivo" service!
Booked into a fantastic hostal in MENDOZA (Hostal Winca's: www.wincashostel.com.ar) and stayed a week, with a great group
of people there.. studied spanish every morning, swam in the pool most afternoons, took a wine tour, wandered the shady city streets (the city is so green, full of trees) and hung out at the hostal.. Eduardo cooked the most fantastic BBQs, Wolfgang amazed us with his lack of sleep and Jean and Sebastian became my "slaves for a day" after losing a bet.. shame I couldn't take them to Buenos Aires!
Arrived in BUENOS AIRES on 12th, met up with Ronald and got the keys to our new home! Kate, David, Ronald and myself have rented a flat in San Telmo for a month a sit ends up being the same price as 4 of us staying in a hostal.. very exciting having our own rooms, bathroom, kitchen, tv, internet access etc etc..
Everyone has been telling me what a fantastic city BUENOS AIRES is, so I had very high expectations.. especially as I want to make it my home for a while.. I spent the first few days just walking round.. very hot, beautiful buildings, lots of shops, nice outdoor bars and restaurants, and semi-naked dancers in the street (at a protest against the
paper factories).. all bodes well, so now I just need to find a job so I can stay.........
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Neil down under
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Hey Katharine, love the look of Buenos Aires! Looks at though you're having the time of your life, excellent. Wish you a very warm and sunny southern hemisphere Christmas.