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Published: August 6th 2007
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Well I have a lot to catch up on in my blog - the gaps seem to be getting bigger between entries!
Bariloche passed in an alcoholic blur really, I met some great people there in my hostel (Paolo the barman, Rupert, Chris, Sam, Will, Lilly and Helen, Alice, Valerie, the other Helen, Christina - I have to write their names here because otherwise I´ll forget where I met them!! Too many people and too many hostels) and enjoyed spending my days in bed and my nights in the bar. I did manage to drag myself out to see the sights once more and got a beutiful view of the lakes from the top of Cerro Campanario.
I then took the bus ride along the seven lakes route to San Martin De Los Andes which was a really pretty but fairly sleepy place on the edge of a lake with some nice little shops and stuff. I found a fantastic deli shop with all sorts of cheeses, salamis, nuts and pickles (fiambres y quesos De La Montaña) and a beautiful shop called Orveja negra (the Black sheep) for those of you who might read this before visiting San Martin yourselves.
Here
I met a swiss couple who had hired a car and I joined them on one of my best walks so far. We drove for a few hours North of San Martin and climbed up to a peak just under the Lanin Volcano. We started off on a foggy, frosty morning and after a steep climb up through the forest ended up scrambling and picking our way round rocky outcrops, following bits of sticks stuck in the ground. Without these to guide us we would never have got to the top, we lost sight of the trail plenty of times and had to perform scouting missions to find it again. Since setting off we hadnt been able to see the volcano but we knew it was there somewhere and we were determined to get to the top for the view. We weren´t dissapointed, it was fantastic!
From San Martin I caught an overnight bus to Mendoza - I paid the extra few pounds and got the fully cama option where you get a huge padded leather-like seat which goes almost horizontal, plus you can chose a seat with no neighbour, so was feeling very pleased with myself when I got
on until I realised the only other passenger with me was the conductors wife with their 2 month old baby! Thank God for ear plugs. I happened to be just as lucky on my next bus except this time it was mother and travel-sick child puking into plastic bags in the seat next to me - my worst nightmare.
So on to Mendoza - I always seem to arrive in new places on Sundays when everything is closed and its a ghost town, well no change this time but add to that freezing cold weather (it snowed the next day) and a dodgy hostel where you had to go outside to the showers (Hostel Independencia) and I couldnt quite see the apeal of the city.
Luckily the sun came back out a few days later and I changed to a great hostel (Wincas) so I got to see Mendoza at its best. It is a beautiful city due to its hundreds of plazas, parks and tree lined streets. Each and every street you walk down has an avenue of trees (which hide the crappy buildings nicely) and one half of the downtown city is a huge park with lots of
different parts to it and even more leafy avenues. I hired a bike one afternoon with a friend and we cruised round the park and upto a monument at the top where we were the main attraction for a group of school kids on a tour!
Mendoza is a big wine growing region and so I did the obligatory wine tour organised by the hostel but it was so cold all we wanted to do was get inside and get warm. You only get to taste the cheap wines any way. We did get to see the olive oil making factory too which was actually the highlight (could have been something to do with the fact the the factory was temperature controlled and positively tropical compared to outside).
Anyway I really liked Mendoza and the people that I met there - Dan, Lucy and Anthea, and although I did look into spanish lessons here, I didnt get that feeling where you know you dont want to leave for a while so now I am in Salta, and very glad too.
Ohh I almost forgot to tell you about the great night out we had just before leaving - it was
Sunday night and we were all going separate ways the next day plus it was a friends birthday (Ryan and Pete) so we asked the taxi man to take us somewhere for dancing. He seemed to think there was only one choice if we wanted a good night out and then put on the cheesiest CD mix of Maddonna, Flashdance, Footloose etc. so we thought he açwas a man to be trusted when it came to partying! Anyway we realised there was something strange about the place when all the barmen were not exactly men if you get my drift. We then spotted the porn playing on the TVs when we were queing for the cloakroom but the place seemed to by lively and friendly enough and us girls were happy to find that we weren´t being hassled much (until we met the lesbian that is). So in the end we had a great night strutting it on the dancefloor, although I missed most of the live strip show on stage whilst trying to explain to the lesbian that my friend only likes men!!!
Anyway, Salta is absolutely gorgeous and the first place where it feels really like my idea
of South America (confirmed when I got my camera nicked the other day........ out of my hand...... while I was taking a photo of a church.....bloody catholics my arse).
So I have signed up for spanish lessons here starting tomorrow and will stay a while, my hostel seems to be full of foreigners who all speak spanish so it seems like the place to be.
I have been here a week already and have spent lots of time sitting in the squares drinking coffee and watching the world go by.
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brian
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one of the best places in the world
just bought a house here with my argentinian girlfriend nice house i love it here best place in the world