Design Suites Salta

... technique was again employed successfully - one watchin the front and steering, one navigating and trying to locate street names, and one watching out the back for gaps in the traffic and kamikaze bus drivers.<br><br>And it isn't a blog entry without mentioning food - after a long, dusty day, we went to a parilla restaurant, where Evan and I shared a huge mixed grill that included mystery animal parts, and Nat ate grilled lake fish. Que Aproveche!<br><br>

... sixteen, but there were only nine platforms. I gave up on him and decided to just watch all of the incoming buses carefully for mine. When that eventually arrived, I was outraged to discover that in Argentina the blokes who load your bags on and off the bus expect a tip. I handed my backpack to this rotund and greasy fellow and he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together with an arrogant yet expectant expression on his face. I gave him one peso. At the end of the ...

... of cities such as Mendoza and Cordoba. The prices are also quite different. For lunch, Tiago and I both had a three course meal (meatballs with rice followed by soup and a dessert) for 8 pesos each.<br><br>After our ridiculously cheap lunch, we wandered again to the centre and explored the main square. Plaza 9 de Julio is a large open plaza, surrounded by stunning buildings, the focal point being an old ornate yellow church. Other ...

... tourists getting over excited about a little sunshine!) Weather wise we had bargained well in swapping a grey, smoggy overcast Buenos Aires for the sunshine and glowing heat of Salta. The weather though was not the only contrast as in Salta we found a rather different side to Argentina. The main plaza, with its beautiful buildings and lush park, lined by quaint restaurants and surrounded by green mountains was a refreshing delight after the ...

... condors of the Andes. Reaching a staggering 3-3.5m (10+ft) wide, these gigantic scavenger birds weigh 18kg, live until 50 and have strong family values. A mom, pop and bady condor (Condorino) will always be flying together and the creature suffers from broken heart syndrome. Once the partner has died, the surviving condor will fly up to a high altitude, starve itself and die. Given we were at such high altitudes, the condors were ...

... incredibly spacious and comfortable and reclined to full beds and the bus made enough stops in the various bus stations en route to get some fresh air. However, one of the DVDs thrown in was of heinous 80s/90s music videos that included the likes of Michael Bolton's "I Said I Loved You, But I Lied", where the balding long-haired jacka$$ is singing with his blue denim shirt unbuttoned on top of a cliff ...

... at me. Having safely negotiated the turns and driven through Saturday night Salta (a pretty intense experience in itself with no traffic lights in the centre just pure nerves and a heightened sense of adventure) we found some parking about two miles from our hotel. I consider it lucky that we didn't have a prang as most of the cars in Salta seemed to have never faced an MOT. The next morning Pete went off nice and early to catch his bus to ...

... am naechsten Tag zu besuchen und duesen weiter nach Cafayate. Diese Stadt ist beruehmt als eine der argentinischen Weingegenden, doch erst kurz vor der Stadt tauchen vor uns die Weinfelder am Strassenrand auf. Diesmal ist kein Mangel an Zeltplaetzen und wir finden schnell etwas Gemuetliches. Und dann heisst es Auto abstellen und auf zu den Bodegas (die Weingueter), denn der gute Tropfen will ja auch ordentlich verkostet werden. Wir bekommen Touren geboten, wo uns die Herstellung ...

... looking. In the middle of the city was a big shady plaza, with a huge statue in the middle. The plaza is called 9 de Julio, which just means the 9th of July. Surrounding the plaza is a cobblestone street with big European looking buildings. These buildings served as restaurants, cafes, banks, and musuems. We walked through a big shady park lined with people selling their goods in booths. There´s also a big pondi n ...