Salta and Da Boys
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2008
1
17
33
Trip End
Jan 11, 2009
Salta,
Northern Argentina,
Argentina
Monday, October 27, 2008
Did however meet up with Max & Stu (Wales & Bristol) and Matt & Glen (Boston via Harvard & Yale) at the hostel, the Backpackers Home, about 10 blocks away from the main square; a bit of a trek but a nice hostel. They have bought up the property next door which has a bar and a pool, and every night the hostel puts on free food for the first who get there. On Saturday night the hostel lays on a BBQ for 5 pesos. Argentina has it´s own clock: eat around 10pm, go to a bar around midnight, get to the club around 2am, kicked out at 8am, straight to work (I´ve been told) and then catch up with a siesta later in the afternoon. Almost needless to say I have not yet taken on this new timescale, especially as last night was the return of The Tummy. Don´t worry, I´ve bashed that on the head with some Activia yogurt AND some Actimel drinks from the local supermarket. (A supermercado! - ít feels like months since I last saw one of those!) You´ll be pleased to hear my time in San Pedro worked and I no longer have the Black Lung http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=9SKrGSW_zqU (1m 39s in - you´d be surprised just how many people asked me if I have the Black Lung...)
Saturday was supposed to be a day of errands but instead Matt and Stu invited me along on their road trip to Humahuaca. Matt has spent the last few months in Santiago, doing what I don´t know, but his Spanish teacher recommended the trip. We took a hire car back north, stopping at Termes de Reyes for a lunch of Empanadas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empanada, Tamales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamale and Humitas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humita. We drove across the Tropic of Capricorn, stopped for some photos. We then drove on to Humahuaca http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humahuaca. It is a very pretty town, apparently a national heritage site due to its Quechua history. After a spot of shopping (man, those boys can shop) we headed back. The journey back was about 3 hours, occupied mainly by a never-ending game of 20 Questions - Pinochet, Darwin, Winnie the Pooh and Jennifer Love Hewitt amongst others. Got to the hostel just in time for the BBQ at 10:30pm.
Sad to wave the boys off the next day; Max & Stu were gunning it to Iguazu Falls, Matt & Glen were going on to Buenos Aires. I have stayed in Salta for a couple more days. Yesterday was a bit of a wash out due to stomach cramps, but did manage to go to the Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña which is famous for the Niños del Llullaillaco - three perfectly preserved children that were sacrificed on the mountain in Inca times. They really did look like they died yesterday, it was a little upsetting: http://www.infobae.com/notas/nota.php?Idx=335736&IdxSeccion=1. Then went to the museo de arte contemporaneo but there wasn´t much going on there.
Today I took the cable car up to Cerro San Bernardo. The views over the city were lovely, and at the top there used to be some sort of man-made waterfall. Unfortunately it wasn´t working today. Walked back down the hill side into a very posh part of town near the Guemes monument. I have been told that Argentina has a much more European feel to it, but this neighborhood really highlighted how far from Peru and Bolivia I was. It could have been Beverly Hills.
So far I really like Argentina, and I´m here for the next few weeks. The people are very friendly and it does have a very laid back European feel. I´m sure I´ll get used to the crazy hours too. I was thinking about more Spanish School but now I´m not so sure; Argentinian Spanish is quite different from the rest of South America. For example, when there are two Ls (llamo, pollo etc) instead of pronouncing it "yo" like elsewhere, they pronounce it "cho". So pollo (chicken) is "po-cho" not "po-yo". Argentines often use the pronoun vos instead of tú whereas they don´t use that in Peru, we weren´t taught it! There are lots of other differences too... And after Argentina I will be going to Brazil, a Portuguese-speaking country, no Spanish there, so...
I´ve had my already-thin principles bashed some more too. Coca-Cola practically owns South America, everyone drinks it, and Fanta, Sprite, Coke Zero, Inca Cola etc. Coke even have their own bottled water brand, San Luis. Where possible I tried not to buy San Luis, but I have to admit that "Fat Coke" has kept me going after some rough local food (if you´ve seen what it does to a dirty penny you can understand how no bugs get passed that stuff.) Snickers has also been another life saver. And here not only is Coke everywhere, but Nestle has a massive presence, "present in 21 countries, Nestlé Pure Life is the 2nd most sold bottled water brand in the world," says the website (second after who, I wonder?) And it does bother me that when everyone, even the locals, drink only bottled water, there is no obvious recycling initiatives in any of the countries I´ve been to so far - where is all that plastic going? Scroobius Pip would not be impressed: http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6XfyQsr4 (0m 45 secs in)
OK, rant over.
Tonight I´m catching the night bus to Cordoba. I´ve booked a Sleeper seat, will be interesting to see what that is like.
I´ve also got myself another mobile number as I´ll be in Argentina for so long: +54 387 4865 530 - please do send me a text if you´re feeling generous and your tariff allows.
xx
