Salta

Started out pretty early the next day for our tour of Salta on foot. A short distance away was a cablecar (teleferico if you remember your Spanish) which we caught to a lookout spot with some glorious panoramas of the city. Also seemed to have half of Argentina’s stray dog population. Walked back down into the city and visited a shopping mall, which had some of the girls almost in tears as they hadn’t seen anything like it for maybe a couple of laborious and gruelling months. We all shamelessly ate McDonalds too. The lads had a bit of a walk around, using the man radar (or mandar) to locate an ATM machine while the girls tripped over themselves looking at all the pretty clothes, couldn’t stand to be around it really, estragon knocking about everywhere. After the mall we walked through the city, which was a really beautiful place with lots of parks, cobbled streets and old style buildings, raking hot too though. But yes, a very beautiful place, matched only by the beauty of the women there, Argentina is paradise in that respect. Walked through the streets, Corry mostly ogling girls through his reflective sunglasses, until we found our way to the main square, where we enjoyed a cold beer out on the street shaded by umbrellas. Definitely massively the good life. Afterwards we hit some flea markets to look for Christmas gifts, among a large number of soccer jerseys we picked up a spiderman school bag and some womens underwear. Pretty crazy selection of odds and ends in those places, worth a visit. Back to the hostel after a quick haircut to enjoy a number of big delicious beers in the sun, before heading out to a restaurant near one of the main parks. Corry behaving himself disgracefully by chucking food around without a hint of aplomb. First night of Argentinean food was superb and lived up to its large reputation, big juicy steaks and delicious red wine. Farking well happy to say goodbye to Bolivian ‘cuisine’. We then went to the main bar area of Salta where we debuted our long awaited karaoke performances. ‘Land Down Under’ by Men at Work was ably executed by myself and Tim ‘Iglesias’ Ashworth, who seemed more concerned with cutting some absurd shapes and various manoeuvres including the electric boogaloo. Stuck around for a bit waiting for our next turn but when it was patently obvious they were delaying our next go as we were showing up too many locals, we headed back home. The next day was again begun by a quick visit to the mall for another fix of McDonalds and some other purchases before we were collected from the hostel for our horse riding expedition. Really nice setting up in the hills for a trek, very well trained and behaved horses too. Got up to a few gallops which was pretty sweet as well. Some people looked at home on their steed, including Meeeerrrreedddiittthhh and Emma Fartley, although Tegan Webb lost the respect of her equine companion and Anthony ‘Chafe’ Corry looked less than comfortable. Myself, well I was later compared to a young Clint Eastwood. The trek was tops though and enjoyed by all. The ranch even had a Sapo board and some cold beers. After returning to the hostel we started Christmas celebrations (as we were going to be on a bus for part of actual Christmas day). Drank in the sun whilst sitting in the hostel’s pool for a good long time whilst cracking yarns with various members of the group, really a good way to spend Christmas. As the afternoon dragged on into the evening we all sat down for a bbq dinner together. Superb steak, roquefort-infused sausages and red wine. Corry and I even put on shirts for the occasion. Very merry evening with plenty of laughter, couldn’t beat it with a big stick, and the secret santa presents was a classy touch. Back in the pool for a bit before we headed to the playground, as the swings were simply irresistible to us drunkards, and then into town to party. Good times having a wee boogie and there was a lot of unusual moments but I’m pretty hazy on it to be honest, Corry had a late night and wasn’t back till 6 apparently, but I ended having a bit of a mare and was home at about 330. Not my finest hour as I fell out of bed at some stage during the night and woke up on the floor in the morning. Next day was a struggle as we packed up our gear with our heads in an absolute state of affairs, had a quick bite to eat at the hostel and were out the door to catch a 20 hour bus ride to Mendoza. I’d like to add that I found out that morning that my grandmother, my Mum’s mum, had died in England, which was very sad news at that time of year. RIP Granny Block. Next post - the bus ride and Mendoza.