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Here we go with the second attempt. Lost the first attempt after 20 minutes of studied writing when I tried to save it to drafts on the blog site. So now we will do this the old fashioned way of copying and pasting from a word document, for the sake of my sanity!!!!
The 30 hour trip here was long!!!! We had varied seating comforts, but we made it one piece. Suffice it to say that if I do not see another movie it will be a very long time that form of entertainment will not be missed. I would like to point out to all the mockers of my geography that we did in fact, land in Rio, BRAZIL!!!! A stop over only I will grant you, but Brazil none the less. So please take it all back!!!
We arrived in Beunos Aires after having had only short snatches of sleep on the way and were met at the airport by our hostess, Marianna, and her father. We were blessed indeed to have them fetch us, because the trip to their home in Althonso Soltho on the outskirts of the city was a very detailed maze of twists and turns and we would never have found it by bus nor taxi. We arrived to be served a wonderful supper of the most enormous leg of very tender chicken I have ever eaten. Our host family were really lovely people, even though Marianna was the only one who spoke English.
Graeme lost a part of his tooth on the plane flight over, so the first task of the morning was to find a dentist.....three dentists in the nearby vicinity and none were in their rooms! And so we will continue our journey minus half a tooth. Could those who know the Mercers please stop anticipating things going wrong on our holidays....I am so over this pattern!!!!!
Well, after the failed attempt at finding a dentist, we made our way to the city. Seeing Althonso Soltho in daylight was most enlightening. It can be described very much in the same way one would describe the townships back home. The difference though is the ambience of contentment and friendly neighbourliness. There is a hustle and bustle about the community which is missing back home. Dogs of all shapes and sizes line the streets and are accepted as part of the scenery. Although their condition and breed is extremely varied, they are happy dogs and lie down to rest wherever the spirit leads them, and nothing moves them...one simply has to step around them.
We went to the train station and sat down on a bench to wait for the next train. A lady walked past us and crossed herself as she passed. I was taken aback that I should be the cause of such an action wondering what kind of vibe I was emanating and then had a really good chuckle to myself when another lady stopped beside us at a box and spent a moment there praying. It was in fact a little prayer shrine and I was seated right beside it.
The train ride into the city of Beunos Aires took us through a variety of neighbourhoods and the words 'pretty ' and 'maintained' never came to mind. Everything is white and pretty much mildewed black. This all adds to the unique character of the buildings and thus the city. Once in the city we decided that the best way of seeing as much as we could would be to do the tourist bus trip around the city. However, BA is so big that the trip took 3 and half hours without our disembarking at all along the way. The city certainly has a character of its own. I was fascinated by the very European influence in the architecture and the stunning variety of filigree wrought iron balconies. The narrated commentary often forgot that we had selected the English option and every now and then we would have spells of Spanish commentary. The music used during the non-commentary moments consisted of the same three tango pieces and after 3 and half hours of having those creators of ambience droning in one's ears we were thoroughly pleased to be rid of the earphones. Of course my highlight was to see the tango being danced on the streets without the spangle of Strictly Come Dancing. Also had my first taste of empanadas and was advised to try them wherever I go because they are made differently in every region. This has proved to be true and they are now my official street take away for the trip.
We then came by air to Salta and taxied in to our new hostess. Silvia speaks no English, but we have managed with good old Google Translate and muchos gesturing!!!!! It has been very useful, and blessed are we to have our couchsurfers help us with the Spanish side of all our arrangements.
The first day in Salta was such a comedy of errors. It started upon our arrival when Silvia was not home. She had not received Graeme's WhatsApp since he had mistakenly sent it to another Sylvia on our list of hostesses. An old senorita was walking by and came in to help us. What a dear, dear lady - I fell head over ears in love with her the instant I tried talking to her and she to me. Not a word was understood between us but we ended with a hug and a kiss and lots of magnanimous joy between us.
After getting info as best we could we made our way into town and went straight to the tourist info. The person Silvia told us to meet there wasn't there and we ended up going from pillar to post looking for him and having some people really showing their annoyance at us for telling them that the tourist info we were looking for was not the one they were directing us to. Turns out that there is only one tourist info and the very person who had served us was the one we were looking for.
Next we took ourselves to lunch. I ordered empanadas and Graeme ordered what we thought would be some kind of pizza. Graeme also ordered a beer and the waiter left without so much as asking what I would want to drink. Turns out that the beer was a litre sized bottle and came with 2 glasses. And so I shared a beer with my husband. His lunch turned out to be a basket of two breads with a bowl of chunks of salami and another with blocks of cheese. Good for a laugh if nothing else. The local pigeon population enjoyed the bread we could not consume between us and made for good entertainment as they climbed over each other to snatch up the pieces I dropped for them. It was really cool to see a cheeky sparrow hop into the fray and snatch a chunk while the pigeons were trying to blind each other for it.
From there we went for a very long walk to the bus terminal to book our trip to Bolivia. After much indecision, as those who are familiar with my husband would know - but for good reasons, we left without having purchased the tickets. We did however decide to purchase ice-creams at the local vendor. I ordered what I thought was two cones without chocolate coating, one with chocolate ice-cream and the other with berry laced ice-cream. What we got was one cone coated with chocolate and nuts containing 1 scoop of chocolate ice-cream and one scoop of berry ice-cream and 2 spoons prettily impressed into the delicacy. I laughed all the way out of there and failed in my attempt to get Graeme to see the romance in it all. Since I was carrying the cone, it was a stop-start venture whenever he wanted a spoonful of his chocolate ice-cream. This he found most exasperating and would not catch the vision of intimacy I tried to impress on him. We then decided to make our way home. We had to catch the 5B bus and duly did so. What we did not realise is that we had boarded the 5B going in the wrong direction and when we got very close to the airport I asked the old senor next to me if we were going the right way. He got us off the bus as soon as he could and we ran across the road to catch the 5B back. The bus driver was most helpful in getting us back home.
Today was the day we took the cable car up the mountain and then walked down again. The downward trip was all steps and by the time we got to the bottom my legs were completely jellified and made the rest of the day quite trying to say the least. We got our trip to Bolivia booked and also booked a day trip out to Cayafate for tomorrow. My legs rejoiced at the thought of a day of rest. Then we came home to contact all the tour companies who organise the trip to the salt flats in Bolivia. We have to thank Marianna and Silvia for all their help with that tedious task. Thank you Jesus for providing us with new Spanish friends.
Ok, a quick word from the driver of this trip! Communication has been a big obstacle in Salta for both us and our host. One only realizes when you can't communicate how hard it is to know someone. You may even think them unfriendly when all it is language! Only now starting to feel like we are on holiday - as predicted, first few days was going to be something of a blur. Would have liked another few days to catch some of the night life in both BA and Salta. Was in city tonight trying to organise our tour in Uyuni (salt flats) as only opened at 6pm until 8pm. Every other shop was busy and the streets jammed, like a crowd had just come out of one of their football stadiums! So far so good, but I want to move into the country now so am looking forward to next leg.
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Jonathan Amusing travelogue Kathy. Look forward to reading the next blogs.