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Things appear to have changed since the days of journal updates from every town we landed in! It seems we have settled into this life on the road, to the extent that it has become our routine, our 'home' for the time being...
Yesterday we arrived here, in Buenos Aires, 'BA' for the purposes of this journal entry and what all the travellers who have been here refer to it as... It's fantastic, and it's brought an end to the relative lack of stimulation that has thus far accompanied us through the north of Argentina. I think Peru, and in particular Bolivia provided such stimulation and difference, that the smallest, 'routine' things made life interesting. Once we arrived in Argentina, things became much as they are at home... Travelling in Argentina is easy. I read somewhere that Argentinians think that they should be part of Europe and feel out of place here on the end of this continent. I mentioned in the last entry the stark differences between Bolivia and Chile when we crossed the border and they continue here in this country.
We left Salta on Friday 1st December, our time there spent adjusting to the existence of shops, fast internet connections, huge steaks, Argentinian wine, ridiculous postal systems (which have since continued), and an introduction to casinos (for me at least)....! We caught a bus (still with James) and headed south to the vineyards of Cafayate, a small town renowned for exactly that (its wine), goat's cheese and the Quebrada de Cafayate, a valley of canyons on the last part of the road from Salta, striped with vivid colours as a result of the minerals in the rocks and the oxidisation thereof (barely justified by our photographs, although stunning to see first hand...)
We did the wineries, cheeseries(?!) and canyons in a day and steaks and local wines every night, moving on three days later (early in the morning of Monday 4th December) a few hours further south to Tafí del Valle, not at all south enough to have Welsh roots, despite its name...! This time we were four... with Yosefa, from the Black Forest in Germany... just finished secondary school and about to volunteer with street kids on the coast of Argentina south of Buenos Aires for a couple of months...
We didn't hang about long. Tafí's a small town in receipt of great write-ups as the base for wonderful trekking in the foothills of the Andes, but the town is hard-pushed trying to play catch-up with all the tourism that its reputation is bringing... the food was pants! We drove out to a little estancia (of sorts) and went horse-riding the first afternoon (lovely, up in the hills out of the town, where city people have beautiful weekend homes...) and the next day went for walks - a small attempt at discovering the trekking that exists in the area... Simon walked up a hill (and met an inspirational retired German couple) and James and I walked along the river to the nearby lake, almost sinking in the mud of its shores (for one very scary moment!)... and then the following afternoon we moved on again...
So where am I up to now? Tuesday 5th December... we arrived this time in Tucumán, a city, a small one and a major bus terminus in the north... It was pouring with rain when we arrived and the roads were like rivers. This was our first time in a dorm, but we were sharing with James, Yosefa and Anya (who we'd met both in Cafayate and Tafí), so it was fine... We ventured out for dinner that first night, recommended by but miles away from the hostel. Our clothes dried off as we tucked into our pizzas and bottles of wine!
I think it was the second night that we ducked, on the way back, into the 'Birmingham British Pub'. "Whose from Birmingham?", I asked as we ordered our drinks... "Oh, no-one," said the waiter, "it's just a nice name for a pub!" Brummies'd be beaming everywhere if they knew, I thought... so if you're reading this, Pete! Other than a DVD of Robbie Williams' concert in Knebworth blasting out in the corner, there was nothing British about it! I had a Baileys, though, and felt like Peter Kay at 'Legends' in Las Vegas... You have to be a fan...
So that was Tucumán. After a look around the shops (Simon indulged in an Argentinian football shirt and me in some new Havianas!), we felt the need to move swiftly on again... and two days later... Thursday 7th December... left for Córdoba. We're really getting into 'cama' buses now - the ones with really wide seats that go right back... and there were three girlie films in a row on the trip, to my great pleasure, and to the disdain of Simon and James, who stuck their IPods on and shut their eyes... although 'The Lake House' hadn't finished when we arrived in Córdoba!! (Is the man that gets knocked over at the beginning Keanu Reeves?)
We stayed in the hostel, something else we're doing more here, but had a double room this time. The 6 or 7 days we had there flew by. Córdoba's great, a real student city with loads of bars and cool restaurants and cafés and shopping centres and wonderful old buildings. We shopped a lot, bought Simon a mobile phone (phone us!), and new clothes (which has made us feel like new people!), and went to the cinema twice ("Casino Royale", and the new one with Matt Damon and Leonardo Dicaprio - "Los Infiltrados" in Spanish...) - a real treat.
We also had two days 'out': to the sierras to the west, with more horse-riding, a barbecue and generally lazing around in the countryside with mainly Argentinian tourists (oh, and one Mexican who'd lived in Arizona for 20 years and acted as our translator), which was great... and another day northwards to La Cumbre. It's a small town famous for its paragliding - it hosted the 1999 World Championships... and we had every intention of giving it a go ourselves, but there was too much cloud the day we went, so we just mosied around and walked up to the town's own Christ the Redeemer on the hill...
On Wednesday (13th December) we moved on again to here, Buenos Aires. Like I said, it's fantastic. We were really starting to feel the need to do something and we've just spent the last two days walking and sightseeing and loving it... the Casa Rosada, famous for all the people who've spoken from its balconies, including Eva Perón, and the demonstrations that still happen every week in the Plaza de Mayo in front if it (every Thursday the 'madres' of those who disappeared during the 'Dirty War' of the 1970s still march in protest at not knowing the full story of what happened to their children...) ... the Palacio de Congreso... the Teatro Colón... the developed waterfront with its ritzy restaurants and today the Recoleta Cemetery and Evita's grave... There's so much history and so much to see and such a buzz. It's great.
We feel like we're travelling again, discovering... James came here the same day as us, but has left us and hooked up with some more party-going people (I don't blame him!) - it was great having his company the last couple of weeks...
We're here until Monday and then have booked to go up to Iguazu Falls for a couple of days. At Christmas (a week on Monday?!) we'll be in gaucho land, in the Pampas. Look up 'Dos Talas' (the estancia we're staying at) on the internet...! Dead posh and very unaffordable, but what the heck?It's Christmas and none of you lot are here!
In the last week, I've found out that a very good friend is expecting a baby in June... and today that Jo's dad died. I've thought about you all day, Jo. You get a lot of time to think doing this, time to review the chapters of your life, or something, and Jo's dad was a real part of our weekends and holidays in Oxfordshire when we were at UCL... I have such a vivid picture of his face. It's a real shock that he's not here any more. I'm thinking about your mum and you and Becky a lot, Jo.
Come to Argentina. Come to Buenos Aires. It's fab.
How are you all? We're fine. Thank goodness for Simon!
love Linds xxx
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