We ended up an a great Pullman bus service good food (at least I thought so), comfy seats and settled back for our short hop across the border of 19 hours or so we were plied with wine, and this being Argentina, it was pretty tasty, just the job to wash down the endless supply of Jamon y Queso sandwiches!
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| Into Argentina but still a long way to go! |
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| Nice posh bus - this is the way to travel! |
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| Bienvenidos Argentina! This side of the yellow fence is officially in- country :) |
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| Look a 3 pronged cactus - they exist in real life, not just cartoons |
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| The foot hills of the Andes |
We arrived in Salta quite late in the evening and after being primed by other travellers before our arrival, we had loaded up on US dollars before entering the country. The 'dollar blue' is an officially unofficial way of maximising your spend in Argentina. Everything is 2/3 the price if you exchange US dollars for local currency in country at a 'cave' a dodgy back alley shop where handfuls of money get exchanged.
So we turned up late evening in Salta feeling a little peckish, found our hostal (La Posta) and I headed out onto the streets to try and source a local snack. This was before we
had any Pesos and I figured a US dollar would probably get me fed – wrong!
Instead, after much searching I had to head back hungry and wait to source some
local currency from the hostel owner.
Finally fully loaded up with Pesos and feeling pretty famished by now, I hit the town again and managed
to find one of the last street sellers open on a Sunday evening at 11pm. A
Super Pancho (hotdog) stand. So I ordered a 'completo', tucked in and headed back
to the hostel for a snooze.
The next morning we woke and had a great breakfast served up to us at our table with sweet stuff, including Dulce de Leche (essentially caramelized condensed milk - Ana has a real soft spot for this!) good coffee on tap and a quick chat with the owner, we headed out to see what Argentina had to offer.
We hung out in town and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day
grabbing a sandwich for lunch and wandering through the huge open squares and
very pedestrian friendly side streets. Apparently Salta had experienced a devastating earthquake in its past and when rebuilding it, the town planners had a great idea to avoid tragedy in future, that was to build the streets so wide that the building would not fall on each other when the next quake hit! Not the most sophisticated of solutions but it does mean that the streets are huge with massive pavements and very pedestrian friendly.
After finding our way around town we beat a retreat back to the hostel for chilled avo of
blogging and me drinking wine – I am trying to pack this particular activity in whilst
here, I think that being in Argentina is a great excuse. I Picked up a bottle from Carrefour for just under £2.50 and it tasted great!
A lovely chilled out day was brought to a great conclusion when
we headed out for dinner. When in Argentina it is mandatory to try the local
traditional Parrila (Grill) houses, Ana had spied a very well reviewed restaurant in
the centre of Salta town so we made a beeline for it. This being South America, dinner is always late so we rocked up at 9:30 feeling very fashionably late. Only to find that
the restaurant was empty having just opened its doors and the staff finishing
up mopping up and preparing for the evening rush!
We were seated in the empty restaurant and after scanning down the menu and scrutinising each line in
great detail (in reality I just ordered the traditional sharing Parilla as soon
as I saw it on the list) ordered and were a little relieved as others started to turn up. Tourists to begin with (it still being early) and then around 10pm some of the
really early locals started to arrive.
Then the moment of triumph as our meal arrived (I had been a
little concerned about a sharing platter – I might not get enough food, you see)
apparently this will not be an issue in Argentina. The sharing Parilla for 2
could have fed 4 very hungry people with more to spare!....
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| Ta-da, a sharing platter for 2 with my head in shot for scale! |
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| just one more bite - it's only wafer thin! |
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| The remains after a bloody good effort by us! |
After dinner we had a brief chat with a 'well to do' older British
couple who we had overheard commenting on our massive plate of food so we went
over and said Hi – and got chatting for ages.
We ended up waddling out at about 11:30pm and I kid you
not, locals were still just turning up to have their dinner!
I slept very well
which may have been related to catching up from the long bus ride, the meat
induced coma or perhaps the bottle of red consumed with the best part of a cow we had demolished.
The next morning feeling a little in need of some good
exercise after over indulging in beef, we headed for the local big hill for a bit of a hike.
'Cerro San Berdardo' was pretty hard going dragging a dead cow
along with you and had stations of the cross on the way up which I stopped to
appreciate in detail at each one (to catch my breath). Ana was her usual athletic
self and even stopped at the public gym stations on the way up to get some circuit training in.
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| At the base of the hill... |
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| Ana getting in some quick circuits |
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| I just about managed to lift my arms... |
From the top of the hill, the view out over the city was
spectacular and really gave you a chance to appreciate the Andes in the
background and to see precisely how big an Argentine city can be, and this is
by no means the largest!
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| A small city in Argentina! |
At the top we also got a great view of the cable car which
Ana wouldn’t let me get in on the way up – maybe she was worried that with the
dinner last night the cable might break?
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| You mean we didn't have to walk? |
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| Ana barely broke a sweat on the hike up, notice I am not in shot! |
After the mornings exercise we hit the town to ferret out a
place for food and stumbled across Casa Moderna, and amazing little joint. This
place looks like it has been family run for generations and is lined with dusty
old bottles and casks and has a deli at the front with a lovely area at the
back with a few tables to sit down for a midday apperitivo and antipasti
platter. I had a glass of champagne and a cured meat and cheese board and felt
like a part of the furniture for lunch – an amazing place with a great
atmosphere – to be tried by any fans of meat cheese and wine if you’re in
Salta. Unfortunately the place is so photogenic you’re not allow to take pics so
I ripped one off the web ;)
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| Cool dusty old bottles lining the walls, great ham, great cheese and champers...whats not to like? |
That afternoon we headed to the MAAM museum. This is a
historical museum telling the natural history story of the region. The most
famous exhibit (a little eerie) is a display of 3 children. These children were
sacrificed to the gods at the top of an Andean mountain and the intense cold
has preserved them in an almost unbelievable condition, where they died from
cold in a seated position. They are displayed on a rota basis one at a time and
kept in a refrigerated condition. They are a real sight and an incredible
piece of history still wearing their beads and clothes and still with frozen
expressions on their faces. Eerie but pretty compelling at the same time.
After the museum we headed back to the hostel for a well
earned rest and the bottle of wine I had picked up – very tasty
it was too!
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| Saude! |
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| He's drinking again...it keeps him quiet! |
The next day we were booked onto our onward bus south to Mendoza
and we had half a day to enjoy the last of Salta. We mooched around the centre
and split up for lunch. I obviously headed back to my fave lunch spot, Casa Moderna and
Ana went off in search of a veggie restaurant that had rave reviews.
I ended up with a selection of home cooked empanadas al horno and a couple of
copas of sherry (don’t you know) in the crusty, dusty old place that I love and Ana ended up
in a totally different place than expected.
Reunited after lunch we grabbed an icecream in the sun from a guy
in the park and then went to meet our Andesmar bus heading south.
A relatively short journey of only 13 hours or so, we got to play bingo too - no, i'm not joking, quite tricky getting the numbers in Spanish but by now we've had some practice and Ana and I did a pretty good job guessing, the winner got as bottle of wine. We didn't win but that wasn't a problem as everyone else got plenty of vino to drink too!
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| Bingo! Oh, no wait, was that eight or eighty eight? |
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| Not luxury grub but a long way from the buses in Asia! Note the empty glass - top up please! |
We arrived mid morning at the bus station and walked into
town to find our hostel for the week. ‘Hostal Laos’ we checked in with the friendly guy at the desk and settled into our double room with en suite - hurrah!
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| Woohoo - a double private room and through that door - our own en suite - luxury! |
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| Arriving at 'Hostal Laos' |
After a quick rest up we hit the town and took a wander around the city getting our bearings, Mendoza is a bright, sunny warm and
lively place with some great cafes and huge parks and green spaces. A great place to spend several days - just as well as that was the plan!
After lunch out in the sun and a stroll around, we headed back to the hostel to plan our stay here and ended up bumping into a guy called John, an interesting Brit who we got chatting with and ended up heading out to dinner - turns out he was a veggie so for my first night so far in Argentina - no meat - booo! But Govinda's, a pay by weight veggie buffet joint certainly didn't disappoint and we had a fun meal out with John. We did get lost trying to find the place but again my tremendous grasp of the Spanish language came to our aid and I managed to get some directions that we could follow (really!)
Next morning we got up and had a good brekkie at Hostal Laos buffet of sweet stuff (including dulche de leche - a new favourite of Ana's), coffee and fruit
That evening at back at the hostel we met Anton, Adrian and Irish couple. Nice bunch
and we agreed to head out to Baccus bikes the next day and take a bike tour around a few of the vineyards and wineries in the local are as a group,
Later that eve went out for a cheap and cheerful steak
dinner, just the two of us. An amazing 450g steak, friendly chatty waiter giving advice on the wine and meat. About a tenner later we rolled back fully sated rolled back to the hostel late and crashed again!
Next morning we all got up and
breakfasted,and headed out to catch the bus to the outskirts of town following the direction of the hostel staff. We sorted
out our bus vouchers and hopped on the number 2 out to the outskirts of town.
Wandered around and found the Baccus bike tour shop with very little help. Again very friendly and
Anton and his fluent Spanish came in very handy to understand what was going
on! We got a map and a bike, a quick debate about the best order to visit the local vineyards in (it's like a logic puzzle with best times for tastings and looking at the optimum route).
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| Anton translating what's going on for us - we were very lucky to have him there with us! |
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| Adrian and Anton - before a days wine tasting. |
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| Me whilst I can still ride straight - things get a bit wobbly later on! |
We arrive at the first vineyard on the list with no-one really around. It was quite a small place and very quiet. Not a lot going on and a bit of a stilted start! Where's the tasting? Eventually we got round to trying a few wines but already late for the next session. Enjoyed the tasting but a little worried this might be how it would be for the day. We hopped back on the
bikes and made for the next appointment at Lagarde.
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| Hmmm, this is a fascinating packaging process, I understand there's a wine tasting somewhere? |
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| See the smiles - we made it to the tasting, Next! |
Now that's more like it! An amazing cycle out to Lagarde with views of the Andes. When we got there there was a great selection of
wines to try indoors at a guided tasting, a nice tour of the grapes and the
processing and storage.
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| It was a stunning day with amazing views of vineyards... |
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...and the snow capped Andes in the background.
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| Tasting No. 2 at Lagarde, this is more like it :) |
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| Hmmm, very interesting, i'm getting fresh bold fruits, some lights tannins and a little bit tipsy! |
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| Do you deliver? |
Back on the now slightly wobbly bikes (think the wheel might be coming loose) and on to Alta Vista, a very swish affair here, sat at the marble bar and
tasted their selection of excellent vino and then taken on a guided tour,
starting to get quite familiar with the format by now, but the tour was made made a little more interesting this
time by our guide who is a cage fighting champion and HUGE! He has only been
working here for a few months but is loving learning English and the front of
house and tour skills. Quite a different scene from life in the ring!
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| You know its posh if they have their own glasswear |
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| Vineyard No. 4 More great wine - starting to look a little squinty! |
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| I don't remember which one it was though - anyone? |
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| Plenty of wine down here for a year or two, more French Oak (which is running out apparently!) |
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| The good stuff, locked away from prying tourists. |
Great time had by all we returned the bikes to Baccus (all except Anton who had a puncture and waited on a cab back to the bike shop) we all headed back on the bus and landed back at the hostal well, sunned, wined and cycled where Anton told us all about a great restaurant he had been to so that evening we all piled onto a reserved table at Don Marios where, yet again I launched myself into Steak and some wine! Amazing Chateaubriand with great wine and a good evening socialising. Excellent recommendation. The restaurant was very posh and felt a little like we were the dirty oiks dragging the place down, it also blew our food budget but in the grand scheme of things it was 20 pounds between us for some of the most amazing food we had eaten and a 3 course lunch in a swanky place with some great company – bargain!
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| Chateaubriand or a steak pillow as I like to call it - this was every bit as good as it looks and great value for a very swanky meal with great company! |
The following day it was just the 2 of
us and after reading through the book of notes in the hostel reception, there
was an emphatic recommendation for a vineyard out of town for lunch. Not a lot
of detail but it sounded like they were bowled over by the place so we asked
about booking in for a slap up lunch on our last day before heading further South.
The hostel suggested we grab a cab and
so we hopped in the back of a car with a random cabbie who did not know really seem
to know where we were going and we chatted away not understanding each other
for quite a while as he homed in on the Niento Seintenier vineyard.
The food was incredible, canapés and a
4 course meal with matched wines for 15 pounds a head, by the time we had
finished we were both happy and full and then headed of on a tour for just the
2 of us wandering around the different vines and running through their
processes.
This finished up with a tasting session
(yes, more wine!) of several great tasting wines. My favourite being a mix of
Malbec and Petit Verdot (I knew that you would really want to know), The guide cracked open an extra special
bottle because 'she hadn’t tried it in a while'. Not only were the grape
types and percentages broken out but also the altitude that the different harvests of the Malbec grapes had been grown at!
We took a stroll and decided to head
back to town on the bus instead of catching a cab back and waited for a while in the sun. We made a new friend
when a large unaccompanied and intimidating dog presented us with half a tree
to play fetch with. However we were beside quite a busy road and I decided to
not to play with him for safety's sake.
At this point the stick got thrust at me by the dog and
as I backed way from it, the dog started growling at me. The message couldn't have
been much clearer throw this stick or else! We backed off and moved a bit down
the road and ended up playing this 'backing away from the dog' game for 20 mins
or so until the bus arrived to rescue us!
Back into town we checked out of the
Hostel – a great place to stop with really helpful staff – well recommended.
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| Saying our goodbyes to Marguerite at Hostal Laos :( |
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And playing in the sun! Was sad to leave Marguerite behind!
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We popped our rucksacks back on and bad
farewell to Mendoza and hopped on our chariot onwards further South to
Bariloche, the Argentinian lake district. Bring on the wine and Jamon Y Queso
sandwiches.
