me on baherito "little bird"
Gaucho cowboy....and some impressive sunburn
me and girls i stayed with in the cable car
gorgeous mountains
pretty buildings too!The argentinian side of the border town, La Quiaca, is very different to Villazon, the bolivian side. Suddenly there are pastry shops, proper roads and little cafes!
I caught the next bus to Salta, a city in the north of Argentina, and a mere 7 hours away, with some girls who I had met on the train and crossed the border with. We arrived in Salta Wednesday evening and found a really nice hostel to stay in. The next few days were spent wandering around Salta, shopping, eating and drinking. It was perfect!
Salta is a lovely city, and felt really friendly and safe... especially after Bolivia! Argentina is supposed to be quite Italian; I don´t know about that having never been to Italy, but it certainly was quite continental and european. You can even get croissants! The buildings and plazas are really colonial in style, but well maintained, whereas in Bolivia, everything is falling down.
The landscape was also a lot greener, with more trees, I suppose because it is not as high up. I have been really missing proper green trees, so I was very happy to get a bit of a tree fix! There are huge cactii everywhere and the mountains are incredible too.
We went in a cable car over the city one day, and horse riding by the mountains the next. The horse riding was really really good, although painful afterwards!! We went to a gaucho ranch(gauchos are argentinian cowboys) and the ranch was beautiful. The gauchos also wore the traditional outfits and did things like playing flute-like instruments while they rode; they made it look so easy! We rode round the tobacco plantations and the areas where they dry it all out. I´m afraid that the horse riding itself was a bit of a battle; I could manage to trot, but galloping felt like I was back on Death Road again! However it was a lovely day, although I did end up with some impressive sunburn and a very sore bum by the end of it!
Argentina is, of course, well known for its meat, and it´s wine. After Bolivia, which is not only unremarkable, but I would go as far as to say appalling, in these respects, it was lovely to be in Argentina! I didn´t have to worry about what the food/unhygenic plates etc would do to my stomach! The red wine was gorgeous, and the meat was too, even though i´m not a huge meat fan myself, so it had to be good for me to love it. The only thing is though, if you order a steak, you get a huge steak....and nothing else! They love the meat so much, that they don´t even bother with vegetables or chips or anything!
I left Salta to start heading back on Monday morning. It was probably a good job that I had to go, as I kept buying clothes...I was so excited to see real clothes shops and clothes that were actually of a style within the last decade that I kept buying them! I was sad to leave Salta though. I am definitely going back there, and to see the rest of Argentina too, at some point. Its a very really beautiful and relaxed country, and it was a good little holiday too!
Anyway, I am back in La Paz now. I have just got back from lessons at school, which are going well, especially after my little break. Unfortunately I have a nasty cold, but I am off to the pub now to get some hot whisky for medicinal purposes.
I caught the next bus to Salta, a city in the north of Argentina, and a mere 7 hours away, with some girls who I had met on the train and crossed the border with. We arrived in Salta Wednesday evening and found a really nice hostel to stay in. The next few days were spent wandering around Salta, shopping, eating and drinking. It was perfect!
Salta is a lovely city, and felt really friendly and safe... especially after Bolivia! Argentina is supposed to be quite Italian; I don´t know about that having never been to Italy, but it certainly was quite continental and european. You can even get croissants! The buildings and plazas are really colonial in style, but well maintained, whereas in Bolivia, everything is falling down.
The landscape was also a lot greener, with more trees, I suppose because it is not as high up. I have been really missing proper green trees, so I was very happy to get a bit of a tree fix! There are huge cactii everywhere and the mountains are incredible too.
We went in a cable car over the city one day, and horse riding by the mountains the next. The horse riding was really really good, although painful afterwards!! We went to a gaucho ranch(gauchos are argentinian cowboys) and the ranch was beautiful. The gauchos also wore the traditional outfits and did things like playing flute-like instruments while they rode; they made it look so easy! We rode round the tobacco plantations and the areas where they dry it all out. I´m afraid that the horse riding itself was a bit of a battle; I could manage to trot, but galloping felt like I was back on Death Road again! However it was a lovely day, although I did end up with some impressive sunburn and a very sore bum by the end of it!
Argentina is, of course, well known for its meat, and it´s wine. After Bolivia, which is not only unremarkable, but I would go as far as to say appalling, in these respects, it was lovely to be in Argentina! I didn´t have to worry about what the food/unhygenic plates etc would do to my stomach! The red wine was gorgeous, and the meat was too, even though i´m not a huge meat fan myself, so it had to be good for me to love it. The only thing is though, if you order a steak, you get a huge steak....and nothing else! They love the meat so much, that they don´t even bother with vegetables or chips or anything!
I left Salta to start heading back on Monday morning. It was probably a good job that I had to go, as I kept buying clothes...I was so excited to see real clothes shops and clothes that were actually of a style within the last decade that I kept buying them! I was sad to leave Salta though. I am definitely going back there, and to see the rest of Argentina too, at some point. Its a very really beautiful and relaxed country, and it was a good little holiday too!
Anyway, I am back in La Paz now. I have just got back from lessons at school, which are going well, especially after my little break. Unfortunately I have a nasty cold, but I am off to the pub now to get some hot whisky for medicinal purposes.
4 comments:
where are the pictures u cheat!
i'm also not at all happy that you are refering to bolivia as "home" - warrington is your home laydee!
glad to hear u had a nice holiday tho altho to be honest we never hear about any of the work you're supposedly doing over there so not sure if you deserve one :p xx
it is raining here
hi hannah, james and dom here, you may find out about this from your house mate in la paz. we were in goonhilly satellite earth station and they let you make free international phone calls. so naturally we decided to try and give u a call to wake you up because by doms estimate it was 7.23 in the morning where you were. unfortuatly you were else where which made me sad. but we had fun talking to your very sleepy sounding house mate. if you were wondering why dom was in cornwall he came to pay us a vist for a few days before he went of to jerez. we hope you hope your well and having a great time loads of love james and not so much dom lol.
A month and still no update. I'm disappointed.
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