Ahmad: We left Mendoza feeling a little restless after all the relaxing, we had seriously considered going to some other places in Argentina but decided against it as bus travel is so so expensive.
After our overnight bus journey to Salta, we got checked into Siete Duendes Hostel (translates as seven goblins hostel). The hostel was really nice, with really clean dorms, a great kitchen and the best TV / Theatre room I’ve seen on our travels.
We spent a day or so just wandering around and running errands, there are lots of tours that operate out of Salta. These include horseback riding, zip lining etc. They also do a half day of white water rafting for a grand total of £30. As we reach the end of our travels you can imagine how tight the purse strings are, as such we took advantage of none of these activities (the need to eat when we head to London was a pretty compelling rationale, though we have done lots of these activites on our trip previously).
After a couple of days rest following the bus journey, we took a cable car up to a big hill / small mountain in the middle of Salta. The view was fantastic, and the top of the mountain had been landscaped with lots of waterfalls, squares and greenery. Normally I insist on walking up any mountains but as the temperature here during the day hits 30C on a regular basis with no shade whatsoever Laura won out and we got the cable car up, but we walked back down.
We also had our last steak meal (in a restaurant anyway), it was a mixed grill consisting of Sausage, lots of steak and beef ribs, very tasty though not to the same standard as the place we went to with Javier in Buenos Aires.
We visited the main cathedral with Chloe (a fellow traveller from London – for some reason all travellers seem to be from London?) followed by a pedelo and ice cream on the lake in the local park. Both Laura and Chloe were excited to see some swings and immediately took advantage of the lack of children using them.
We spent the next few days, again, just chilling out preparing for 6 weeks in Bolivia and Peru which are far less westernised than Argentina or Chile. The only minor irritation we encountered during the rest of our stay were the two Danish girls we were sharing our dorm with. One of them clearly thought she was the most talented singer in South America (FYI – She was rubbish and sounded like a female cat on heat), she insisted on singing late into the night accompanied by a hapless French guy with a guitar, who’s musical ability was limited to knowing 2 ½ chords.
I have nothing against guitars, or people enjoying themselves playing/singing, my only requests are please don’t do it:
1) At 3AM
2) If you don’t have any musical talent whatsoever
If it were up to me (and be glad it isn’t) dorm etiquette would be a compulsory written and practical exam prior to buying a backpack. Failure to pass would be punished with the aforementioned Danish Girl/ Hapless French guy singing and playing respectively for 24 hours solid in the same room as you (I’m confident the pass rate at a second attempt would be 100%, either that or suicide rates among prospective travellers would reach an all time high).
Back to Mendoza