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We took another night bus (MicroPlusUltra) from Córdoba to Salta. The buses in Argentina have all been pretty comfortable at night with cozy reclining seats. No one has been able to accomodate a vegetarian dinner (except CATA our first bus in Argentina, but we forgot to ask), but we haven’t been eating much for dinner lately so it hasn’t mattered to us. By the time they serve their typical 10pm dinner on the bus, I’ve already got my earplugs in and am ready to sleep.

Salta is not as hot as Córdoba and the city itself is much more with it. Decent food, happening plazas and pedestrian streets galore. We stayed at a campground that was 15 minutes away by bus and it was sort of a car-camp feeling. It was so nice to sleep in the tent again! It rained really hard at night and our tent is still water repellent, so that’s good news. The cool thing about Salta is not really the town, but the proximity of fun activities. We spent an afternoon paragliding (parapente) with the birds and riding the thermals and it was amazing. I was so scared and the whole experience felt safe and smooth. The ride only lasted about 10 minutes, but that was long enough because after awhile it’s like being on a constant rollercoaster. But it was so beautiful and I’m glad I did it.

The bungee jumping, on the other hand, I opted NOT to experience. There’s rapids to raft as well, but it’s only a Class III and we heard from other travellers that it was pretty tame. We price checked a bunch of tourist agencies (there’s a LOT, and we basically realized that they all use 1 of 2 rafting companies and I think there’s only 1 paragliding company). So, you can’t seem to go wrong and the prices don’t vary too much. We booked our tours through A Las Nubes and they were helpful but didn’t take credit cards.

Our other adventure we did was a day tour following the path of the Tren a las Nubes and visiting a few small towns, ruins and crossing a 4,800 meter pass (my highest yet). We also got to visit the Salar Grande, a huge salt flat that is in use for excavation. Our driver brought us (our group was just us plus two cute young lady doctors from Buenos Aires) to the salt flat and basically set us loose. It rained heavily the day before, so it was like walking in slush except it’s salt water and the slush is corse salt. It was bright and our shoes are still stiff and crusted with salt. After the salt flat our driver brought us to a touristy town that has hills of 7 colors. We ate some local goat cheese and headed back to Salta. The day trip was a nice change of pace. It’s not really our thing to hire a guide and do a tour like this, but the agency offered us a decent discount and we got to see a big ole salt flat. No need to pay $100 for Bolivia anymore!

We took a night bus from Buenos Aires to Córdoba, considered the cultural capital of the Americas or something along those lines. Not really sure why. Neither of us were too impressed and we only spent 2 days there, mostly walking around the city. Nothing really stood out to us as wow or fun or unique. It’s got a plaza, an old church and lots of stores and pedestrian streets with more stores. It was HOT, so we saw a few movies to escape the heat and sat by the litter-strewn river north of town and got bit by ants. We had a good pizza with wild mushrooms that were criminis (I think any mushroom not from a can in this continent is considered wild) and drank some half bottles of local red wine. Other than that, nothing exciting to report. We were ready to leave this town within hours of arriving.

Most of our time in BA we’ve been walking around, exploring the neighborhoods and eating.  Sounds like my typical city visits.  We visited the Recoleta Cemetery, where all the rich and famous (including Evita) are buried in elaborate tombs…it’s a park unto itself.  We saw the artesan street fair in Recoleta and the antiques market in San Telmo (lots of silverware and art).  We visited the Observatory in Palermo and for just over $1, we got to see a show about comets and constellations, which was fun.  I didn’t get the whole show, as I was exhausted and my ability to understand lectures in Spanish decreases when I am tired…but it was still fun.  We walked by the phallyc Obelisk that everyone is proud of and saw the Pink House where Evita gave her speeches.  We wandered upon a major street fair where everyone was spraying soap foam at each other and there was a live band (mostly drums and whistles)…we still don’t know why the celebration was happening, it was a Saturday during Lent, so who knows.

We had an opportunity to see a local soccer game.  River Plate vs. Americana (Mexico).  It was a fun game, mostly men singing songs the whole time and the boo-ing here is loud whistles.  River won within the last few minutes of the game, followed by much cheering and hugging and kissing among the men, which we haven’t witnessed in other countries.  Just a 1 cheek kiss, but it’s sweet.

I finall tasted the Yerba Mate here and I’m sorry to say that it tastes like a dirty ashtray.  I like green tea and bitter herbs, but this stuff I won’t seek out again.  Perhaps because about 9 of 10 people in this city smoke nonstop, they enjoy the taste of an ashtray or have no palate left, I dunno.  It’s definitely an acquired taste.

We are loving this city. We don’t feel like such outsiders and are not stared at constantly by children. There is so much culture and so much to do, we’re spending more time here than we planned on and that’s fine with me. Our first night we stayed at Hostel Cambalache in the Microcenter and I think we were the only non-Israelis staying there. The signs were in Hebrew and people spoke to us in Hebrew. Are we in Argentina? I guess there’s an Israeli circuit that most of the kids out of the army do, and this city is on the list. We only stayed one night there because in our dorm, Matt and I were the only ones to go to bed before 5am. We ended up finding a place that was practically our own apartment in San Telmo for only a few dollars more a night.

The city has a subway system that is good, but not air conditioned and it’s sweltering at times. It’s a little humid here, but it’s basically the end of the summer and really sunny and beautiful. There’s plenty of parks and trees and shade (and movie theaters with a/c when we need a break). We went and saw a tango show that included live music (guitar and bandoneon) tango, folkloric dancing/gaucho (which was really cool and was sort of eastern European feeling, dancing in a circle with arms wide open and boot stomping. The focus on the guy/girl dance was the guy, which was unique. At one point he had heavy leather balls on strings and slapped them on the ground, while stomping his feet to keep a beat with the music).

We also saw an aerial cirque show called Nocturna, which was wonderful and made me miss doing circus and being in the air. They had a flying trapeze, a swinging trapeze, a triple trap, silks, hoop, aerial doubles and acrobatics. They were all so strong and gutsy and did moves that made me dizzy. The hoop routine included every painful and scary move that I’ve unsucessfully attempted. My favorite was the guy/girl doubles routine done on the platform of the flying trapeze. It was kind of like a double trapeze, except the guy was in a fixed position and upside down the whole time. How he didn’t pass out, I don’t know. But he did really really great catches with the girl and the pace was quick and beautiful.

We’ve been eating well, too. Mostly Italian food (homemade raviolis, cannellonis, gnocchi, pizza) but we did find a raw foods restaurant that made my belly SO happy. I had a wheatgrass blueberry orange drink and a greens salad with seaweed, sprouts and veggies. The guy trained in NYC with Jubb and the food was beautiful and I left feeling satisfied (not just carbed-out, like most of our meals in South America). Learning more about raw cuisine is definitely on my list for when we return.

Yesterday we decided to hop on a bus and head to Maipú, about 30 minutes from Mendoza to do some wine hopping. We woke up later than we thought (apparently Argentina is an hour ahead of Chile, a fact we didn’t know for a few days), but ended up at Bikes and Wines, a bicycle rental outfit where we got a discount for joining South American Explorers. So far we have saved $10 with them, although most of the hostels don’t know what we’re talking about and have to ask their boss.

Anyways, we rented the bikes for a half a day and started down the road. The main wine area is south of town and the bus dropped us off right in front of the place (convenient!). There’s a 40km circuit but I think we did the 12 km circuit instead. The town itself was a bit of a letdown (dusty bumpy roads, not much of a bike lane, the usual litter) but part of the road was tree-lined and shady with less traffic. I’m surprised the town hasn’t thought to install a bike lane or a path through the vineyards to make it more tranquil…perhaps one day.

The first winery was La Rural, where we had a free taste of their Malbec and neither of us liked it. We opted not to do the tour and biked to the next stop, Historia y Sabores, which was really neat. We had a free tour and saw all the different kinds of liquors and wines and chocolates they make. It’s a cool concept, perhaps I’ll steal it. We also got a free shot and free piece of chocolate (the chocolate was good, but it wasn’t a dark choclate, mine was coffee and Matt’s was mint). Matt chose the chocolate banana liquor, which was delicious and tasted like a thick chocolate syrup with banana, but boozy. As usual, I chose the weirdest thing: Green Pepper liquor, which was about 30% alcohol (the chocolates are about 20%) and it was spicy! It was fun and I drank it all down with watery eyes. They make absinthe and have a really long list of fruit and chocolate drinks I can’t even remember.

Our next stop was the Almacén del Sur for lunch. Our map had it labeled as a Deli but it was anything but that. Fancy locked gate, orchards and gardens and a set menu (5 courses for $100AR). They offered us the special cyclist deal for $35AR (about $12 US) which was a soda, some bread, a pretty rolled pasta and spinach dish, and dessert (flan). A large tourist group of old white people showed up while we were eating and we were promptly forgotten by our waiter, but eventually we got our check and were able to hop back on our bikes. They have a nice concept using seasonal, local produce and giving you a “tour” of the food, except they do not treat all their guests the same. We were told we couldn’t have a tour because the large group arrived and no one could tend to us. Oh, well, there’s more wine to taste!

Next stop: Viña al Cerno. We showed up and planned to do a tour and a tasting but our guide didn’t show up for the tour and the other couple that was waiting with us left. We were tired of waiting as well so we went and just paid for the tasting. We tried their 2002 (Matt’s favorite) and 2005 Malbec, a 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Tempranillo (my favorite). Our tour guide found us in the bar eventually and asked about the tour and we explained we didn’t want to wait all day to take a walk…he didn’t seem to get it. Impatience and expected efficiency is definitely a Western standard and we are still in South America. But no worries, we had fun tasting the wine (and they were large pours).

Next stop: Familia di Tomasso. I’d like to believe that these people are related to FE’s family. A family run operation, all small batch, small vineyards. They put a lot of love and time and care into their winery and it shows. The granddaughter gave us the tour and her English was great. The winery was cool, too. The big vats were made of brick (brought over from France) and the building itself was really old (1800′s). We had 4 tastes (Malbec 2002, 2004, Cab. Sauv 2004, Dessert Wine). I liked the older Malbec the best. The dessert wine was really caramelly and sweet, but not bad. It’s won a bunch of awards and the place felt really homey. It was nice to visit a family place after seeing the commercialized Concha y Toro in Chile.

By now, perhaps you have noticed we were late for returning the bikes. We hoped they would be understanding and let us pay for a full day when we finally returned. We were having too much fun…and with all the waiting time visiting one winery could be over an hour, easy. We finished up at Laur, an olive oil farm/factory/? We joined up with a tour group and had a quick tour of the orchards, the press room and some samples. It didn’t taste like the thick, strong olive oil I remember in Spain, but it’s nice to see some olive oil around (it was hard to come by in Peru). After that tour, we hopped on our bikes and hustled it back to the bike rental place before they closed (we just made it). Parts of the ride were really pretty and scenic and we both had sore butts from the crappy bike seats at the end of the day, but veins full of local, yummy wine.