Crazy Crazy Nights

¡Buenos tea time from Salta! Yes I´m still here almost a week later. Why? Because this place has something really cool about it. I don´t know if it´s the feel of the city, the hostel I´m in, the nightlife or a combination of all three.. but there´s definitely something in the air.

Just an update on photos.. If you click the link to the right that says photos, this will take you to my page at photobucket.com. Currently there is only one photo there (of some of the Iguazu Falls) as when I started uploading the computer crashed and I was moved to another. Unfortunately it just wouldn´t let me do it! Despite my efforts of trying just about every internet cafe in town, I still haven´t been able to upload anymore. However, tomorrow I´m on my way to Cordoba which is much bigger, so fingers crossed I´ll have more joy there! Also I´ve switched on comments, so if you want to leave a comment, click the "comments" link at the bottom of a post, which will take you to a page where you can write. If you don´t have a blog account you can click "Post Anonymously" to leave one without having to create an account.

Live

Today I´m feeling pretty good. Much better compared to the last two days when I had a dodgy stomach and couldn´t sleep too well. I`m sure it was either from the amount of beer drunk - those litre bottles go down quick - or some vegetables I bought to use in a pasta. I´ve been told that in Chile they use some crazy pesticides that unless you take the skin off make you feel ill, so since it´s not that far to the Chilean border it could have been that. If any Chilean farmers would like to correct me on this or explain the use of stomach massacring pesticides, please leave a comment!

The hostel I moved to on Tuesday was definitely a smart move. When I returned to the hostel I met 3 Australians and 1 English almost as I walked through the door. We headed out for food but we were too early so had to settle with beer for a couple of hours (ooh, such a hard compromise!) until the restaurants opened. It would seem you can dream on if you think of eating in a restaurant in Argentina much before 8:30 and even then you´ll be on your own until 10! We went to some bar that was recommended but I think Tuesday is not the night to go out here, as it wasn´t all that great.

Wednesday I wandered the city again to have a look round. Whilst doing so I saw a very strange sight - a man walking through the centre of town with 4 Llamas tied together in tow. What it was all about I don´t know, but it certainly looked very strange! At night, we had a massive BBQ at the hostel. 40 people sat down as Jorge (the best BBQ chef in the world??) cooked a herd of cows on the grill. The wine flowed and the steaks kept coming for the next couple of hours. Afterwards we headed to a bar with the rest of the hostel. Several beers later I´m dancing like a lunatic on the dancefloor chatting to whoever would listen - where all the spanish was coming from I´ll never know. It got to about 4:30AM and I thought it was time for a little sit down, only it turned into quite a big sit down as I fell asleep (read: passed out) for 2 hours. I was only awoken by the sounds of glasses being collected as the club emptied at 6! Somehow I stumbled back to the hostel.

Thursday, I went for a walkabout with another Australian I met - Glenn as he was looking for some trainers. Argentine´s have a funny shoe sense, so it took a while. Got to see more of the city though, which I wouldn´t have done otherwise. I didn´t actually go out Thursday night (alright, don´t fall of your chair!) and went to bed so that I could get up to get some decent photo´s without being hassled by the ever present hustlers of restaurants, money and tourist trips that usually line the streets.

So Friday I went and took the photos I wanted around town. There really are some stunning buildings, mainly churches, around. I then went up a hill at the edge of the city to get a bird´s eye view down of the city and surrounds. Unfortunately it was too grey to get any of the mountains in the distance, but I did get a few of the city which I hope will come out well. Friday night, it was back to normal service as first we went out to a restaurant where I had my best steak so far and watched on as a tango show was given around us. All that for 4 pounds! After the show we headed to Zeppelin, which didn´t actually play any Led Zeppelin, but was still good. Another night of beer fuelled craziness on the tiles of Salta ensued.

Saturday was a day of rest. I woke up after 4 hours sleep and just couldn´t get back to sleep. I felt ill, and none of the usual tricks would work. I did manage to go to a market in the slums with a few others though. I´ve never seen so many clothes in my life! It was an experience, but rest assured we didn´t go wandering any streets down there. Another BBQ took place in the evening and Jorge did the trick once again. The wine didn´t flow for me though and I was the only one drinking water but it was worth it to feel good today :-)

Listen

Without doubt the most memorable sound in the last week has been the sound of AC/DC thundering through the hostel sound system at 11:30 to wake us up to let them clean! Other morning´s it´s been the Beatles, panpipes and other less awakening music, but a blast of Highway to Hell had all our room awake without fail. Other sounds include: someone in the dorm having a dream and shouting all sorts of spanish(!), the crackle of the huge BBQ burning away, more traffic (damn stuff gets everywhere), the chink of wine glasses sat at the long tables at the BBQ, the crazy horn noise made by some buses, the blur of languages heard in the latest hostel: spanish, german, hebrew, french to name the few I could recognise.

Travel

Being in one city for a week, means really I haven´t done all that much travel whilst based here. I´ve walked up and down Calle Buenos Aires numerous times, the central square and the surrounding streets, and up the hill at the edge of town. I also made the journey by cab to the slums, which by Montevideo and Buenos Aires standards are not too bad. Still some very poor people living there :-( .

The next real travel begins at 9:12 tomorrow morning when I board the bus for Cordoba. Catch you there!