DAY 266 - Salta, Argentina

Groan. The bus I'm on to Salta is a cross between a youth hostel and a soft rock karaoke bar. The drivers insist on playing old hair rock very loudly and singing along to it. We've been stopped four times for drug searches and we've still got another 19 hours "together".

It wasn't always so. The bus from Baraloche to Buenos Aires was very nice, with loads of room and meals served regularly. The hostel we stayed at in BA was staffed by, and occupied by, a bunch of kids and could have been a Channel 4 social documentary (let's put children in charge of children and see how they get on).

This part of the trip I'd done before, but Dan hadn't. We trekked around the usual BA sights over the next three days; Evita's tomb, the Pink Palace, etc, but also found some new things I'd missed first time out, such as the small San Telmo street market with its tango dancers, antiques and art, and the Japanese garden.

Evening outs were a lot more expensive this time with an unfortunate lack of economic collapse to drive prices down (well, unfortunate for me). The beer is great. The food, although still dominated by pizza and beef, is (relatively) more varied (we found somewhere doing curry! Hurrah! Shame it was an English-run pub). We even went back to my favorite eating hole from last time, La Estancia, for a slap-up meal. The people are ok although still attempting to air con the world (by leaving all their doors wide open).

After BA we had a one night visit to Iguazu to see the falls. They're certainly spectacular, especially standing above the "Devil's Throat" where lots of water funnels into a small horse-shoe shaped bend, but once you've seen 'em, you've seen 'em. Second time round they were just as impressive, but a single night was enough, however much the town wants you to stay longer. Besides, our room backed onto the bar with its live music, and one night definitely was enough of that. At least they didn't play Bob Marley on endless loop like most hostels around the world. Having them run by kids does have one advantage - reggae had been and gone before they were born.

 

Rich.