Salta and San Lorenzo. Thurs 30th March 2017

Thursday 30^th March 2017

Salta – City Tour, and San Lorenzo

Visited the San Franciso church, which has the tallest spire in South America (allegedly), decorated in plum red and gold.  

The cable car was working, but the weather was dull and misty, so we drove up to Cerro San Bernardo to wander around the man-made waterfalls and wait for the clouds to clear to get a glimpse of the city below.   

A nice statue of General Guemes, who was a bit of a Robin Hood character – giving to the poor.  Therefore became a hero to the Gauchos.  The statue shows his Gaucho troops in disarray and then moves around to show them fed and disciplined under his command. They managed to repel seven powerful Spanish invasions from Bolivia between 1814 and 1821.

On to the town of San Lorenzo which was on the opposite hill and full of gorgeous posh houses with courtyards, swimming pools and lovely gardens. Walked along a river through the forest, trying to spot the birdlife and failing miserably.  Back to town via a craft market, but all seemed a bit pricey and we’d rather wait to get ponchos/gloves etc when in Alpaca countries. 

 

Dropped off back by the Cabildo, where we took up position in the same bar with Gunna’s leg raised and iced. Set menu of chicken/veg roll, steak in sauce with risotto, fresh fruit salad. 190R each plus Salta beers (55R (£3) for litre bottle). I finally found a post office and bought two stamps for postcards – 140R, which pretty much cleaned us out of all our Argentinian money.  Walked back to hotel and sorted out emails and blog. Early night ready for VERY early start tomorrow. Setting alarm for 4.15am. Ouch.

Salta, Argentina. Pena Show - Wed 29th March 2017

Wednesday 29^th March 2017

Salta, Argentina

Ate the hotel packed breakfast – 2x croissant and a nice ripe pear!  Arrived unexpectedly about 10am (we thought it would be about 1pm) to be met by Pablo the guide.  Short transfer to hotel – Altos de Balcarce - older style with swimming pool (bit cool) in a courtyard.  It had been raining heavily in Salta, but stopped every time we went out walking. Very humid. 

The town is situated in the Lerma valley between two forested mountains and seems to be used as a bit of a stepping stone to travel elsewhere.  The town was founded in 1582, so lots of nice old colonial style buildings, plazas, and Gaucho heritage.  The Cabildo is one of the oldest in existence and like the others housed the governor, jail, and government of the time.  We walked around taking usual tourist photos without actually knowing what we were looking at.  Nice reflection of the pink and cream painted 19^th century cathedral, in the plate glass of the bank next door. 

 

All of the buildings in the Plaza 9 de Julio have a ‘corridor’ walkway so that you can stay dry whilst walking around, and it was nice to see that the new bank also had this architectural requirement.   Lunch of a traditional hot bowl with veg/potato/meat/ stew (Ed tried Llama – OK, but a bit chewy). We found a nice outside bar with umbrellas and left Gunna with beer and still nursing his badly swollen leg while we went wandering.  Terry and Diane went off horseriding ‘Gaucho-style’ at an Estancia outside of town.

Back for a kip then 6x of us got ready to go out to a traditional ‘Pena’ show. Found one just a block away which was handy.  Didn’t open until 9pm, with the show starting around 10pm through to 2pm while we ate.  (usual thing in South America – dinner doesn’t start until 9pm earliest, including with young children).   I had a large sirloin steak with peppercorn and mushroom sauce, roasted vegetables and pumpkin squash.  Cost 290R for food and no cost for the entertainment (other than 20R pp seating charge).  Bottle of Malbec about 160R.  Treated to the most fabulous show – 3x male and 3x female Gaucho dancers – mix between flamenco, tap and Russian, with quite a bit of handkerchief waving. Don’t think their knees and ankles could survive beyond 25yr old.  Then joined by a trio of superb tenor singers, plus guitar backing and one drum – should have been on Argentina’s Got Talent.  Better than El Divo.  We bought a CD from them (got them to sign) and one of the dancing – hopefully the money will go to the entertainers.  Followed by a further group of singers and guitarists, this time getting the crowd more involved in the dancing.

 

 

 

Great nights’ entertainment.

Cordoba. City Tour/ memorial to the 'disappeared'. Tues 28 March

 

Tuesday 28^th March 2017

Cordoba.  Met by very apologetic guide, Sol, who said that she had been at the bus station where we were until 11pm… mmmm.

City Tour following the, by now, standard 3xC route – Cathedral/Church, Convent, Cabildo.  Cordoba is a big University City, with the Jesuits founding the first university in the country in 1613.  It’s the second largest city in Argentina, founded in 1573, but not quite as impressive as Buenos Aires.   

 

The Cabildo this time, in the Plaza San Martin (national hero), had a really nifty marble paving outside, which was a pen-picture reflection of the building, with all the arches and windows in the ‘shadow’.

 

What was heart-stopping was a series of flags and pictures of some of the 30,000 ‘disappeared’ hung over the road outside of the Memory Museum, and put up to commemorate last Friday’s ‘memory day’.  Very moving when you see all the young faces, many of them mothers whose children were also taken. The museum used to be the torture chamber and jail, so one highlight was a group of schoolchildren all sitting listing to their recent history. Hopefully they will learn….

Around the corner was a man demonstrating against Las Malvinas territory.

There is still a group of ex-military demanding their pay for their role during the war (not at the Falklands, but in reserve etc), and clearly still a will from some to restore the Falklands to Argentine rule (many others can’t be bothered).  We kept our Brit mouths shut whilst taking some quick photos.

Confusion reigned when we asked about the 10am collection for the bus to Salta. Found that it was actually the 10 pm overnight bus and we were booked on for tomorrow night.  Not wishing to hang about in Cordoba, we changed the booking and used the room facilities to relax and shower before the overnight 13 hour+ journey.

Left Cordoba at 2230 hours. Very luxurious bed-seats, wide and reclined to about 180degree. However at a slippery angle so still not easy to get comfortable.  Also some idiot decided to put a film on in English but Spanish subtitles with a gory plot – bank heist, serial killer etc – so everytime I started to fall asleep there would be screams and gunshots.  Great idea to relax people for bed!  Top Tip – take earplugs next time!

Eventually managed to sleep and woke up near Salta Province.

Mendoza to Cordoba by looongggg bus journey. Mon 27th March

Monday 27^th March 2017

Mendoza to Cordoba. By public bus – left at about 10am, didn’t arrive until about 9pm.  Semi-Cama on a Cata public coach. Reasonably comfortable, but all getting very restless. Rum helped!

The trip started off in mountainous countryside with lovely views of the Sierras. Then quite quickly changed to a monotonous flat scrubland, semi desert/pampa.  Then full desert with dunes, and back to agricultural land.  All dependent on whether they had mountains nearby and ability to irrigate.  Weird formations of vegetation around a series of telegraph poles belonged to the oven-bird which unfortunately weren’t present (or had been fried in the electrical wires?). 

Unfortunately no guide to meet us on arrival, so we wasted time searching for one, then grabbed three taxis and made our own way to hotel. Interestingly two taxis cost 50R with tip (about £2.50), the third cost 120R for exact same trip. Didn’t find out till he had gone. Bas*ard.

Grabbed a quick pizza and beer from a bar very close to hotel, whilst watching the local team on TV playing football. Very animated crowd, unfortunately they lost.

 

 

 

 

Not the best of days. The pizza helped retrieve the situation.

Mendoza - Wine and Olive Oil tasting! Sunday 26th March 2017

Sunday 26^th March 2017

Vineyards and olive oil…

Collected 8.15 for a vineyard and city tour with our guide Cecilia.  All were pretty zonked after our session yesterday, not helped by a wine-tasting which started about 9.30.  But we suffered for our education and indulged!

The first vineyard, Don Manuel Villafane (www.dmvwines.com), was a modern –looking building with fish moat and a grassy sloped wall. Very cool. One of the best wine tours I’ve had then started with only our little group of 7 in the whole place and taken around all the vats, machinery and cellar.

We poured off wine in the process of fermentation direct from the vats, wandering around with our glasses.  The guide was excellent in explaining the whole system and then hosting us to test completed blended and reserva wines – colour, legs, nose and finally a good swilling. We tried to buy three bottles but their credit card machine wasn’t working so we settled for a blended and a Malbec Reserva, which only cost less than $20.

Next stop was an olive grove and factory of Familia Zuccardi – producing  Zuelo virgin extra olive oil. Again we were shown around the whole factory process from the picking process (by hand), through the cleaning, mushing and centrifuge to the final vats.  Absolutely spotlessly clean and lovely machinery.  A very weird ‘olive oil’ tasting session then took place with small blue glasses used, and we then had to rub our

 hand around the bottom to warm the oil.

  No testing of colour, but same as wine with the sniffing and supping/swilling around the mouth. No bread in sight. It actually tasted really ‘grassy’ and smelt like tomatoes growing, with a really peppery aftertaste.  We decided to have an early lunch there and delay the next vineyard which turned out to be an excellent decision. Lunch consisted of a massive selection of meats, cheeses, nuts, olives, salads with of course olive oils and bread, all washed down with some Pinot Grigio.  Yum.

The final vineyard, Trapiche (named after the way the wine was pressed), was much older and had been derelict for many years before a recent refurbishment.  Notable was the beautiful rose-wood parquet floors, and an old railway siding that had diverted the railway to make movement of wine and produce easier. This place used large oak casks but also weird concrete ones with a narrower top which seems to be the more modern way. The wine-tasting here wasn’t quite as successful – the first couple of wines seemed very strong with tannin, but again the Malbec was nice and the best was the red pudding wine.

We were then taken on a city tour which variously had us all asleep.  Should have done this first!  But Mendoza is a nice little city, mainly flat, and full of squares with trees and usually a fountain in the middle.  Most roads are tree-lined which is incredible as this is really a desert area and they are fully reliant on an irrigation system coming from the glaciers and mountains.  There is a department of irrigation and all the farmers/ commerce who want water have to decide the amount and which days it is required, then there is a system of canals and irrigation channels with ‘locks’ which are constantly monitored and adjusted.  There is a separate system of pipes for drinking water which is allegedly pure (not risking it). 

As it was Sunday, most families were out and about in the parks, around tables with chairs and sometimes barbequing their food.  Street barbeques are a big thing, using wood not charcoal, with queues of people collecting cooked chicken for taking away.  The best statue was a huge one at the top of the only hill, of General San Martin leading his troops across the Andes.  Freedom was an angel breaking the chains and the various friezes show the troops and horses at the beginning, around to the General’s wives having to hand over their jewellery to fund the expedition and through to the exhausted and bedraggled troops and horses who survived the journey.  A picture of the statue is on the back of a 50 peso note.

Chill-out evening in the room. Eaten and drunk too much recently. Shared bag of crisps and used Loretta’s kettle to make tea.  Hugely appreciated.