Colonial Northern Cities

Over the last week we´ve been in Mendoza and Salta. Both are cities that have huge colonial influence in the architecture, with the centre of the cities set around a main square plaza with palm trees and fountains. They´re both very pretty towns with bustling night life. Mendoza is in the desert and relies heavily on water from the Andes which are always imposing in the background. The streets are lined with trees which makes an extremely appealing city. The only way the trees can live is through an irrigation system that lines every street throughout the city (almost like a gutter), if these weren´t there then the place would be hell, mainly from the lack of shade. It was only spring and a mere 25 degrees and the locals were wearing sweaters and overcoats, so they must be used to some heat!

Mendoza is wine country and home of the Malbec, so we had to try a drop or two and set off on foot in search of the vineyards. Even outside of the city the streets of every town and village are lined with the trees fed by a similar type of irrigation system. We found wine and had a couple of tours of some very old bodegas (wineries). On our final day we went paragliding in the foothills of the Andes over Mendoza - which was awesome! We´re definitely doing that again later in our trip. Mum - you´d love it!

We then moved onto Salta, it´s strangely not salty in Salta, and where once again, believe it or not, they knew nothing of our reservation (I´m now thinking this is Stu´s Spanish), so we moved on to another family run hostel. There are lots of things to do, but all are a fair bus journey away, so rather than having a load of long bus rides sandwiched between some more bus rides, we decided to chill and take a few Spanish lessons instead. These have just highlighted how much we need to learn!

Early tomorrow morning we go to San Pedro in Chile. I´ll be sad to leave Argentina, but it´s only for a while. We´ll be back in December for some Patagonian treats and of course, tango in Buenos Aires.

Before I go, one thing we´ve really noticed is that everything is half broken here. The lights, the fans, the AC, the local buses, the furniture, the cars, the list is endless. There´s obviously a philosophy of "if it´s not (completely) broken, don´t fix it" - lazy Argies! I imagine it´s only going to get to worse as we move to Bolivia and Peru, hmmm...