To Heaven and Back!

Saturday, Jan. 22

I arrived in Salta at 10:30, but I had trouble finding a room. My hotel where I stayed before was full. A nearby place was also full. I went to the tourist office where a very nice lady called several places in the price range I quoted. She finally found 1 double room available for 40 pesos ($13.38 U.S.). It´s fine, but it is a little out of the way. It is frustrating having to worry about room availability everywhere I go.

I am sitting in a nice restaurant overlooking a plaza and the provencial legislative building. The former is one block square and has a flagpole in the center. It has nice old trees. The only ones I recognize are palms and ficus trees. Another maybe be a golden rain tree. All the others are beautiful, but they are exotic, unknown trees to me. The legislative building is European-style from the 1800s and is currently being restored in a peachy-flesh color with cream trim. It is an attractive combination.

My lunch was nice. I had lomo, thin sliced beef filet, covered with a cheese sauce with peppers and onions. Yellow rice was the side dish. I ate and watched the people on the plaza. When I leave here, I will go to the plaza and find a shady place to relax and read.
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Notes:
1. Argentina has been less expensive than I expected. I have been here 10 days through this morning (including last night´s hotel room), and I have spent $197.51 for a daily average of $19.95! That´s as cheap as I tend to be able to travel in Asica. I had been worried that it would average $30-40 per day. And what makes it even more of a bargain is realizing how much bus travel is included in that average.

2. Away from the absolute center of Salta, there are no traffic controls at intersections. Whoever is going through the intersection has the right-of-way. As soon as there is a pause in cross traffic, the waiting line starts up. Then a waiting line begins to form on the other street until there is another pause. I guess they are no-fault intersections. Aggressive people tend to win, but they also are in greater danger.

3. I find it amazing how little English is spoken in Argentina, even among educated young people. In today´s world it would be advantageous for them to speak English, especially considering the poor state of their economy and their need to try to globalize. The government should be encouraging tourism with the prices so cheap, but the lack of English-speaking people in the tourist industry would be a big problem.

4. I have felt completely safe here--all places at all times. Of course, everyone thinks I am Argentinean as long as I don´t speak. My skin, hair, and eyes are dark like theirs.
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When I left the restaurant, I bought a piece of cake being sold by ladies in the plaza. It had very think crusty layers filled with caramel cream--sort of an Argentine version of fragilité.

The rest of the day was rather routine. I rested and watched a film on TV, I went to the station and bought a ticket to Tucumán for tomorrow, I walked through town, and I returned at 8:00 p.m. when it started raining. I am staying in and watching TV tonight.

Walking: 24,956 steps (21,622 aerobic steps), 1010 calories, 16.97 km (10 miles)

Sunday, Jan. 23

I´ve left the mountains temporarily. I am in Tucumán, the biggest city in the north of Argentina. It is also known as the hottest of the big cities. It has a huge park that is supposed to be the best in the country. But the whole city, including the park, is a dumpy looking place. It is obvious that the infrastructure has been ignored for years, if not for decades. The sidewalks are broken. They still use metal platforms at intersections for policemen to direct traffic like in India. An amphitheater at the park looked abandoned and falling apart although the design was rather modern. A shopping mall attached to the bus station has only 5-6 regular stores and 2-3 eateries. Half of the mall is vaant, and the rest is rented out in the form of market stalls. The town is good only as a transit point. Otherwise, it would be better to avoid it. I am using it as an overnight transit point because my bus arrived here too late for me to connect to my next destination.

Hotels here are also unkept. Yet the prices are higher than in other cities where I have been. They all have set prices for tourists that are printed on brochures like elsewhere in the country. Even if they are almost empty, they let you walk out rather than discounting their prices. Fortunately, even the tourist price is reasonable in general. Here in Tucumán, however, they seem inflated beyond the quality. Also, the star system seems to be meaningless. I am stayin at a "3-star" hotel tonight, but it seems to be only a little better than a Motel 6 in the U.S.

I got here too late for lunch. I hadn´t eaten all day, but I pushed myself. I explored the park and the downtown area until 5:00 p.m. Then I stopped at Il Postino Pizzabar. It is a little glorified--something like a Bennigans. None of the pizzas sounded good, so I got a lomito (steak filet) sandwich with French fries. It was good, and I feel stuffed. My stomach feels full with only a little food these days.

I am spending the rest of the evening in my room. Sundays are not good days for doing things in Argentina. In fact, I will try to plan each one to be a travel day like today.

Walking: 16,455 steps (13,819 aerobic steps), 665 calories, 11.18 km (6.7 miles)

Monday, Jan. 24

Heaven, I´m in Heaven...! Tafi del Valle has to be one of the BEST places in the WORLD. I took the bus from Tucumán this morning. We gradually climbed up into the mountains--green ones this time. We passed fields of sugarcane, fruits, vegetables. We had sharp switchbacks. Then we arrived to a big valley in the middle of green mountaintops with the raggidy tips of the high Andes visible just beyond. Vinyars lined the roadway after we passed a huge lake. And butterflies fluttered everywhere. As we entered town, there was a polo game in progress on a field. The town is small and quaint. People come here to relax and hike. The valley is so beautiful that it encourages walking. With the mountains sweeping up on all sides with wonderful folds in their sides, they remind of of scenes in Hawaii and New Zealand.

I may be staying in the nices hotel in town. Again, I had trouble finding a room. All the cheaper places were booked solid, so I checked into Hosteria Lunahuana (http://www.lunahuana.com.ar/i_main.htm). I have a room with a loft. There is a double bed in the main room, and it is covered with a beautiful, cream-colored wool blanket. On the walls are weavings and wooden fixtures. On the tile floors is a Persian rug. The slanted ceiling is timbered. Up the circular stairway are two single beds. Everything is of the highest quality. It´s a splurge compared to the prices I have paid for other hotels here, but it is a bargain in terms of what you get for the price--$30 U.S. per night.

I came straight from the hotel to El Rancho de Felix restaurant and have been having one of the best meals since arriving in South America. I had two types of tamales. Each are local versions and were tied bundles about 3 inches by 4 inches by 1 inch (7.5 cm x 10 cm x 2.5 cm). The first was a vegetarian one called humitis. The masa was a mixture of corn and pumpkin. Mixed in with it were chunks of cheese, kernals of corn, and onions. It was fantastic! The second was called a tamale. It had just corn masa and had chunks of beef, chunks of pork, onions, boiled eggs, and raisins mixed among the masa. The raisins were not the boxed kind; obviously they were dried grapes from the local vinyards.

As I said at the beginning, I am in heaven. The setting, my hotel, the food, etc., couldn´t be better. I could stay here for days. I will stay at least two nights and maybe three. I can´t imagine wanting to be anywhere else right now.

I explored the village and took some photos of the mountains and the valley. Then I came to the room to rest. Shortly afterwards, rain began. By 8:00 it had let up, so I went out again. it was cooler by then, and most people were wearning jackets. I bought some local cheese. Tafi is known for it cheeses and has a cheese festival in February each year. I also bought a bottle of wine (Los Haraldos Cabernet Malbec). I returned to my room and had the cheese, which was spongy and a little salty, for dinner and watched TV.

Here are some images of Tafi del Valle: http://images.google.com.ar/images?q=Tafi%20del%20Valle&hl=es&lr=&sa=N&tab=wi

Tuesday, Jan. 25

It´s coudy today with an occasional drizzle. It would be nicer with sunshine, but I have still been out. After breakfast, I hiked to a lookout point. I used the map to determine a route on back roads. There was no traffic at all. It was a switchback road lined with nice homes. Some have fulltime residents, but it is obvious that others are summer houses owned by wealthy families who come hear to escape the heat. Most have lawns full of beautiful flowers--clusters of purple, yellow, white, pink, etc. Often, wild roses are growing along the fences. Every house seems to have a view of the valley, since each switchback and even the opposite side of the roadway is a little higher up the hillside.

The tops of the mountains are covered with clounds, but I got some good photos of houses and lawns and of the clouds draping down into the crevices of the mountains. This valley is definitely an Argentinean paradise.

When I got back to town via a different route down the mountain, I stopped at a cyber cafe. The computer was bad and the connection was slow. I lost a blog entry when it wouldn´t post. I gave up. I read and responded to critical e-mail and got out quickly as I saw the price rising fast.

I went back to the same restaurant as yesterday and had more local food. This time I had locro, a pumpkin-corn soup with chunks of beefr, pork, sausage, and stomach. The corn had a texture like hominy. There was a picante sauce to add to the soup that seemed to be oil, onions, and red peppers.

After a rest at the hotel, I went back out in the evening. Here are notes about this place:

1. It reminds me of towns in the wine areas north of San Francisco. It´s a special place.

2. The local children (and some of the adults) ride horses to come into town. At their fast speed, they go at a high-stepping gallop that is beautiful to watch. Many ride their horses with just a llama fur blanket on the horse´s back.

3. Mixed grills are popular here. There are many places that have their grills in the front windows so you can see them cooking goats, chickens, sausages, etc.

4. Here and all over Argentina people are out at night. Every family has a TV, so I wonder how they have managed to avoid becoming shut-ins at night like most of the people of the world.
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For dinner I had a shawarma sandwich! They don´t have pita bread here, so they wrapped it in something similar to a flour tortilla. The grill was a fancy, old-fashioned model that had a great flame (versus the new models that are like gas heaters). The meat was thick slices of steak that had been layered on the skewer. Tomatoes, pickled onions, and shredded lettuce were stuffed in the bread with the meat and squirted with a sour cream sauce.

Walking: 14,432 steps (9772 aerobic steps), 604 calories, 9.81 km (5.9 miles)