I´ve fallen in love.

December 11, 2009

Yes, you read correctly! I have fallen in love. With a country. It´s called Argentina. And it´s AMAZING!

My first stop in Argentina was the town of Salta. Made friends with a few people in San Pedro de Atacama and on the bus (by the way, the bus ride was the most magnificent views I´ve ever seen. The mountains were huge and beautiful. The bus turned back and forth with each turn so each side of the bus got to enjoy the view through the beautiful windows. Not to mention the bus was SO nice, especially compared to Bolivian buses, eek! Got to listen to my music a lot, updated my journal...did a lot of thinking during this bus ride. PLUS we we got a snack of juice boxes, peanuts, crackers and later we got tea and cookies! Adios Bolivia, HOLA Chile/Argentina!).

Anyways! So at this point I was traveling with an English girl, Italian guy, and Columbian girl for the first few days in Salta.

Our first night there once we got settled, we went to the main street, Balcarce St, and WOW! It was so happening and literally crawling with people, lively and exciting. We sat outside, and let me tell you, the people watching was quite entertaining. Hello beautiful Argentinian women! So good looking, fit bodies, so well put together...wow! Had my first Argentine steak and wine!! Delicious! Here´s a pic from one of the nights out...Me and Helen!

So what did I do in Salta? Ate steak, drank wine, did some dancing and nightlife...explored the park (lovely),..more wine...then after 2 nights all my new little buddies left and I was "alone" again but made some new friends at the hostel that I...drank wine with!

Anyways, the next morning I was so happy because guess who was meeting me at the hostel?? Irit and Dor!! :) My new friends were complaining about how two people had arrived at 5 am and made noise in the dorm room. I said "Is it a boy and a girl???" and ran into the room and promptly woke up my little buddies to start some fun! During the time with them, we explored the plazas and parks, ate lots of ice cream, had an amazing dinner at a great restaurant, drank more wine..! One afternoon Irit and I were invited by the owner of our hostel to go to the river with him, which was so exciting since Salta was so HOT! We went and spent a few hours hanging out in a river with beautiful scenery, drinking some beer and chatting about everything. It was so nice of him, Rami, to invite us along. It´s the simple things like that that are the best.

Our final day in Salta we spent some time in the park enjoying some bread, different cheeses, white wine, olives...and great company. Here we are enjoying ourselves in the park :) That day we also took a gondola ride up to the top to see Salta from the top. Check out the awesome view...

From Salta, we headed south to Cordoba. Wasn´t overly thrilled with this city...was mainly a stopover for some partying....lots of it. During the time here, I did some of my first SHOPPING! Cordoba had some amazing shopping, got some shirts and a cute pair of sandals. And that was restraining myself! Also went to the movies one afternoon and saw that New Moon was playin and of course I HAD to go due to my love of the Twilight series and Edward Cullen. But anyways! Again had some steak dinners...went out and enjoyed the nightlife..saw Che Guevara´s house...Oh and had a really lame Thanksgiving dinner due to lack of turkey and non-existence of Thanksgiving in South America. The meal was silly but it wasn´t a big deal :)

One night a group of us went to a Caberet show which ended up being mainly in German with Spanish subtitles, and a lot of opera kind of singing. We were starting to fall asleep and it was killing our mood (Friday night festivities were planned for after) so we bailed...we left during it and chose to be un-cultured backpackers...oops!

Then I got to see Teja again!! My original travel buddy!! She was visiting a friend in Cordoba and brought along him and his brother and a big group of us tourists and locals went out on the town for a fun and interesting evening :) We´ll leave it at that! It was awesome seeing Teja again and spending time with her...she´s an awesome girl and I miss her!

Anyways....after Cordoba was one of my favorite places....Mendoza, Argentina!