Northern Argentina

Salta, Argentina - Basically as soon as we got over the border we could see the difference between Argentina and Bolivia. Argentina is so much more western with decent infrastructure compared to Bolivia which was good in a way but I really liked the easy and cheap lifestyle in Bolivia. We started our drop from the altitude of the last few weeks and got into the sticky humidity of Salta. We got to the hotel and jumped straight into the pool. A few of us went out to a steak restaurant to try our first taste of world famous Argentinean steak. The steak definitely lived up to its reputation because when it came out it was massive and cooked to perfection. The only thing on the plate was a massive hunk of cow about 4 inches by 8 inches and 4 inches thick. Sides came on separate plates and the best part is they only cost about US$5 each including tip. We knocked the steak off with a couple of bottles of Argentinean wine and the spent the next day going around shops which was a change from the hundreds of markets we‘d been to.

Salta Rafting, Argentina - We left for the boondocks of north Argentina to go camping and rafting a couple of hours out of Salta. Our first night there we made a chilly bin (esky or cool box) full of punch and had a traditional Argentinean asado (BBQ). The food was gorgeous and we polished off the punch by 3am. Luckily for us we didn’t go rafting until 11am the next day. The river only had grade 2 and 3 rapids but the crazy guides made it interesting by making us do 360s down them, crashing into other rafts and trying to deliberately flip the boats. We finished the last section floating down the river without the rafts before having a late lunch.



We returned to camp for a quick siesta and then went zip-lining. There were 9 zip-lines that went from a spot 3km from the camp and finished in camp. The lines basically zigzagged over the river at stupid heights. The second one was about 150 metres above the river and was 400 metres long. Most of the lines were done the conventional way of sitting up like a flying fox but I did the longest one, at 500 metres long and about 100 metres high, in the superman position which was awesome and like flying.

Cafayate, Argentina - Into the wine district in northern Argentina where we spent our time doing wine tasting, eating ice cream and just chilling out. I have no idea about wine so I just tagged along and drank the booze while everybody else went on about smelling roses and peaches etc, and rating each one. My rating system: drinkable and not drinkable. We hired bikes and rode between each of the vineyards so it was pretty relaxed and casual.



Bush camp, North Argentina - We spent the next couple of days doing many hours driving towards Mendoza for Christmas and bush camped for a couple of nights on the side of the road. On the way we stopped at the Quilmes stone ruins, a couple of large canyons and the moon valley where they found the world’s oldest dinosaur skeleton a few years ago.



Mendoza, Argentina - We made it into Mendoza just after lunch on Christmas eve and Skank and I went downtown for a couple of beers. We then stocked up on food and booze before going back to our hostel and started the festivities early. We woke up on Christmas morning in our dorm rooms to find Santa Claus had found us and left us stockings at the end of our beds. After mucking around with our pressies we had a fry-up for breakfast with a dozen bottles of champagne and then after brekkie we had our secret Santa presents. They had to be under US$5 and we had a random system so you didn‘t know who you were buying for. Most of the presents were booze or toys like guns and other small items and there was also an Argentinean Playboy magazine. We mucked around for the rest of the day drinking, eating and chilling at the hostel before having another asado for dinner. We topped off a relaxing Christmas in the sun by going to a pub for a couple of drinks before heading to bed in the early hours of Boxing Day.