Hello everyone, well its time for another fun filled edition of the blog, bet you cant wait, well wait no more cos here it is……

So firstly we arrived in the lovely town of Salta, it was very pretty, but really non descript. We felt like we could have been in Spain, and there was no cultural shock like we had experienced in cities within Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. However in some ways this was no bad thing; as the best bit we soon realized was the foooooood!!! Oh my god, if you like your meat, then Argentina is the place!! Basically you can eat any part of any animal and they serve it in BIG portions. The trouble was we didn’t understand the cuts of meat we were ordering and one evening Soph ended up with a massive plate of cow intestines (hee, hee) and I had a huge plate of raw calamari (nice). Once you get the hang of ordering the right thing, the meat is succulent, juicy, full of flavour and of course cheap!!!

Apart from the food, we also found the ´locals´to be nothing but friendly. People in the street smiled at us, said hello, asked where we were from and were generally very pleasant to us, a refreshing change from our experiences in Bolivia, where often we would just be ignored when trying to speak to people!!

Salta had a very relaxed feel, we stayed in a lovely Hostel right in the middle of the city, which was owned by a couple of very talkative elderly sisters, who really made us feel welcome. There are some beautiful churches around the place, but it was the main plaza which drew most attention for its aesthetics, as it housed some of the most attractive buildings in the city.

We became experts at attracting stray dogs, one evening after stuffing our faces on another plate of dead animal, one decided to come and sit under our table. He followed us on a 5 hour bike ride around the city, barking at all the motorcyclists and trying to bite little kids!! Couldnt get rid of it and for a while we thought that there we would be a party of three on our travels. However once we stopped being soppy b*****s and didn’t give it any food, he soon b*****ed off!!

We also took a trip to a village called Cachi, basically we sat in the back of a mini bus with our knees under our chins for 4 hours up a rocky road full of bends!! The trip was all about the views, which to be fair were rather nice (piccies now uploaded), but the guide didn’t speak English, so we couldn’t understand a thing!! However we spent all of 5 minutes in Cachi itself and then had to leave to come back to Salta, again knees under chin back down this bendy road. All in all a bit naff and this marked the end of our stay in Salta!!

Next destination, Cordoba!!! About 10 quid got us fully reclining seats on a luxury coach, just what was needed as the journey took about 12 hours overnight. After watching what was probably a good film (couldn’t really tell as the attendant played the dubbed Spanish version with bloody Spanish subtitles!!) we decided to get our heads down for a lovely sleep. However the Argentinean authorities had other ideas and at midnight we got pulled over for a drug search!! So we were all marched off the bus and everything was rifled through, had I known in advance I would have ensured that my dirty laundry was at the top of my bag, unfortunately this was not to be!!

Cordoba is another great city, a huge university (Argentina’s first) ensures that the place is full of students, which means that the place is full of bars and clubs!! Again it has a huge main plaza (San Martin) in the centre surrounded by architectural delights. Apart from that though, its much the same as Salta.

Our reason for coming was to spend a week doing Spanish courses. Soph did advanced ‘one on one’ lessons and I was in the thicko beginners class with a couple of great Israeli’s (Ronit and Ohad). Again we found ourselves in a super hostal (called Tango, highly recommended), problem was that everyone else was about half our age and partied every night, all night!!!

But we were now students (taking our studies very seriously) and we would go to bed as everyone was getting ready to go out!! Basically in Argentina no one goes out until around 1 am and arrives back around 6 in the morning!! So for the last week or so we were basically considered boring old farts, especially as one night in the early hours I had to ask for the music to be turned down as we couldn’t sleep!!! Grumpy old git that I am!!

But the last week of classes have been great for us, Soph has improved her Spanish immensely, discussing Argentinas history, culture and politics and I learned all about how to ask where the toilets are!!

Our classes finished on Saturday and we did the right thing and took our first night out on the lash!! A great treat after studying Spanish grammar every night!! Oh, we also attracted another bloody stray dog, even cuter than the one in Salta!! Again it wouldn’t leave us alone, until one night we went to the cinema and got the whole staff to gets its attention so we could do a runner inside!! Again that one b*****ed off too thank god!!

So we are now basically finished with Cordoba, our next destination will be Mendoza to meet some of Sophs family, drink loads of wine and maybe even take some more Spanish lessons, Ole!!

So that’s it for now, bet you cant wait for the next exciting installment, well you´re just going to have to……tata for now!