Well so far, beef poisoning here in Salta Argentina has eluded me.
I take that as a sign I can eat as much steak as I want. And believe me, I am imbibing. The hostel has BBQ's every Wednesday and Saturday followed by some type of pub crawl to explore the nightlife. And the amazing thing about Argentina is how late things get started. It isn't uncommon to go for dinner at 11PM, get served around midnight, finish up around 2AM, then head out to the bars or clubs for drinks until 7AM. This late night pattern is considered perfectly normal for Argentinians as I witnessed several families out for a nice dinner with small children in tow until 2 in the morning. This explains the "Siesta" concept that shuts the city down between 1 and 4PM every afternoon. Want to mail something? Come back after 4, they told me. Need a haircut? After 4. Want to eat lunch? Now that was a weird one...some restaurants were closed for lunch! Things are open in the morning, but I never liked morning very much and don't get too many things accomplished. So I am definitely an after 4 client for businesses here.

I rented a car again, but this time with Mohawk Paul(due to his hairstyle) and Eunice, two travelers from England I met here in the hostel. This time however, I wasn't able to drive ... which was OK by me since I really don't have a driver's license; physically as it was stolen in Nicaragua, and legally as it is long expired anyway. And Paul and Eunice had to take the inevitable rental risks with credit cards, insurance, and licenses etc. which is also OK by me. What was not OK by me was simply that they are from England which means they drive on the WRONG SIDE of the road. Their automatic reaction in traffic to stay to the left or react to emergencies by swerving TOWARD the head on collision made for an interesting adjustment period, at least until we got out of city traffic. You should have seen the look on Paul's face at his first traffic circle! "Oh my God" he exclaimed when we approached the very busy round-about. This was followed by me yelling at him about where to be and when so we could navigate the thing correctly. "Follow that guy, move left" I would shout. "But I thought I needed to stay right?" "Not yet, now move right, follow that guy, go now!" "Ahhhhh!" "Merge, merge, stay to the right, follow that motorcycle".... "Whew." A collective sigh of relief from everyone. Once out in the countryside, however, they both had no problems. We also were able to get some good photos of the scenery which are posted here.

And like always, I had to say goodbye to some new, good friends. Paul and Eunice will carry on through Paraguay and into Brazil before they eventually split up and go separate ways, and I am going north to Bolivia. One nice surprise just before leaving, however, was running into Eleanor, an Israeli girl that I met in Nicaragua 2 years ago. I was the hiking guide for her and her boyfriend when I was volunteering at Quetzaltrekkers. She couldn't believe I was still on the same trip.