Day 36: 5/8/12
Completely slept in this morning. I obviously needed a lot of sleep after my night in the airport!
Was talking to Shane last night too- he was in good form. On his way to a hurling match!
Went into town and had an omelette for breakfast. I stated ages in the cafe because the Olympic tennis was on. The Argentinian lad got the bronze so there were a few cheers. I would have liked to have heard the British commentary on Andy Murray- Id say it would have been good!
I walked around the town a bit then. It has lots of old colonial buildings but is way more modern than anywhere in Peru or Bolivia. It's like a European city with normal shops! Although, it was Sunday and everything was closed.
I kept an eye out for hostels near the centre as I still hadn't see any guests in my hostel, but nothing looked any better than where I am.
I went back to the hostel then for a while. Rang Cliona and got all the gods from that house. The skyped home and checked in on the hangovers after the wedding!
I had a city tour booked for 4pm (he didn't arrive til 4:15- told ye he'd be late!!). First he drove through the main square and pointed out s few museums, the cathedral, San Francisco church and San Bernardo convent. They seem to be the main places! Then he drove up San Bernardo hill (bernard is fairly popular here) so we got a view over the whole city. It was lovely. There was a park up there with trees and waterfalls and stuff, as well as the view of all the buildings below.
Then we went to San Lorenzo- its kind of a posher area outside the city, we stopped where there was a little river and woods and a little cafe.
Our last stop was an artisan market- more jumpers and scarves!!
All along the driver was talking about the city and surrounding areas. I was the only English speaking person on the trip. He definitely said a lot more in Spanish than he did in English. I got the shortened version! A few times he said stuff in Spanish and everyone would laugh. When he'd get round to the English 5mins later there was nothing funny. Either I wasn't getting told everything or they have a very strange sense of humour!!
Anyway, I learned that salta is a new enough city- started in colonial times. The name means beautiful. It has a population of 600,000. General guemes was important in the history- lots of roads and statues and parks named after him! They got independence on the 9th of July in 18 something so the main square is called 9 de julio! It was the centre of Argentina but when Bolivia was formed it became one of the last towns.
After the tour, I was dropped back to the hotel. I got reception to order food for me cos it was dark! There is a general area with tables and tv so I ate there. There were a few lads knocking around watching soccer- do its not completely deserted thank god! They weren't speaking Enflish, but well get over that!
I've day trips for the next three days to little villages outside the town do should've interesting!!