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Salta (25 April)
Arriving in Salta on Sunday wasn't ideal, with everything being closed but it seemed like a cool town. I had booked a dorm room but think it was full so got given a 3bed room, initially to myself, but I was joined by a reasonably safe Irish guy. I spent the Monday just exploring the city and acquainting myself with the Bife de Chorizo. On Tuesday the Irish guy and I went on a tour to Cafayate where there are a few vineyards. The wine was pretty good, I had a massive lamb grill for lunch and we saw some strange rock formations in the desert as well. The tour was full of old argentinians though so it wasn't amazing. Travelling on your own you meet some interesting people. There was an Australian guy in my hostel who I boozed with that night who was pretty safe. But he was a borderline coke addict and always carried a knife and pepper spray with him. He did like drinking though! I went horseriding the next day, which wasn't something I had on my to-do list when i left England. But there was nothing else to do and it is a massive part of Argentinian culture. I just spent the morning horseriding and they then cooked a huge asado (BBQ) for lunch which was incredible. One of the guys who cooked it was only 30ish but had had to stop eating meat and drinking because his cholesterol was so high from eating asado every day. Asado is f***ing good though! I surprisingly enjoyed my first horseriding experience as well, although I was sore for like 2 days afterwards. There was an asado at the hostel that night as well so I got involved with that (really healthy diet) and enjoyed some decent 10 peso red wine. After 3 bottles of that and chatting s*** with some random English people I don't know what happened until I woke up at lunchtime. I did something called Puenting in the afternoon, which is basically swing from a bridge on a rope. Everyone else did bungee jumping, but it was only 30metres so I didn't see the point. I wasn't even that bothered about puenting, it was just something to do, but it turned out to be quite fun. When I got back I went to a pretty extravagant restaurant where I was greeted with Champagne and had more steak. Like I say it was pretty extravagant and cost 15 quid but it was my only meal of the day and was pretty damn good! I planned to go to bed when I got back to the hostel but then was convinced to go to the bar and I cracked out my bottle of wine from the Cafayate vineyards. Ended up going out to a Simpsons themed bar with some Argentinans who didn't really speak much English, but I still managed to have football banter with them in my broken Spanish. The night ended, as all good nights do, with memory loss and I woke up happily in my bed the next morning. The next day was unproductive, as expected, but I was getting a mid-afternoon bus so I just had a sick lunch and headed for the bus station. I'd booked myself onto a 'supercama' which I was very excited about. It didn't disappoint! My huge leather seat reclined 180 degrees, I had champagne as well as wine with my meal, and had a nice big blanket and pillow. The 18 hour bus journey flew by, getting a good 8/9 hours sleep, watching films in english and playing bingo, as well as being fed breakfast and 3 course dinner. I could have happily stayed on there for another 18 hours!- comments