Probably one of my most favourite days in SA...

Hey!
So lots has been going on since I wrote last... I left Salta and arrived in Cordoba on Monday. This is the second biggest city in Argentina. There are 7 universities here so its loaded with young people and good bars. Anyway, yesterday we were going to take a bus to a place called Jesus Maria which is a jesuit mission site from the 1600s with some people who I´m sharing a room with but we decided to rent a car. We ended up spending the whole day driving through the Sierra mountains which was beautiful. We randomly came across some monkey conservatory thing for monkeys that have been abused or taken in by people as pets where they are rehabilitated before being released into the wild. It was so cool.. probably 50 monkeys. I want a pet monkey. At around 11pm we ended up in Cosquin which has a crazy folk festival every year. We stayed until about 2am- its hilarious there are still tons of little kids running around at that time! It was funny because everytime someone would ask us where we were from we would have to answer ¨Italy, Canada, Denmark and Austrillia¨.

So next I am off to Mendoza to drink some vino!!! I think I will take a bus there tonight. One of the guys in my room who I hung out with yesterday is also going so I´ll have a travel partner for a couple of days which will be nice.

Anyway, I will write again when more interesting stuff happens!

January 22- Trip Update

Hey!!! So I haven´t been updating this too much because the internet connections at the hostels I´ve been staying at are pretty bad. I am having a great time!! I have now visited Buenos Aires, Puerto Iguazu and I am currently staying in Salta. I visited the Iguazu falls which were absolutely incredible... I have lots of great pictures but I still have to find somewhere to burn them onto a disc before I can upload them. I arrived in Salta which is in north west Argentina two days ago. It was another 25 hour bus ride... It was hilarious, for breakfast they served cookies and a chocolate cake. So much for getting in shape in south america!! It´s actually really interesting, you have to cross a whole bunch of borders to get from Puerto Iguazu to Salta because its so close to Colombia and countries with drug problems. The guards get on the bus and check your passport and ask you questions... well lucky me, I was the only one to get pulled off the bus to get questioned. Haha, apparently I look suspicious? Yet another incentive to start learning Spanish! Anyway, that night I went to an ¨asado¨ which is a South American bbq at my hostel. My stomach was kind of upset afterwards but I´m pretty much used to it being ïffy¨all the time now...

Yesterday was probably my favourite day of my trip so far. We went on a 15 hour bus tour out to the desserts and salt flats. We saw a the 7 colour mountain and the scenery was unbelievable. Anyway, I am going to go explore this town.. I really like it here. I initially only booked 3 nights at my hostel but I think I will probably stay longer. There are a lot of Argentinians on vacation here so its kind of a more authentic experience than in Buenos Aires.

Miss you all!!!
xoxo,
Chels

Hey from BA!!!

So I am in Argentina and so far my trip is going awesome. The city isn´t too drastically different from Toronto (except for the fact that no one speaks English) so I think it was a good decision to start out here. The hostel I´m staying at is actually really nice. There is even hot water!! I´ve done lots of wandering around the city and checked out different neighbourhoods (Barrios). Some of them have been super nice (San Telmo, Centro) while others are definitely a little more sketchy (Recoleta). The weather has been crazy hot which I am loving... particularly considering I´ve heard its crazy cold with lots of snow at home. I´ve met a group of about 6 english speaking people who are staying at the hostel with me... It´s funny how quickly you get to know people when no one else around you speaks the language. Last night I was in the middle of the city having a beer on an outside patio at 2am and the crazy part was that it was packed. They eat super late here and I swear they don´t sleep... Dinner starts around 9 to 930pm. Tonight there is a pub crawl that the hostel is organizing that I am considering goign to but it doesn´t even start until 1am!!!

So, whats next? I think I will either head to Mandoza (the wine producing capital of Argentina) or Patagonia. You can actually do a bus ride through the dessert where you drive through nothingness for a couple of days... It sounds torturous yet I sort of want to do it....

Anyway that´s all for now!
Chels