We miss you Cinco Limon!
Before we made it to Cordoba we stayed two nights in Salta (just after our glorious 26-hour border adventure). A quaint family-friendly town in northern Argentina, Salta is scattered with lively plazas, green parks, and tree canopies over every street. Here we fell in love with Alfajores, a traditional Argentinian sweet consisting of cookies covered in and filled with all sorts of excitement. Dulce de Leche, chocolate, apple, quinoa, white chocolate...to name a few. Frequent trips to a corner bakery may have been our downfall for the remainder of the trip. We occasionally stopped eating alfajores to actually visit things like churches, plazas, mummy museums, and to take gondola trips to the top of a mountain. We joined/interrupted a romantic date when we were forced to third-wheel a couple in the gondola just ahead of us. What a lovely ride :-)
The top of the mountain provided aerial views of Salta. This mountain had the most eclectic mix of activities: an antique silver/thrift shop, children's playgrounds, an ampitheatre, series of mini waterfalls, and a mini outdoor gym. Yes, a gym. Britney Spears blared from the exercise zone as fellow tourists and other puzzled onlookers watched locals sweat through a stationary bike exercise class. Unfortunately, we were too zombie-like from a late night to join in much physical activity.
Chocolate and white chocolate quinoa Alfajores:
In our romantic gondola:
With our pouty companions whose date was ruined:
But a lovely view from the top!
Along with cycling classes to Britney Spears:
And some serious gym rats:
A little odd?
Oh and the people watching...
We had a little date of our own! (doesn't really know what she's eating)
Llama ravioli!
We ran into nuns in quite a few places
And then there's Cordoba. Oh sweet Cordoba. The reason we just might have to re-arrange our plans to fit in just a few more days in this college town. Did we mention we're in Buenos Aires right now? There goes our itinerary. Cordoba introduced us to Limon, oddly entertaining Danish twins, Lele, Laura(!), and a night out in an Argentinan college town.
Lele, the most hospitable, friendly hostel owner making completely homemade pizza:
Lovely inseparable Danish twins who taught us Danish nursery rhymes, cooked together, worked out together, wore matching outfits, fed each other, and enjoyed a nice game of chess over tea
We also visited Alta Gracia and made a quick stop at Che Guevara's casa
And enjoyed giant lomitos. Just half was the size of our heads:
And then we had more Lomito:
In the park where we convinced Laura to come to Mendoza
It took all of 10 minutes over lomitos to convince Laura to join us for our next weekend in Mendoza, Argentinian wine country. Right away we got to know the place with the help of Mr. Hugo and his famous bike tours around las bodegas. We biked from winery to winery, and along the way enjoyed an olive farm tour (where we tried the best mustard of our lives, and added a few pounds to our packs), relaxed with a glass(es) of wine by the pool surrounded by vineyards, and lounged in a hammock shaded by olive trees. Can we please do this every day? Oh, and Christina's baby camera (not her big one, thank God) decided to take a bath in some red wine. No worries, it still works perfectly. The screen just now has a unique 3-D effect.
That's Mr. Hugo. The one and only:
We enjoyed some real asado later that night:
After a day of vino came a day of rafting. With three Irish guys from our hostel, we spent an hour in the rapids of the Rio Mendoza paddling for our lives. We will let the photos do the talking (Note that the water is brown from the glacial sediment. It's super clean we swear). But as these Irish lads say, it was a class time. Rafting was followed up by 2 glorious hours lounging by the pool surrounded by the Andes Mountains.
Our crew!
Going...
Going...
Gone...
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