Salta (Argentina)

With one small backpack less to carry, we arrived at Salta in the middle of the night. I wanted to surprise Joke with a nice 4* hotel, because it was her birthday and because she was really upset after the theft. So we took a taxi to my hotel of choice. However, the night guard told us they were full and sent us to another hotel. They were full as well, so they sent us to a small nearby hostel. It looked so terrible that we decided to look a bit further. So, we started walking from hotel to hotel, but all of them were full. We don't know why, but probably it got something to do with Semana Santa. Tired of walking, we stepped into the first internet cafe we encountered and started looking for hotels on the internet. After plenty of telephone calls, we finally found a hotel that had a free room for 3 nights. What a start in Argentina...

Beside the bad start, Argentina seems pretty nice after the first few days. What a difference with Bolivia!! People look much more like Europeans, which means they are bigger than 1,5m. The cities look like any other modern European city. In fact, Salta looks more western than for example Granada (Spain). Nice promenades, nice bars with cosy terraces, fantastic restaurants and comfortable places to spend the night.

Because we are pretty tired of organised tours and excursions, we mainly spent our days walking, eating and drinking. It is a cliche that Argentina is famous for its meat, but it is sooo true! After a disappointing parilla (too much liver and kidneys for us), we had the best 600g steak ever for less than 10€. The meat literally melts in your mouth. We both lost several kilos in Peru and Bolivia, but with this food we will gain it all back...