Salta and to Cachi

I was going to spend a little more time around the region, visit the national park, las Yungas which is beautiful and part of the amazon but... i became eager to get to Salta since I could meet up with Marlene, Philippe, Jorge (AKA Che) and Fernando and Eva - sound popular? i was for a day...

This time round Salta wasn´t as hot as last December, geez it was unbearable then. It was kind of cool but sunny and nice, i even visited the museum with all he local history, though i understood very little. There, having a kitchen, i started to bring home lots of meat, in fact i ate steak everyday. I forgot, or in my poverty in buenos aires just didn´t get much of it, how bleeding delicious the beef is here. We, as australians, make mean barbecues and all that, and i have debated over who has the best bbq in the world, but i´m afraid i´ve now gotta give in, these guys have it! The bbq restaurants, Parillada, have these huge grills with wood! The lazy cows than live on flat planes offer the most tender and delicious chunks of meat you can imagine... i´m drooling.

I also got taken out to a Peña, which is kind of a place to eat and also to listen to folk music. There´re lots around, many with full-on shows, musicians on stage, dancers dressed up. But do you think i´d pay for something that constructed? Place i went to, La Casona, had very good and cheap food and wine, in an old huge homestead so that there were separate rooms with tables basically, and folks with their own guitars who come in, sit, eat, drink and start singing, and so does anyone who wants to basically. Singing and playing music simply for the pleasure of it, simply to be around appreciative ears. And they were good. I´m afraid i got blind drunk that night... cos my eyes got so small i had trouble seeing.

San Lorenzo was 5 km out of town, you could say an outer suburb, where we heard there was a river to walk along, again, and somewhere in the nature that we could pass the time. As my bus rolled in i realised the only people on my bus were the workers who attended the huge mansions that were apearing before my eyes. They were beautiful, big lawns and lots of horses n the street. The place was lush and posh. Well, off on our walk we went surrounded by amazing butterflies, slippery rocks by the low-lieing river and lots of horse dung. I knew i was in argentina, there were mate yerba dumpings every 30 odd metres along the river (where mate was drunk and then the used tea leaves where dumped).

And a week later i split with Phillip and my new found frenchy mate, Delphine, to Cachi, a little town near the mountains. There day after day we tried to get up early to take nature walks and appreciate the fresh air and scenery. But instead we constantly slept in, ate lots of goats cheese, salami, crusty country bread and yummy wine from the region. Since we happen to be there on a Sunday, we got invited to the parilla (bbq) that the old couple who had the place were making like they make every Sunday... i tried to refuse but they wouldn´t have it. We had a ball that afternoon, until the sun went down, it got chilly and gusts of wind came and smacked us out of their backyard.

Three days later i leave with Delphine and our obsession with food continues.