a few days in argentina

Coming out of Bolivia into argentina gave us quite a start. We left bolivia on an overcrowded bus that cost us about $.50/hour travelling down a dusty gravel/dirt road. An old man was actually sitting half on my lap most of the way as the bus was so overcrowded. The border town of Villazon was an absolute mess of vendor stands selling all kinds of indigenous wares, so much so that we had to walk on the street because the stalls were pouring out onto the sidewalks. Then we entered Argentina...



Argentina (at least what we have seen) is a very neat and orderly country. We started off by heading to Salta where we spent a few days. Salta is relaxing city and we enjoyed wandering the streets but were blown away by how european it was. The streets were lined with trendy coffee shops filled with buisnesmen and women in their nice suits. Many of the people even look European with fair complection (we dont stand out so much anymore). We felt it in our wallets as well as we tried to get a bus ticket and found that it was over three times as much as in Peru(which had been by far our most expensive tickets). Among other things we enjoyed riding the gondola to the top of scenic point over the city and a tour of Cafayette. Cafayette is a town a couple of hours from Salta. Very similar to Tupiza it was like stepping back into a cowboy cliche with brightly colored canyons and tall cactus dotting the landscape. In cafayette we got to tour the town as well as one of the wineries which are quite famous. Although we had a number of days planned for Salta we felt like we had really seen what we wanted to of the city and we decided upon returning from cafayette to take the night bus to Cordoba.
I should point out that yes the busses here are expensive but they sure are nice. We enjoyed a smooth bus ride that included a great supper and the best part of all, there was only 4 passenjers on the whole double decker bus. We rolled into Cordoba to a bustling station at around 7:30 and spent the next hour trying to find a hostel at the internet cafe there. Cordoba is somewhere between 1.2 - 4 million people(depends who you talk to), and is bustling with energy. It is sure a different feel however to exchange rambling markets for clean orderly stores filled with expensive north american clothing. We spent the day and wandered around town. Tomorrow we are hoping to head out to explore the surrounding area and likely take a bus on to Mendoza. Although we are sort of missing the dusty streets and worn down houses we are used to we are excited about the adventure of Argentina.