Getting a smile...
In the north especially, lots of the elderly women seem quite grumpy and a little intimidating. This is completely not the case. If you amuse them with something, do something kind or just smile nicely then they suddenly break into the most amazing warm smiles and giggles that light up the room. You just have to earn it.
the accent sounds nice in argentina but is much harder than in other countries, pronouncing 'll' like 'sh' instead of 'y' is much harder to adapt to than I though it would be.
Supremas, Milanesas and Empanadas...
sometimes the only food you can find. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but you don't know what I would give for a Thai takeaway!!
Jim keeps eating them! Llama stew, llama milenesa, llama burger, llama empanadas, llama steak...poor little llamas.
Postcards...
sent some over a month ago. Haven't arrived yet :-(
Sausage dog on the loose in Cafayate...
almost every stray dog in Cafayate is short with a funny long body. We thought there was a little randy sausage dog on the loose a while ago that managed to make lots of puppies!
Young people in white doctor jackets...
at one point Jim and I were wandering why the doctors looked so young, or if they were pharmacists or did they work in a factory? In fact, the school uniforms here are the same as the white coats doctors wear. This was confirmed when we then saw a group of 10 year olds in these coats...definitely not doctors.
Lots of donkeys and that always makes me happy...
I watched a lady pull her donkey up a hill in the midday sun and when the donkey reached the shade of the one tree that was on their path it stopped. The lady tried to pull the donkey along, it just stayed where it was, completely ignoring the lady. Obviously her stubborn donkey was as amusing to her as it was to me which made me smile.
10 pesos is about £1.50...
Bus whisperers...
there are some things here that you are just meant to know, on buses especially. Sometimes the bus will stop to pick up locals and other times you are able to get off for a stretch, a snack and a loo break. No one tells you which one it is though and by the time you work it out it can be too late.
a man puts your luggage in the luggage compartment and takes it out for you, we learnt very quickly that you tip him or he might give you a bit of abuse. Seems obvious now but the first time we thought he worked for the bus company.
People in the countryside like to stare...
they also fib about distances! 1km is not always 1km and 5km is usually 8km.
They are obsessed with facebook...
more than us!
No-one will talk about the 'bin'...
it's got to be mentioned. Put it this way, no paper goes down the toilet.
Don't expect things from hostels...
don't expect a window in your bedroom. If it says 'internet' that does not mean in your room. If you do not have a private bathroom you might be sharing one with the whole hostel.
Some hostels have TVs...got the world to explore and I'm excited by a TV! Channels 36-45 often have English speaking programmes on them. Good stuff sometimes. Watching famous people being dubbed in Spanish is also quite amusing.
They eat a lot of sweetcorn...
and there are whole aisles of tuna in the supermarkets. If you are stuck for something to cook there is always tuna and sweetcorn pasta.
Los Ninos del llullaillaco...
made me cry. Incredibly sad but an amazing insight into the Incas.
...and that is about it for our Argentina. ;-)
Wow...that's an amazing blog post Charlotte; I'm not sure now what I look forward to most...speaking with you on skype or reading your blogs! You should write travel books.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that the lady with the stubborn donkey was as amused by it's being stubborn as you were.
Looking forward to the next post
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