Salta and the Gaucho life

Well Tom and I have parted ways, him to Buenas Aires and me to Salta. It was probably a good thing as we were starting to get on each others nerves very much.

I took and overnight bus to Salta, and arrived at this pretty cool hostel. I spent the rest of the day walking around town. It is a very pretty town much more of a rural atmosphere than the other places I have been to. I rode up a gondala to the top of a mountain where you got a great view of the city, then I walked to the plaza and through the streets. The buildings here a beautiful colonial styled with mosaic tiles. That night i met a cool chick from Hawaii who lives in New York. A fellow vegetarian so we went out for dinner together.

















The next day was spectacular. I went horse riding with a true Argentinan gaucho called Enrique. I rode a lovely horse called Nochilla (girl of the night, not a hooker!) and I had to ride Gaucho style. That is no helmet, with leather chaps on and riding with only one hand, apparently I had to keep the other one free in case I needed to use a lasoo!!

















We rode through farmland and town (a tiny town in the middle of no-where) in the morning, we then stopped for lunch and to watch the argentina game on the TV but Enrique could not get the game on his TV so we drove to town and watched it with half the towns people in a cafe. I have great footage of them celebrating their goal but, I did not want take photos when they were all crying after their loss.

Afterwards we went back and I had a huge lunch accompanied with a lot of red wine. Then it was back on the horses, half drunk and full of food I actually rode a lot better as I was more relaxed. Although I think we had every dog in town chasing us at one stage. We rode around the coutry side and I went for a bit of a canter, my riding improving with some help from Enrique. Back to the ranch there was cake and tea.

















I had such a great day and Enrique was super cool and a true gaucho gentleman. I got a ride back to Salta and it seemed as if the whole country was in mourning after their world cup defeat (they lost in a penalty shoot out to Germany)

I am not sure the world cup is being followed as religiously back home as it is here. But here it is 24 hour coverage and very biased. You see every Argentinian goal repeated 20 times. Now that all my favourite teams are out Australia, Argentina and England. Vamos Francia. I am going to France I was happy to see them beat Brasil and hope they beat Italy and ladies Henry is very pleasing on the eye.