Following our hectic time in Buenos Aires we headed, on a horrible bus, out of the city for 2 hours to a place called 'San Antonio de Arieco'. This had been recommended to us by a couple of Dutch guys we met in Bolivia. This is Gaucho country; the heart of cowboys and all that go with them. We were so fortunate. The guys recommened contacting a lady called Valeria. They had stayed with her on her ranch a few months back. As suggested we had emailed her and she met us at the bus station. She recommended we stayed at her hotel in town as the weather was not good and we would have a more enjoyable stay. No arguing later, we ended up in the quaintest little room with all the luxuries we were craving: kitchenette, hairdryer, fluffy towels and best of all white cotton sheets and a duvet! We were in heaven. It turns out that her family own half the village and her father, who now runs the museum is something big in the silver world, started all the Artesian establishments in the town. The museum and main house were gorgeous, really elaborate and housed 3 or 4 silver workshops. The garden out back was lovely and we were able to borrow bikes. We had a very romantic cycle along the river one afternoon where Nigel, managed to sit in an ants nest and become covered and bitten all over and then we ended up cowering under a tree from torrential rain. All very funny at the time.
A couple of days of relaxation later we headed off to Cordoba, via Buenos Aires, another big city situated in North Central Argentina. To be honest we had had enough of cities and nothing could live up to Buenos Aires so as soon as possible we hired a car and have been on a brilliant long adventure ever since. The first day we spend 4 hours on dirt tracks, winding our way North of the city, through absolutely deserted areas. We had no idea if we were going the right way until we flagged down a car with the most brilliant old guy, with the biggest white beard, eye brows and moustache ever. We shouted a name at him and I think he thought it better to just let us follow him until we found the right road. That night we stayed at the most brilliant estancia (farm) where we were the only guests. We played a round of golf, on their 3 hole course!! and in the morning went horse riding. Yes Nigel got on a horse (he is not keen on them after a run in with a horse when he was very little and probably bugging the hell out of the poor thing!)
From here we had another long day driving over the Sierras Chicas, a massive mountain range in the Cordoba region. The views were spectacular and once again we found ourselves up in the clouds looking down on the world.
Our third day traveling was totally contrasting 5 hours of nothing, flat, deserted, nothing. The road was dead straight with a welcome bend maybe every 10 miles and nothing nothing nothing. This took us from the lush green farming area of the more central Argentina to the hotter, drier westerly region of Mendoza were apart from the irrigated land taken up by vineyard after vineyard the country is parched and sparse. We are in a lovely lazy town called San Juan and are just enjoying relaxing together and taking in our final few days in Argentina.
P.s. Problems downloading photos!!
