A taste of Argentina

 Just wanted to quickly explain this and the following two photos: we (naively) did not realize that we would have to pay to take this picture. After we were forced to pay up we walked off sulking. A few metres away was this sign that had a giant hole so we decided to take photos of it (FOR FREE)...a mini rebellion...

    

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I have been back from South America for a little over a week now. We had an absolutely wonderful time in Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, but moving from place to place, non stop, for five weeks can become exhausting so I must say that it is lovely to be back. Above I have posted some of my pictures from our time in Argentina (June 22nd until July 7th). 

We started our trip out in Buenos Aires and spent a fairly relaxed week there, getting over our jet lag from our previous travels. Unfortunately I did not have my camera on me all the time so the Buenos Aires photos are only from day trips we took to a suburb called La Boca and to a town just outside of the city called Tigre. La Boca is one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods and it is home to one of the biggest Argentinian football teams, the Boca Juniors. Tigre is a popular weekend spot for the people of Buenos Aires. To return to the city we took a boat ride along the river which is aligned with holiday cottages.

From Buenos Aires we headed west to Mendoza (wine country). We were there over Canada Day (July 1st) which we celebrated with a tour of some of the wineries. Also included in the day trip was a massive feast for lunch--no complaints there. After a few days we took a long bus ride north up to Salta. We were there for five days, mainly taking it easy and just working up the courage to head up to Bolivia (we had heard lots of horror stories but in the end it wasn't too bad). 

As you may know, Argentina is very popular for its wine and its beef. Having been a vegetarian for the last seven years I did not try any steak, but the verdicts that people reported were always positive. By not having any steak, a very small part of me felt like I was missing out on the whole Argentinian experience, but there were still many traditional treats (mainly sweet) that I did get to try. Alfajores are dulce de leche sandwich cookies that they seem to hand out everywhere (on buses, boats, planes, in cafes, etc).  While in Argentina we started a daily morning routine of going out for a cafe con leche. Most places we visited offered a really reasonable promotion where your coffee would be served with a glass of orange juice, medialunas (really dense, sticky, sweet and totally amazing croissants), and perhaps some type of cookie.  

For the more savoury palate, empanadas, with various fillings, seemed to be the way to go. The vegetarian ones I tried were SUPER cheesy.  As we headed further north towards the Bolivian border, we saw quite a bit of llama being served. Above I have featured a photo of my table neighbour's llama kebab (they must have found me so annoying) which they had with a serving of papas fritas (french fries).

That's all I've got for now. Pictures from Bolivia and Peru to come soon!