Geee, our blogs are so old! We already hit te northern town Humahuaca (yup, still with the Fiat Uno!), and are back on our way to Cordoba. A couple there mailed us they are seriously interested in buying our car. Wel, whatever happens, we are planning to paraglide in Cordoba. And if the car doesn´t make it, we´ll take it paragliding with us and sell the video (ha ha, thanks Like!).
So what happened in the meantime? After El Bolson, we camped in a national park full of blue lakes and mountains (I still don´t uderstand why some people use a noisy generator to burn a lightbulb in front of their campervan …) . Then Bariloche, a place where some nazi´s made their new home after the War (they say). That could explain wy it´s full of chocolate, St. Bernhard dogs, and wooden cottages. At night really great performances (for free) at the square.
Then we drove to Mendoza (something like driving from Holland to Spain), but chose the alternative route, hoping to see some volcanos. We slept in obscure litlle towns (again, the movie U-turn …). And a big part of the road turned out to be a ride in hell; the concrete was falling apart, leaving big holes (sometimes filled with rain). High speed was 30 km an hour …
In Mendoza Maurice got robbed of his bag. Luckily no passports or expensive stuff in it. But we lost our chargers and handy accessoires (iPods, camera, phone, etc.) . (and ofcourse that made it extra difficult to upload photo´s on the blog..). Besides the robbers, Mendoza is a great city! They have the best icecream so far, and the best pasta, and the best wine (it´s ofcourse full of ex-italians). We did an ehm… experimental winetour (long story). And there was a parade with beauyqueens who threw fruit and vegetables to us (even a pumpkin!) .
After that up north. In Tucuman I did a tai chi lesson (from the brother of the Latin-American champion Kong Fu!). Finally Maurice experienced that Tai Chi is not a dull girls sport, and a master can really throw you on the floor (oops, did it hurt honey?). Humahuaca was the most northern town we reached. It looks and feels like a town in Peru. Lama´s, dark people, more indian looking (with big heads), shops with coca leaves, coloured blankets, panflutes …
We left for Yujuy (great pizza!). Then Salta (nothing special, but nice to see locals relaxing in the park on a sunday afternoon). One of the best expriences was a night in a nearby town (ALWAYS try to spend the night in the middle of nowhere!). A few gaucho´s drove by and saw a few guys with a guitar (next to us, while eating at the pub). They hit the break, got out of their car and started to sing, clap, shout, laugh, and all of that gypsy-stuff. More and more beer came on the table. More and more people gathered around them (we, as foreigners, were especially invited, and they even dedicated some songs to us). We tried some coca leaves (cool!). And we all clapped like experienced flamenco-gypsies. When the place closed, a dramatic goodbye followed (a big speech of the singer, aplause, hugs, kisses from everyone to everyone). They explained us a night like this is quite a normal thing in the north, wow!