Salta

Finally in South America

So instead of emailing I am going to write on this. Mostly because my writing is boring and pictures speak a thousand words, even if they are off center and scattered about the page.

It took me about 2hrs in the soaking rain to find a hostel, but once I checked in and paid (about $7 for the night) everything worked itself out. The rain cleared and

this guy cooked my a steak. His name is Oswaldo and he´s a Chilean and starting a jewerly store in the city scouting locations and living in the hostel. He knew a fair amount of English and I was hungry so I agreed to go and buy him a beer inexchange for dinner. Later we were discussing each others countrys I let it slip that I was born in Montana. For the rest of the night he talked about his love for the movie Brokeback Mountain. He tried to get me the "yee-haw" like a cowboy, which I politely declined. After that he would not stop talking about his business partner in Chile who he would only describe as a "wild man" and asked my thoughts on mixing business with pleasure. At that point I told him I was beat and headed to bed. I tried to speak to another Chilean who was sharing the dorm room I was in who spoke no English and though I could pick out a few words here and there it didn´t go very well. My speaking ability is muy mal.

When I woke up there was not a could in the sky so I spent all day walking around the city. My first stop was the "Floralis" which opens and closes with the day and is lit up at night, I want to go see it again when its closed.

Several blocks away is the city´s famous cemetario. It is about one city block gated off and filled with tombs of the old rich families of Buenos Aires

Everything about the city is old fashioned. On Sunday, when I arrived, some streets were closed for street fairs and it seemed like the only items for sale were antiques. Even in the shopping district above the shops are decadent apartment (I think thats what they are used for) buildings.
It also feels very European, the people look the same, the sreets are the same, the mopeds are the same. I don´t think the rest of Argentina is anything like this. In the middle of the city is the capital building,
which was closed off but you could walk up to. After walking several more miles through the downtown
section, which is the only area with steel and glass buildings that I saw, I bussed it back to the hostel, grabbed some helado and got on the computer. Im about to take a nap, then tomorrow I meet with Joe in Salta.