From Mendoza to Puerto Iguazu is a 36 hour, two night, bus journey. We had already done an overnight, 19 hour journey from Bariloche to Mendoza, so (as long as we could book posh seats) we were happy to do that distance. However we felt that we should break the journey into two chunks.
Deciding where to stop by time; we elected to alight at 13:30, which meant a city called Santiago del Estero. It is Argentina's oldest city, has a copy of the Turin shroud and is a capital of its province. The best hotel in town is a four star affair, running at GBP34 per night for a double room.
And that's about all we knew about it.
We boarded the bus at the station at about 9:00 pm and T was out like a light. I dozed for a bit until getting to the land of nod in the early hours. We (in posh class, remember) were treated to breakfast.
Breakfast - Andesmar style
Breakfast is three different types of sandwich.
- A sandwich
- A vegetarian
- A Milanese completo
This needs some explanation: A sandwich is, de facto, cheese and ham. (Tostado is toasted cheese and ham, but I digress). You can request completo (which adds lettuce and tomato) and you can ask for no ham. I say you can, but if you do, expect to have to repeat yourself a couple of times and then, as the panny drops, be asked if you are (hushed tones) vegetarian. It is not worth trying to explain that you are not vegetarian but are just sick of highly processed dead pig. Trust me.
A Milanese is breaded veal (or cow). A Milanese completo sandwich is a Milanese with cheese and ham, (No tomato and lettuce this time).
Therefore, our breakfast was three types of ham and cheese sandwich. Yummy.
Oh, and a biscuit with Dulce de Leche (posts passim) in it.
After our culinary treats, we dozed for a few more hours until we rolled into Santiago del Estero. After the usual scramble for bags, we tried to get a cab. We had to wait a good ten minutes before one arrived and took us to the hotel. About half-way there I realised that there was no meter and that we hand't asked how much it would cost. Stupid tourist makes schoolboy error I thought to myself - right until he asked for the princely sum of 33p for the journey. In a spirit of unparalleled genorosity, I gave him 50p.
Our hotel was OK. The pool wasn't and the checkouy time had been changed in an effort to extract an extra fiver from late sleepers, but we had a nice room with a balcony overlooking the square.
Santiago del Estero by day
Arriving on a Sunday, mid-afternnon, the place was pretty much dead. We ended up eating a very poor lunch in the hotel and having a siesta.
The town woke up at night, but we were too ensconced in bed to venture out further than the balcony for another picture.
Santiago del Estero by night
In the morning we packed and vacated without incurring the lazy-tax and I did some internetting whilst T pootled around town.
We then both went out to get some lunch. First stop was the market, just for a look. It reminded me of Bolton market. T was somewhat shocked to walk past some bizarre looking meat things hanging up. Bull penises. We were too suprised and embarrassed to take pictures.
A yummy (and cheap) lunch with a very nice waiter and a ridiculously cheap taxi later and we were back on the bus.
Which is where I am now. Listening to Gotan Project and typing up the blog.
We get into Puerto Iguazu in 12 hours. There may well be more sandwiches before then. Wish us luck.
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