Iguazu to Salta

First thing´s first. Booze is REALLY cheap here, and only gets cheaper in Bolivia. On our last night in Iguazu we bought a litre of vodka for 5 pesos, which is about $2.50 Aus. It smelt and tasted like Methylated Spirits, but we had a good night. By coincidence we ran into Dean, who we met in Bariloche, and this made the night even better. We had a 9am bus out of Iguazu the following day, and needless to say we weren´t feeling the flashest. We transfered onto another bus in Tucuman, and by coincidence jumped on the same bus as some American guys we met briefly on another bus. We got talking and it turns out they were friends with two other girls we had met in Bariloche and were meeting them for Christmas in Salta. The coincidences just keep on piling up. So these guys invite us to this Christmas party they´re having at this house that they are renting for three days over Christmas with a pool and everything, telling us about the huge dinner they´re going to prepare, and we agree whole heartedly. It turned out that they were coming to the same hostel as we were first so we shared a taxi and checked in. Then I get an email from the girls we know inviting us to the same party. It really is a small world. Anyway we´re pretty psyched about Christmas, we´ve got a makeshift travel family, and with the big dinner and the pool, it should be really fun.
Salta is a really beautiful city. Yesterday we took an airbus up a mountain, and despite desert only being a few kms away the whole place is greener than any city I have seen. It´s nice kicking back in one town for a few days. Buses are beginning to feel very ordinary.
However, despite this being a really nice city, and being in a really nice hostel, there are some wankers about. Last night we were cooking dinner and this drunkard kept on leaning over our food, pushing Sarah aside and taking over. Who does that? He started adding all this olive oil in it, we were making Chili con Carne, you don´t really need olive oil! I literally had to push him aside and forcefully reject his offers to help, which were not so much offers as much as they were demands as he reached over to take the pan. I was fuming and ready to throw the pot half full of boiling olive oil at the bastard, but luckily he wandered off and passed out in the hall way. How rude can you get. You just don´t touch a strangers cooking, you could get shot for that kind of thing in some cultures... well my culture, whatever that may be! For the rest of the evening I had to contend with this loser pleading with me to pick up a girl for him. It didn´t seem to occur to him that me picking a girl up would not help him in the slightest. He also didn´t care when I told him I had a girlfriend and wouldn´t feel comfortable doing it. I downright refused, and he continues to give me daggers when I walk by him in the hall ways. Jerk.
Despite these set backs, I´m having a great time. The pool table is free here, the beer is cheap, and the weather is warm. The girls have gone nuts for a cocktail that you drink out of a pineapple, however they haven´t yet mastered the art of not butchering the pineapple beyond its use as a beverage container. Still they´re having fun. I´m enjoying my last opportunity for big cheap steaks. Bolivia ain´t much of a steak country.
Tomorrow we´re heading out for a 15 hour day trip. We´re getting to some high altitudes, so that´ll be interesting. I´ll let you know how that goes soon.
Till then,
Dil pickleton.