To the Big City
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2005
1
17
24
Trip End
Apr 16, 2005
San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina
Saturday, March 12, 2005
The city is basically like Salta, only bigger, tons of restaurants and lots of big parks. Did I mention already how hot it was? Over 100 my first day. So my first day I just walked around the city, very pretty but not a whole lot to do. I basically started to get a hold on lots of Argentinian customs. For example, all of the schoolgirls wear these weird white lab coats over their uniforms. Everyone goes everywhere with a thermos full of hot water to make tea wherever they may be, and drink it out of these strange-shaped wooden cups with designs carved in them, with a big metal straw that they drink the tea with. The tea, by the way, is always made with fresh leaves and is extremely good. Everyone goes out for tea/coffee with pastries at around 7 PM, and no one goes out to dinner until about 11 PM...good luck even finding a restaurant that is open before 9. Oh, and stuff actually happends ON TIME down here, something I have never seen in any Latin country before.
So in Tucuman there's not really a lot of bars, but instead cafes that serve as bars as well, so I went out with a British girl and this crazy French guy to a cafe, housed in this old colonial building, having beers until about 3.30 AM the first night, which is extremely early by Argentina standards, as late-night places are open until about 6 or 7 AM on the weekends, b/c no one goes out until about 1 or 2 AM...it's actually really nice, b/c you can eat your huge, bloody steak, take a nap until about midnight, and then you're good to go.
Next day went to this little campo outside of the city, San Javier, which is located on top of a mountain, and you have a great 360-degree view of the city and the surrounding hills, and of course on top of this hill, like almost every hill in South America, there is a menacing 100-ft tall statue of Jesus. Seriously, EVERY city that I have been to on this continent, no matter how big, has a menacing Jesus located somewhere nearby. That night I met this really cool girl, Monica, from Buenos Aires, we went to a nice cafe together and had some beers and she recommended where I should visit in BA when I arrive. The Argentinian accent is getting much easier for me, and I am even starting to use it myself.
Next morning I left, I basially only went to Tucuman to go out for a couple of nights, it is a nice city for a few days but there's not a whole lot to do. The food, however, is fantastic, and my strict diet of steak and wine was not interrupted. Early in the morning I caught a bus for Chilecito, which was a little further than I expected.
