As we leave Argentina there are so many things we are thankful to have been able to experience and that we know we are going to miss.
dulce de leche
yerba mate
new friends
steak
Buenos Aires
cheek kissing
Salta
empanadas
malbec
dog walkers
Mendoza
asados
alfajores
Most of all we’ll miss the Argentinian people who were always friendly, patient with my bad Spanish, helpful, and welcoming. We’ll miss Argentina, but I know we’ll be back.
Next stop is Chicago to visit friends, family and attend our nephew Matt and his fiance Melissa’s wedding. I’ve also challenged Jeff to a White Castle slider eating contest. I’m pretty sure I know who’s going to win.
There are certain things I like in a market – produce, meat, local specialties, interesting people, and gross stuff. The Mendoza market or Mercado Central has the perfect mix of all of these things. I was able to shop, buy stuff for dinner, see cool stuff, and freak out at gross stuff.
The Mendoza market had just enough of everything. This was different than the Salta market which had way too much gross stuff for my tourist eyes to take in. Jeff wasn’t over the trauma of the Salta market either.
Please don't make me go in there.
We started in the food court. We don’t usually take our laptops to a market, but it was nice to know we could.
There was nothing gross to see in the food court, and our lunch of grilled chicken was good.
I like this market.
We saw them delivering the wood used to grill our chicken.
This was just for one restaurant.
After lunch we headed in to the actual mercado. First thing I liked, it was crowded, but manageable. It didn’t feel like you would get trampled by camera wielding tourists if a seafood vendor started throwing fish like in Seattle’s Pike Place market.
Crowds but not crowded.
We started off in the safe areas, cheese, spices, candy. Interesting, not gross.
Nothing gross about cheese.Who doesn't like candy?
Here is a local specialty. It looks like it might be something really gross with a name like membrillo. The first time I saw it I thought membrane of what? Is it congealed fat? But, no, it’s like a jam made out of fruit.
Next we headed into the meat section. By this time I was itching to see something gross and was not disappointed. But, here’s the nice thing about the market, the organs were all under glass. Nothing is hanging in your face.
Tongues and brains anyone?
OK this stuff was hanging, but at least you could identify it, well some of it.
There is a seafood section which is interesting. It’s hard to find seafood in Mendoza. I’m guessing this is coming from Chile.
They had a nice selection of gross, but not too gross.
Same with the chicken vendors. Chicken feet are gross to me. But they’re behind glass, so no chance you’d actually bump into them.
Nothing like a good chicken foot on a crisp fall day.
Even the giant hanging slabs of meat were kept in the back. And, all the organs seemed to be inside the slab, not hanging out.
Things got a big worse gross-wise in the pork section.
this little piggie went to market (literally)
Worst of all was a giant pig head hanging there staring at me. The photo is pretty gross, but if you want to see it you can click here. Photo of pig head.
But, then right when we were really grossed out, we met these super nice people. We had a great time talking to them in a mixture of Spanish and English. The man, we can’t remember his name, spoke really good English. Anita, spoke seven languages including English.
We bought a bunch of stuff, from figs, to pork tenderloin, to eggs, to an entire coked chicken.
These bags do not contain any pig heads.
We’ll be going back for more shopping in a few days. Now we know where to go for fresh veggies, meat, eggs and a little bit of gross.
We just got back from a road trip to see this giant salt flat. You might think, “Well of course you’re living in the city of Salta.” But, this giant field of salt is not in the city of Salta, or even the province of Salta. It’s in a province called Jujuy. I’m not sure what Salta is named after, but I don’t think it’s this.
It’s always surreal the first time you see someone from home in a foreign country. Our Seattle friend Dean is in town and when I met up with Jeff and Dean after my Spanish class, they were in the main square eating empanadas and drinking malbac as if it was the most normal thing in the world to meet for dinner in Salta Argentina.
When Dean suggested a road trip through the mountains north of Salta, we jumped at the chance to join him.
We started in Salta, drove up to Purmamarca, continued on to Humahuaca, circled back, slept in Tilcara, then drove to the Salinas Grandes the following day.
To say the mountains and canyon were breathtaking sounds cliche, but I really don’t know how else to describe it. We went through lush green valleys, dry cactus studded canyons, a torrential downpour, dry bare mountains and ended in a blinding white field of salt. And, in between we stopped in some incredible small mountain towns.
The town of Purmamarca was the most striking with multi colored mountains behind adobe buildings on dusty streets.
In Humahuaca the city was truly nestled in the mountains with lots of craft stalls and indigenous women and children selling blankets.
We spent the night in Tilcara, a town we’ve been to before. It was fun to be able to walk the streets at night, hear some late night music, and walk around as the town came to life in the morning.
I was thrilled to come upon these hamburger patties in a store in Tilcara.
Who wants a barfy?
The next day we drove through part of the Andes. They weren’t the snow covered peaks you think of when you think Andes, but we did get up to 14,000 feet. I do not have that many photos from this part of the trip because most of it was spent in the backseat with my hands over my eyes. Dean drove these the mountains really well, but I don’t do that well with heights.
Can you tell I'm on a the verge of a panic attack?
Once we were through this mountain pass we came to the salt plains. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before, just a giant field of salt for as far as you could see. It looked like you were walking on a giant cloud or snow field. But, it was hot and the salt crunched underfoot. We of course had to try it and…it tasted like salt.
I’d love to say that we just came upon this llama out grazing or perhaps carrying a load of goods for a it’s owner. But, in reality this was a photo op with a tourist llama. We paid fifty cents to get our photo taken with him.
We hadn’t planned a day of tourist llamas, the day was supposed to be spent wine tasting. Cafayate is the center of high altitude Argentinian wine production. We’ve been drinking some excellent wine from the region and wanted to taste it at the actual wineries.
There are several ways to wine taste in Cafayate. You can rent a car, go by bus, stay several nights, or go on a one day tourist excursion. We opted for the excursion. The tour was to stop at several sites along the way, the we’d have from 12:00 to 3:00 in the town of Cafayate. There are about five wineries in town. Jeff and I are experienced high speed wine tasters. Smell, swirl, sip, run like hell to the next winery has always been our method of tasting wine. We were confident that we could hit five wineries in three hours no problem.
The ride to Cafayate was stunning. We went through a gorge and canyon stopping along the way for photos. The multi colored rocks, and formations like Devil’s Throat alone were worth the trip.
Devil's throat
The bus got to Cafayate around noon and stopped at winery number 1, Nanni. We had a great tasting there.
The other two couples on the tour weren’t interested in tasting wine. You can see them in the background in the photo. We left them to have lunch while we quickly scarfed down some empanadas and coffee. We couldn’t wait to taste more wine. We walked quickly to winery number two.
Winery #2 – closed for sietsta
Wintery #3 – closed for siesta
Winery #4 – closed for siesta
Winery #5 – closed maybe forever
You would think after almost three months in Argentina, we’d realize that businesses close from 1:00 to 4:00. Honestly, it never crossed our minds before doing this tour. Finally we accepted the fact that we weren’t going to get into any wineries.
We raced to a wine bar. We asked to see a wine menu. They didn’t know what we meant. We asked if we could do a tasting. The waiter didn’t understand. Maybe several half glasses? Still didn’t get it. How about just a glass of wine? No, they didn’t offer glasses of wine, only bottles.
not exactly Purple or Poco (2 Seattle wine bars)
We wandered around town, circled back and retried several wineries. Finally with only fifteen minutes before the bus left, we ran to a restaurant and ordered any two random glasses of wine. We chugged them and got back on the bus.
On the way back to Salta we stopped at a winery…just to take photos. We weren’t actually allowed into the winery. We did stop and see more really beautiful scenery.
But the tourist llama really was really the best part of the trip.
**Vegetarian warning – this post contains some super gross looking cow parts about half way down the page.**
**Don’t read this if you are eating or planning on eating in the next 12 hours.**
The Salta market started out innocently enough. As with all markets, this one had the usual interesting and photogenic items for sale. Cheese, spices, veggies, Jesus.
It even sells cocoa leaves which are chewed or brewed in tea to alleviate altitude sickness and as a mild stimulant. They are illegal in some countries and some parts of Argentina.
As in most markets, this one also has a gross meat section.
Hooves aren't edible are they?
When I go to a market, I’m always prepared for the gross stuff. It’s almost like a horror movie, getting scared is half the fun. I walk around sort of shielding my eyes, preparing myself for some gross thing.
This stack of hooves (cow maybe?) seemed to do it. It was a nice “OMG that’s so gross,” moment.
I wasn’t however, prepared for this next site.
holy crap, what is this?
I mean really, what is that? And, why is it hanging like that? And, what is this white stuff?
don't know what this is either, but I know it's gross.
The sheer largeness and casual way it was displayed added to the horror. Look closely below. There is an advertisement for a religious festival, then to the right of the photo is a hanging bit of grossness, and then standing between the two hanging…what to call them….animal parts(?) is a woman at the counter. One move left or right and that white hanging thing will swing into her arm or head.
Religious advertisement, hanging meat, and a woman
I’m not sure how they decide what to put behind glass and what to leave hanging in the below photo. Seems like it would be better all behind glass.
I’m going to be taking a short break from my cow eating (tonight I had pork for dinner.) I need some time to erase these images from my brain. I know that all meat comes from animals, and no matter how clean and neat it looks cooked on a plate, it all starts off like this. But come on, it was like entire cows hanging by their large intestines. That’s enough to gross anyone out, even a entire cow eater like myself.
As we leave Argentina there are so many things we are thankful to have been able to experience and that we know we are going to miss.
