Dinner in Salta

So, we made it to Salta today.  After checking out of our apartment in Palermo in Buenos Aires at 10 am, we got a taxi and headed to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery.  We arrived at 10:50 (for a 12:25 flight) and then waited in an EPIC 3 hour line!  Yes, some of you smarter folks are wondering how we got to Salta if we waited in a 3 hour line, starting at 10:50, for a 12:25 flight.  So, after waiting in the line until about 12:15, finally, the staff at LAN decided to call out for anyone still in line for Salta, and seemed genuinely shocked that there were probably 40 people in the check-in line for a flight that was supposed to leave in 10 minutes.  I will say, in Argentina, they don't treat you like a terrorist just because you want to fly, and they do everything they can to make sure you get where you want to go.  Anyway, after realizing that half the plane was still not checked in, they organized an "express-lane" for people flying to Salta...and actually started doing their jobs (they had been rather nonchalant prior to that).  It also appears as though the printed "flight time" is actually the boarding time.  So, we ended up leaving an hour late, but that's okay, because we still made it, our bags were on the plane to the right place, and we were allowed to bring our 2 liter bottle of water through security without any problems...and no, the plane DIDN'T blow up...amazing!  After a short 2 hour flight, we were on approach to Salta, and let me tell you, it is beautiful, mountains on all sides, everything green, and farmland in all directions.  We landed safely, got our bags (which took 30 minutes or so...people here aren't really in a big rush most of the time), and met up with Florencia from La Estancia de Cafayate, who had been waiting for us with a taxi for an hour or so...  (one of the perks of buying land at La Estancia de Cafayate!...it apparently saved us at least 30 minutes waiting for a taxi).  Thank goodness for Florencia too, because the address I had written down for the apartment turned out to be wrong...there wasn't a 2222 Alsina...the road ended at about 2150!  Florencia got on her phone to the LEC concierge desk and had them look up a phone number and soon enough we were on our way to the correct address right next to downtown Salta (turns out the apartment rental company had the wrong address on their website...).  We checked in to our beautiful apartment, complete with complimentary loaves of bread, and a swimming pool and went out to explore.  Salta really is a fantastic city.  It's much smaller than Buenos Aires, is cleaner, more quiet, and has far less shady characters walking around.  It's still a city, and today, 2 days before Christmas, it was a mob-scene of Argentine's doing last-minute shopping.  And it has everything anyone could want.  The parks, the old colonial buildings, and surroundings (mountains on all sides) are beautiful.

We went to the supermarket (which was absolutely mobbed with women getting supplies for Christmas dinner parties with family, which apparently involved swimming in various kinds of soda...every single person there had at least a dozen 3-liter soda bottles!), and stocked our fridge for a home-cooked Christmas dinner of steak, blood sausage, vegetables, and pasta - plus 2 bottles of good wine, juice, etc...all for less than $50!  After that we headed to dinner less than 1 block away on THE place to be at night in Salta, Balcarce St...  We ate at La Lenita, a parilla, and were quite happy.  An appetizer of roasted goat provolone with oregano and smoked ham, sweetbreads, a delicious short rib steak, cheesy baked potato and a bottle of Norton Clasico red wine...all for less than $35!

We could definitely see ourselves here...this could be the kind of place where I raise my goats in the mountains around Cafayate, while Rose works in the hospitals in Cafayate and Salta.  Just saying/dreaming...but seriously, why doesn't everyone live here?