So for the last week Nolz and I have been playing tour guide. Considering we’ve both still been working and one of us has (once again) dodged up their ankle (guess who that could have been…), I think we managed to cram everything in pretty well! And most of all spend time with ma gal Ellie and have a good catch up over the last week. And any time I was in a class or otherwise occupied with work, Luna took up the mantle and took over, getting as many cuddles and licks in as possible 😉
To give you the lowdown of what we did, we went for a walk (/ bike for me, on account of my ankle) round the neighbourhood where we live, went for an evening trip up the cable car and wondered around the top of the mountain before going back down and having some dinner. Over the next few days we popped to San Lorenzo for a lil walk, went to the MAAM museum (about the INCAS and child sacrifices and all that kinda stuff) got Ellie to try all kinds of traditional things here – dulce de leche (kinda like caramel), chocotorta (cake made out of biscuits and dulce de leche basically!), cheese empanadas, mate, terere, an alfajor – went on the tourist bus, wondered around the main square and cathedral and had an ice cream (Arg has suuuch a good range of ice creams!) and went to a peña (where you can have traditional food and people turn up with instruments and sing traditional songs from their seats). We also went to the lake and joined a rather jolly tour group (11 sixty-something-year-olds who were friends from school) on a catamaran where the tourguide told us some rather dubious facts! Wasn’t quite sure how much to believe of what she was saying as she kept telling us that a few various different people who knew a thing or two about history came on the tour and kept correcting her! But what we did see was turtles! We didn’t even know there were turtles in this lake, and I definitely didn’t believe it when they said we’d see some, as we’ve been coming to this lake for ages now and didn’t know. But true enough, we saw two getting some rays in on the rocks! Once we’d finished on the catamaran Ellie & I had a little expedition out on a kayak which was really fun! Very peaceful. We went off in search of more turtles, but alas, there were no more to be found.
On the Sunday we went off to church, with me rapidly translating the preach and what was going on. Twas quite satisfying because I could basically translate all of it line by line! And also in the museum actually. A fair amount of it was translated into English but some parts weren’t and I could translate way more than I could when I was last at this museum (in Nov with my fam).
That evening we all packed our bagsies ready for the next day – Ellie to return to England and Nolz and I to go to Cafayate – and finally had enough energy and time for an evening to chill in the house and play marioparty.
So there you have it! Anyone who wants to come out we’ve worked out how to do a whistlestop tour for ya in Salta so now taking reservations 😉 I shall leave below some pics from our week. Toodleoo!
Nadia's Adventures 
¡Buenas tardes, Nadia! Thanks for your latest post. We’ve just got back from a couple of weeks in Corfu or Κέρκυρα (Kérkyra) as the Greeks call it so I could also say Καλησπέρα (kalispéra). We had two weeks of blue skies and temps in the high 20s or low 30s so too hot to do much more than lie on a beach or by the pool. Just one day there was a terrific wind and we expected a storm but it passed us by on the other side of the sea where we could see huge lightning bolts from an electric storm over the mountains of Albania opposite us.
I’m very envious of your proficiency in Spanish having myself grappled with it rather pathetically over many years. However, I have learned some Greek (not much)which is sadly very hard to make use of as almost every Greek person speaks English as well as we do and often, better. I will leave you with a Greek word I’ve just learned. Our favourite Taverna was called Taverna Galini which I long thought was named after of the owner. He is a larger than life man who greeted customers like long lost relatives and hugged and squeezed almost everyone (sometimes even during your meal) and told them he loved them. Hence, his taverna is so popular. On our last day I learned his name is in fact Nikos Sarakinos and γαλήνη (galini) is the Greek word for Serenity. The Serenity Taverna! How about that?
You can see what the taverna is like from this link:
https://galinitaverna.gr/
Here’s some Greek music and dance you may recognise that captures a little of the spirit of Greece.
PS On our flight home yesteday we flew right over Venice and I got the most stunning view of that amazing place from the air looking like a model or lilliputian floating city surrounded by its large lagoon. It looked very vulnerable and I remembered its nickname is “La serenissima” (the most serene one or Serenity City).
Ciao for now.
David
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Buenas! Perdon la demorra en responder jaja, sorry about the slow reply!
Wow, going to Greece sounds amazing! I too learnt a little Greek, on my TESOL course, but I can’t remember much now, just “eina carota” which I don’t suppose would be of much use. The Taverna looks amazing, what fun!! And what a lovely owner of the place! Sounds like you had a really lovely time 🙂
Sending you both much love! xx
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