My final picture of Salta – this was the view from our hotel room. I thought it captured Salta’s charm perfectly – the lovely architecture (you can only see its roof here but the building below was a grand colonial building in the midst of restoration) with all the subtropical greenery surrounding it. If I had to live in Argentina, this is where I’d go.
We are now in beautiful Salta, city of madly ornate, pastel-coloured churches and shuttered colonial buildings. Verdant green hills surround us while hummingbirds hover at flowers on the terraces. I’ve been ill so will be getting out to draw some buildings next week. For now here are some indoor shots..
Salta has a strong tradition of folk music and our street is lined with peñas: bars/restaurants with live acts.
And the reception desk in our excellent hotel, the Altos De Balcarce!
The wonderful hostel La Bolsa in Bariloche have very kindly sent me a photo of Morocha, the poodle I got obsessed by a couple of posts ago, with her litter of puppies/kittens. I think she looks a little fraught.
On the left are sketches from a café in Neuquen; the right is of a print I really liked in a café in San Telmo (BA). It described itself as a café for artists and literary types and this was a poster advertising a poets’ reading in 1983. It was the perfect café: beaten-up wooden tables, a wood-beamed bar running along the edge and posters all over the walls. Slightly at odds with all this were the fairly moody waiters, but then again it was a Monday.
Then on to the Iguazu Falls, vast stretch of waterfalls that descend through subtropical jungle at the Argentine border with Brazil. Rich pointed out that you often find great waterfalls on the borders between countries. Getting the sketchbook out there was fraught with danger due to water getting everywhere, so in the end my sketches came from the mostly good, occasionally hellish hostel we stayed in. I love INXS but please, not again.
Some photos from the falls themselves. This is the Devil’s Throat, a great cavity where water thunders down on all sides (that´s Brazil on the other side). Standing above it and getting whammed by 82 metres´worth of upwards spray is really quite incredible.
There are butterflies everywhere and occasionally you’d come across a swarm of them feeding on an apparently unremarkable piece of mud. Actually they’re behaving like flies but you still gaze on adoringly.
The air was steaming with vapour from nearby waterfalls in this part of the jungle; it made the lilies you can just about see tremor and fill the air with scent. Lovely.
