Our last few days of Argentina

  Tucuman, Argentina Monday, May 23, 2016

Not much to say about this really. We got the front seats on the bus alongside an English honeymooning couple in their 30s named Holly & Ben. Ben amused us as when we asked him if he had travelled much previously, he stated that he had been to Switzerland once but he didn't like it much! Oh Ben! He was scared of everything and every time the bus went around a bend he was gripping his seat. Admittedly the bus was going around hairpin mountain roads so we can forgive him for that. Ben & Holly shared a taxi with us to the centre and then we all piled in a coffee shop to work out where to head from there. They had already booked into a hostal - one we had earmarked ourselves but wishing to give them a break from us, we headed elsewhere. However when we got elsewhere - it was grungy and expensive. We had no alternative but to head over to the one we had planned originally. Ben & Holly were already there so we said hi again and settled into our own room. We had gone to Tucuman to hopefully catch a train to somewhere else but all the trains to anywhere interesting seem to be night trains. All the sleeper carriages were booked up until June so as we didn't fancy another night on the train like we had in China, we decided we would stick to the buses and leave in a day or so. There really isn't much in Tucuman to see. Their main attraction is the main square with lots of orange trees in it again and a fancy building. We did try the Tourist Information office but the smiley air-head in there knew less about her country than we did! So it was back to the bus station for us to book a ticket out of here. Seems like the main buses are all night buses though but at least we could get a seat that reclined and we had a slight chance of some sleep.....maybe! We arrived at the bus station well ahead of time for our bus and had a bit of a poke around the shops whilst we waited. We wandered into one that sold all sorts; souvenirs, kitchen utensils, dolls, sunglasses and reading glasses. Um well. Maybe now was the time to go for it as we had both been moaning about how it seemed to be getting harder to read the small print these days. And at less than £2 a pair we thought we would go for it! So as a couple that do everything together, we bought our first pair of reading glasses together too :-) So Tucuman, Argentina became memorable afterall!