Leaving the city life behind

The slightly seedy charm of the Tucumán hostel

It's getting close to midnight, and it is more quiet than it has ever been since we arrived in South America a week ago. After travelling from one city to the next on our slow way north to the Bolivian border we have now arrived in a small town of little more than 5,000 people. Tafí del Valle is about 125 km west of San Miguel de Tucumán, the capital city of the province with the same name.

Tucumán was the latest in the string of towns we visited, and we arrived there late in the afternoon yesterday after a six-hour drive from La Rioja. The landscape changed quite dramatically on the way: from the dry, thorny brush country with cacti just coming into bloom and scattered herds of cows, sheep and goats the road ascended into the hills. As soon as we turned downhill again the vegetation had totally changed: lush green, leafy trees had taken over from their thorny cousins, and even from the top we could see that the plain below was home to a much different kind of agriculture. Large stubble fields stretched into the distance, some wheat fields still unharvested, tobacco plants stood in neat rows, large slatted sheds awaiting them for drying and storage. More and more frequently sugar cane fields appeared on both sides of the road, and soon traffic was slowed by big trucks heaped with chopped sugar cane. Every once in awhile a column of dark smoke indicated the location of a sugar factory. 

 

In Tucumán we drove by several side-by-side soccer fields before we had even reached the bus terminal, teeming with people, just like in many smaller communities we had passed through on the way: Saturday must be 'futbol' day. We took a taxi from the bus terminal and were dropped in front of the 'Tucuman Hostel', recommended in the Lonely Planet. It might have had a downward turn since its printing (ours is more than six years old), since it seemed to be in need of a major overhaul, an impression that was not helped by the young man at the reception desk who showed a remarkable lack of enthusiasm. But we did get a room with clean sheets and a reasonably clean bathroom, and the house itself surely had seen more prosperous days, as still evident in its high rooms with solid wooden doors with coloured-glass windows over top and beautiful floor tiles.

We had a bit of a problem: not anticipating any troubles changing money at about the same exchange rate as in Mendoza, but finding no place to change money (inofficially, anyway) in La Rioja we had only 300 Argentinean Pesos (about $25 Canadian) left after we paid the hostel. We needed to try and find a money exchange in Tucumán, and soon, which, we were told, was nearly impossible on the weekend.

We put our bags in our room and walked downtown nonetheless: maybe we'd be lucky. Another option was to find a good quality restaurant where they might be happy to exchange 'dollares'; we had made that experience last year in Puerto Iguazu. We didn't find either, however, and surrounded by milling people out to spend money and have fun on a Saturday evening, stuck time and again behind a couple or a group of people moving excrutiatingly slow, but not leaving much room to pass I caught myself thinking, 'what are we doing here? We didn't come to Argentina for this.' A case of sudden and extreme 'crowd fatigue' had set in, and a sideways glance at Johann told me that he, too, had been hit by it. 

 

What to do, then? We could stay at the hostel for another night and try our luck Monday morning, or escape the city and take our chances that we'd find a place to exchange money in Tafí del Valle, a town we had long marked as a desirable destination. The money we had left would be enough to take us there, to buy some bread, cheese and a bottle of wine for supper, and to pay a tip to the men lifting our bag in and out of the belly of the bus – here in Argentina the tip seems to be expected, unlike other South American countries where we have travelled.

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Obviously we made it to Tafí, and things have worked out well – but right now it's time for me to go bed, and I'll continue tomorrow.