Los Andes
We woke late and went for breakfast at 9.00. It was American Style again (like the previous morning) which meant a small bowl of fruit salad, a bread roll with butter and the delicious Dulce de Leche, a slice of sponge cake and a slice of ham and cheese. Quite a combination! Walked into town to get some pesos out of the bank ($770.00 to the pound) and visit a tourist information room. No maps but a leaflet with a drawing estimating the main roads. We went onto Google Earth in desperation and discovered they probably have some of most inaccurate maps in the world. Roads were 10km out of place, no road numbers, no place names (many of those that were marked were in the wrong location) and minor roads (our B roads) did not appear at all! Walked through the crowds of last minute Christmas shoppers and visited the shops. The system here is quite convoluted! When we bought a pen the lady behind the counter gave us a ticket. We then took this ticket and queued at the cash till, where we paid and received another ticket which we returned to the original lady behind the counter who gave us the pen! This was the same when we bought bread! Made a note to find out the reason for this. Decided not to push on today as we didn’t really have a plan for the next stage, and as it was Christmas Eve, we didn’t want to arrive in a village with no accommodation! So we sat in the town square under the shade of palm trees and watched the world go by. Today it was mostly people eating huge ice creams and stray dogs lolling under seats. It was so hot we had to retreat to the hotel and the breeze of the overhead fan. Spent all afternoon working out a route to the coast (thanks to the internet) and eating giant empanandas!
The main plaza in Los Andes
Christmas Eve toys in the plaza
