As I leave Argentina, I want to add details of a few small occurences and observations that haven't made it into the general blog.
Dogs. Everyone here, it seems, has at least one dog and they bark constantly. I can't recall a night when I haven't, at some point, lain awake and heard all the dogs in the town barking!
Random pizza toppings. One night in Salta, an American girl and I decided to share a Hawaiian pizza. When it arrived, as well as having the usual toppings you'd expect on such a pizza, it also had tinned peaches and cream on top. Not sour cream, actual sweet cream. Wrong in so many ways.
In the supermarket, there are generally massive queues. This is because people don't pack their own shopping, but let the cashier pack for them (with approximately two items per bag). When I start to pack my own shopping, and especially when I put it in my own bag, I get looked at very strangely!
Coins are scarce in Argentina. Everyone is constantly hoarding change and small notes, and many shops won't accept large notes as payment. I actually feel guilty that I left the country with about five Argentinian coins. Maybe I'll donate them to someone heading in the other direction to me...
Although it has been getting pretty cold at night, it is still mostly warm in the day. The locals, however, still wander round wearing coats and scarves.
People and places keep strange hours, most shops open for the morning and then close between 12/1 and 6pm, to reopen for the evening. People go out for dinner at 10pm at the earliest. I've discovered that the best way to maintain these hours is to have a siesta between about 5 and 7.... or even 6 and 8.
There is sugar in EVERYTHING. And lots of it.
Even in small towns, there are multiple (maybe ten or so) shops selling exactly the same thing. I'm not entirely sure how they all stay in business. It's the same with market stalls.
About a month ago, the watch I bought especially to take travelling decided to break. As I generally need to know the time to catch buses, I now have to carry my alarm clock in my bag wherever I go. This would be fine if it didn't beep every time it received the slightest knock. At one point, I wasn't sure how to turn my alarm off so I decided to just set it to a time that wouldn't be too inconvenient. However, I forgot about this the next day and it went off as I was crossing the border from Paraguay to Argentina. Having something beeping in your bag is less than ideal when navigating passport control!
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