Pampa del Infierno (Hell’s Plain)

With much sadness we said goodbye to Abuelo and began the next leg of our journey.  Abuelo gave us a rosary that used to belong to Papi’s mum for a safe journey.  It will travel with us always from now on. 

the dirt road out of San Martin was very slow

The drive to Salta is around 700km and will take us two days.  The long dirt road North West out of San Martin is very slow and hard going so at 4pm on the first day we had only made it 200km and found ourselves in Pampa del Infierno (Hell’s Plain).  With the next town on our route 200km away and not wanting to risk driving in the dark we decided to stay for the night. 

Our hotel. The only one in Pampa del Infierno

We checked into the only hotel in town which costs AUD$40 per night (and that includes breakfast) and got directions to a restaurant for dinner (there are two in town) but neither of them would be open until 8pm. 

the supermarket next door to our hotel is 'popular' apparently

With 4 hours free we thought we’d have a look around town, but there was nothing to see.  So we went next door to the ‘supermarket’ and  bought an alfajor to share and all climbed into bed to watch tv together for a few hours. 

Spanish Lesson:

An alfajor is a special Argentinean treat.  They are biscuits stuck together with dulce de leche (caramel) and then the whole thing is often covered in chocolate. We promised our friend Romina we’d have one for her whilst we’re here  – so that was for you Romina! 

dulce de leche literally means ‘sweet of milk’.  It’s like condensed milk that has been boiled into thick caramel and is eaten as a topping on bread and is in lots of cakes and desserts.

Argentineans eat dinner at 9pm or 10pm so it’s hard to find a restaurant open before 8pm.  Lunch is usually eaten between 12pm and  1pm and quite a big meal.  Often tea or coffee and bread or biscuits are eaten around 5pm

Abuelo = grandpa (in case you haven’t been reading my blogs)