Colon, Argentina (3 days)

Away from all tourists, we find a town truly Arentinian and a real treat- Colon. Colon is where people from Buenos Aires go to on weekends as a summer town. Truly a siesta latin town, with no one about during 1pm to 6pm ish, we find a town where Argentinians shop in their bikinis, and they all come up with their friends on weekends. Once a year there is a big festival called ARTESANIA 2006 (on now) (cue dramatic music), where all kinds of craftspeople from all over Argentina come and they set up stalls. Each stall says where they are from, so it was really a lot of fun talking to people and asking about their home areas. However, we set off to this famous affair at 2pm, a respectable time to arrive in Vancouver, only to discover it opened at 7pm, with the main show coming on at 10pm! Again, the latin siesta thing throws us off... Alison and I buy a fair amount of jewelry- local bone pendants and ring, silver bracelets, a purse. Everyone very friendly. Again though, we seem to get a lot of looks as being not Argentinian. Because the youth hostel was full at this busy time of year, and because we would like a break from the youth hostels from our experience in Buenos Aires, we decide to check into hotels in Colon. This proves to be a great decision, very comfortable, one even has a spa with massages and facials... Some of the houses in Colon are fancy with lots of wood used in the detailing, others are more shack-ish. However, most of the cars we see driving around are quite shiny and this provides proof that it is a summer town which the affluent of Buenos Aires can afford, even though the dirt roads and laid-backness of it would questions otherwise- again, likely due to the recent economic crash. After 2 very enjoyable days, we head north to Corrientes, another 100% Argentinian town (no tourists).