La Rioja

This city really doesn't deserve a post, I consider this to be a warning to all NEVER to come to this place.  Really, you don't need to.

I´m not sure about the precise english translation of Rioja, but I think it translates loosely to "Purgatory" on the optimistic side, or pessimistically as one of the circles of Dante´s hell. The city is fairly small, located in a basin next to some mountains around 300km from Mendoza, and once you arrive it takes a supreme effort to leave.  There is such high demand to leave La Rioja that all of the bus seats that recline into beds are booked up almost a week in advance.  


So when we arrived at 8 pm on November 17th, after a day of touring desert national parks in up to 117 degree heat and then a 4 hour busride in a beatup old bus without airconditioning, we found that our options were pretty limited.  In order to escape we had a 6 hour bus ride in front of us in a normal seat that could begin at 12am, 3am or 8am.  After much discussion and much visitation to the ticket counters of different buslines which we learned later were collectively selling tickets for the same buses, we decided to give ourselves some relief, find a hotel somewhere, and take a shower.  


By 10pm we had managed to insult one taxi driver for supposing that he would have change, and two hotelkeepers for requesting to view a hotel room and thus insinuating that their establishments might be sub-par.  But at last we had a room at the PLAZA hotel downtown, a four star establishment with a rooftop pool, a delicious continental breakfast (besides the ubiquitous awful coffee) and interior decor rivalling Motel 6.  At 10pm with the temperature still in the 90s and not a breath of wind, that pool felt great and we were the only ones in it!