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San Juan is a city in which there isn't much to see: the architecture is all unimaginative 20th century boxy-utilitarian as the city has only recently been rebuilt having been levelled in an Earth-quake in 1944. The one redeeming factor is it's a good place for food, there being no shortage of cheap places to eat. It is often the case in Argentina that it's cheaper to eat-out than to buy the ingredients and cook; especially true if cooking for oneself, a couple or a group eats for half price or less if the group is bigger as almost all items cost the same the check-out whether paying for one or three people. A meal in a restaurant here will now set you back sixty pesos (£10, USD15 or 12Euro), not cheap if spending this everyday. However, a great-cheaper alternative is a "Rotissaria", some restaurants even have them attached; it's the same food, but at a fraction of the price. The Rotissaria or "Comida para llevar" (or more offen than not seen on the sign over the shop-window "Delivery al Domicile" your home), is a take-away, though, the food can be eaten on the premises, in cheap seats on a counter around the interior wall; while Scooters (motos) come and go with orders for home delivery.

The food is perhaps the thing I will miss most when I go home. Nevertheless, it's lacking in variety, especially in vegetables. Vegetarian and other exotic food is available in big-cities, everywhere else pizza and pasta is on the menu with Criolle which is steak, empanadas (meat filled pasty), etc, and my favourite is "Lomito Completo" which is a thin slice of steak in a sandwich of crusty-bread often grilled, complete with fried egg, cheese and salad, served usually spiked with a wooden toothpick with a green olive on top for decoration.

Other than eating, I have had to, as you already know, buy a stove; gas, as in a perfect world it is perhaps the best. The flame can be modulated to simmer or turned up to boil rapidly unlike the alcohol stove I lost. It is maintenance-free, unlike petrol. And is safe to use within the comfort of the tent should it rain, or be cold or even windy. But it not being a perfect world the drawbacks include the initial expense of the gas-canister, not-lease-to the environment, as I don't know of a place where they are recycled, and moreover, they have "made in Korea" on the side, further adding cost to the planet. Speaking of price, my stove was dear at 150pesos (£25). The same stove would have cost £15 in Chile or much the same price as in Europe. It is a mistake to buy any consumer-durable in Argentina as the government impose such heavy taxation on such items unless it is absolutely necessary which was my case.

A side value of a petrol stove though is that it's easy to pour some fuel out on a sponge and wash the bike's chain and sprockets. Without the fuel bottle, it isn't so straight forward buying petrol at the pump unless you've a proper container. The alternative degreasing agent is "white spirits" known here as "Bensina Blanca", and usually, though not always, sold in general hardware shops. I spent an hour or more looking for one such only to find when I found one it shut for siesta, consequently I felt Is wasting my time and returned back to the hostel where I resorted to using washing-up liquid and water to remove the grunch from chain and sprockets. The bike looked impressively clean afterwards but the drive-train remains a bit black.

The bike rests against the wall in the backyard of the hostel I'm staying at. At 45pesos (£7.50) a night bed and breakfast, it is good value for money. It goes without saying though at this price, I sleep in a dorm sharing with two other guys but this doesn't bother me much as I'm asleep soon after laying down anyway. And breakfast is fair in that the coffee is good; just what I need to kick-start the day. There are a steady trickle of travelers from Buenos Aires and the West that stay one night coming from or going to the National Park, Ischigualasto (Valle de Luna), the main tourist attraction in the area, 320km from San Juan. There is however Jan from Germany that was here when I got here last Monday and is big into photography especially night photography. And John from Texas that lost his credit-card and has been here a while sorting out a new card. His account is with international bank "Citi-Bank" and he thought it was a simply matter of going to their branch here in San Juan, but no, the bureaucracy made if very difficult. The story goes that all he needed was someone in his branch back home to authorize someone here in San Juan to do the necessary, but the people here needed the authorization of their people in Buenos Aires etc etc and so it took quite a lot of time and inconvenience in which John was borrowing money to eat and pay bills. He has his card now and is much relieved to say the lease.

It was time to go to the barbers again. As I don't shave I just get him, it usually is a him, to cut chin and all number two with the machine. While sat waiting for the barber to finish the old man in front of me, a little boy, "Federico" I heard his mother call-out to come-back. Like all Argentines Federico was very talkative and had no inhibitions; he was only a 6 year old, "that's a big beard you've got" or something like that he said in Spanish while he reached up catching me either side of the face by the hair on my cheeks. A little later in the chair as the barber ran the machine over my face leaving behind almost bare skin, Federico began to shout-out in a worried tone "murio murio....." I think he was implying that I may of been being shaved in preparation for the chop.