We've been enjoying the lively little city of La Rioja. We're staying at the Hotel Plaza, with a balcony overlooking the busy Plaza 25 de Mayo. Sierra de Velasco (a mountain range) overlooks the town and would be a pretty background, if we hadn't been here on the only two cloudy days of the year.
La Rioja is a nine-hour bus ride north from Mendoza. The bus stopped for 30 minutes for lunch in Vallecito, where we stumbled across the Difunta Correa Shrine. There's hundreds of scale model houses, license plates, and other offerings. If we hadn't gone for a short walk from the bus to stretch our legs we would have missed it.
We ate at the two best restaurants on the two nights we were here, at least according to the Lonely Planet. First night we had dinner at La Viejo Casona. We got there just before 8pm and walked in the staff entrance, not realizing they didn't open till 8pm. I tried chivito (grilled goat), a local specialty, which was excellent, although hard work to get each mouthful.
The next night we ate at Stanzza. Not wanting to repeat our faux pas and show up before the restaurant opened, we went out for dinner at 8:45pm. Unfortunately Stanzza doesn't open until 9pm. So we wandered down to a nearby plaza and watched the local life for 20 minutes. Stanzza has great Italian food, I really liked their lemon sole.
At both restaurants people continued to stream in at all hours, including families with little kids and babies. We felt uncool going home to bed at 11pm when two-year-olds were just sitting down to dinner.
I managed to pick up a cold or the flu somewhere along the way, and sniffled most of the time in La Rioja. Heather now has it but hopefully it looks like she's getting better.
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