En Serio? Gettin' Saltay in Salta.

Since this past weekend was a long one, we didn’t have classes on Monday because it was a holiday (Feria); we took advantage of it and went on a trip. Seth, Shannon and Sam (The Nebraskans) and I went on an adventure to Jujuy and Salta, which are the most Northwestern provinces of Argentina, bordering Chile and Bolivia and are beautifully set amongst the Andes. Before embarking on the 24hour bus ride, we obviously wanted to drink heavily before in order to pass out on the bus, which we decided to skimp on and get the “semi-cama” option (the cheapest). So, we each got a liter of Quilmes in the bus terminal and before we knew it were on our way. The long bus-ride wasn’t too bad, we brought along three bottles of wine, string to make bracelets, and plenty of (awful) movies were shown.



24 hours later we were in the beautiful pueblo of San Salvador de Jujuy. We literally didn’t plan anything for the trip besides the fact we wanted to go to Jujuy, so we got off, found a hostel in our guide book and hoped there was room. Success! We were welcomed, got our own room with four bunks and a deal for some tours the next couple of days. We ventured out to explore Jujuy that night, went to one restaurant for some empanadas and beer and then onto another for an excessive amount of delicious food. When I say excessive, I mean WAY TOO MUCH FOOD. Sam and I feed off of our mutual food addictions and provoke each other to eat a lot. A lot. We stumbled back to the hostel after dinner, at 90 degree angles, moaning and groaning from discomfort all the way until we found our beds, passed out and got a good night’s sleep before our 7 AM departure for adventure. We woke up, had some breakfast and were on our way in our tour van, it was just us and four other older Argentines from Cordoba. First, we went to see el “cerro de siete colores” (the hill of seven colors) and seven colors did it have. It looked like one of those sand projects you make with all the different colors of sand on top of each other, ya knowww? After that we went to the Salinas grandes, which was awesome. We had to do a lot of driving up windy mountain roads where we thought we were going to die and fall off the cliff, but periodically got out for photo ops and then the mountains opened up into a huge flat plain of white. It was blinding and so weird looking with the mountains surrounding. And yes, I tasted the salt. I love salt. It was great.



After those adventures we headed back to Jujuy to the hostel and decided we wanted to cook dinner. We made basically eggplant parmesan; it was impressive and delicious, along with a lot of wine and a lot of beer. We ended up trying to talk to a group of highschoolers and dancing like fools amongst ourselves after we think their professor told them to stay away from us crazies and just generally were being American Idiots. It was fun.

We eventually passed out and woke up in time for our next big adventure. “we saw Arizona red on Sunday and Monday we were out to see Colorado green”. The tour man took us up more windy mountain roads through this time the plush green Andes. We got out and explored different lakes and spots and eventually ditched him when we found a little river. We basked on the rocks surrounding and in the river like lizards and swam and laid and swam. It was my favorite day in all of my time here in Argentina. Then we tried to hike around the mountains for a bit before realizing they were too steep and not too hikeable, so we found a restaurant, aka a family’s porch and had the most delicious empanadas, humita, and milenesa sandwiches in the fresh air. Best. Day. Ever. Especially since all I had been wanting to do was swim and that we did.

We caught a bus back to the hostel and decided we were done with Jujuy and caught another bus to Salta. Our stay in Salta was short-lived but certainly very fun. The hostel was awesome. And huge. And had a pool. And it served us dinner (WHO DOES THAT?!). We sat at dinner with a few Irish guys who were travelling for a year. They were cool and one had to me Matt Damon’s rugby playing friend. Maybe because Matt Damon always plays Irish people or something idk but it was weird. Then I was sitting at the table and saw my Norwegian friend Kine’s, who I go to school with in BsAs, boyfriend I had met a few times named Lars. He actually was in our room in the hostel. Small world. 15 liters of beer later we were quite the spectacle and making foreign friends from all over. We tried to stay up until the 6 AM breakfast but couldn’t make it. Its funny how we always manage to be quite the spectacle. I think its honestly because we don’t seem to give a hoot about what any other of the people think. And why should we? How many other times will we be where we are doing what we are doing? And when would we ever see these people again? I do not mean this in a cocky way at all, but people always seem to attract to us because we are so obviously having such a good, carefree fun time, and welcome all others to join, it’s the best way to meet a lot of people.

We woke up in time for breakfast but it was all gone, much to our dismay. We decided to explore a little bit of Salta before heading back to the BsAs. When I say little bit I mean we literally walked to the bus station bought our tickets, decided we were tired and had seen enough of the town, and hopped on the bus back to home. This time, we splurged for the “Cama” bus which was really like big comfy lazy boys, that served food. It was much more comfortable and I think I slept the entire time.
The trip was expensive but it was my favorite couple of days so far. I saw the most beautiful and diverse things I have ever seen and hung out with some awesome peeps.

Oh guess what, my lovely friend Katherine lent me her camera for the weekend since mine was stolen a few weeks back. I took literally hundreds of photos. And guess what. It was stolen from my backpack on the trip home. Just my luck. Now I’m down 2 cameras and won’t be able to buy one for myself for my big trip at the end. Bummer. But the trip was so awesome I am trying not to dwell on it and it was definitely worth it.

Today I saw an old man tearing down and ripping off all of the porn shop fliers posted all over bus stops, im talking like hundreds of them. It was cute and reassuring. The other day Katherine and I were on a run and we got catcalled at like normal “ah que linda, Hermosa, mi amor” etc. etc., but then they tacked on that we were really lucky we were together. That was threatening and not reassuring nor cute. This past weekend I went to Tigre(a cute little tourist town on the river) with Emma and Ansley. It was an hour train ride from BsAs, the trip there and back cost about a whopping .75 cents or something like that (big $penda$). When we got there we naturally set out for food and went to this cute rowing club for lunch. It was a beaaautiful day so we sat at a table in the grass and absked in the sunshine and drank some wine and ate some food. Then we caught a big catamaran boat that went down river for about an hour total and checked out the banks of tigre and all the cute river houses that you have to take a boat to get to. It was awesome. After the boat ride we walked around somemore, bought a dozen churros (filled with dulce de leche, of course, I had 6 I think) and headed towards the fair/market and shopped and browsed. I got a headband and a cool ring. Why do I have such an obsession with headbands? It’s a mystery but I just love ‘em. Oh we also went into the ever depressing casino looking for an atm. I think it was the first casino ive ever been in? and it did not spark an interest for gambling for me. Sunday, I went to mass with my roommate, Juliana, who is from Northern Argentina. I was expecting a huge ornately decorated cathedral but it was nothing special (the church itself). It had the bare minimum as far as paintings and color and stuff, it wasn’t very warm. I don’t think they are all like that here though, I have made it a point to find a cathedral and go to a mass there just to see some hard core latin American catholics. I could barely understand the priest though because the PA system was really muffled and he talked super fast, he lectured about how people shop too much for no reason. Monday I went to the National Post Office to pick up my package from my parents (finally! Only took a month). I got there at 1 expecting to be out of there in 20 minutes with a system similar to that of the USPS, boy was I wrong. First, I had to get in line to get a number. Then once I got the number, I had to wait an hour for my number to be called. Mind you, some cute old man gave me an earlier number that he had for some reason so I cut about an hour off there. Then, once called I had to give them my slip and then get another slip with another number and go to a room filled with atleast 200 people and wait for that number to be called. After about an hour it finally was called and I got to go to the back and wait in another line to pick up my package. I finally got out of the post office around 4:30 and proceeded to devour all of the reeses my parents packed, it was definitely worth it. I saw one computer in the whole place, it reminded me that I am in fact in a 2nd world country (I think that’s what this is? Haah) the lack of technology here never seizes to amaze me. This weekend I am going to Salta with Sam, Seth, and Shannon. My friends from Nebraska. Salta is in the North in the Andes mountains and is supposed to be beautiful (“lindisimo”) and HOT! Can’t wait!