Salta!

Just got back from Salta/Tucuman/Jujuy and had an awesome time! This area of argentina is one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. Basically our bus drove us through mountains of every color imaginable-purple, green, black, yellow, etc, vineyards, desert lands, and the pueblos in the surrounding provinces. Our hotel was in center of Salta, se llama Alto Parque (great hotel, cheap, in el centro) and we traveled on the bus every day of our trip. We left from Córdoba on Wednesday night and drove 12 hours north, stopping in Jesús María y Río Hondo. We got the best seats on the whole bus- 2^nd floor, first row with a panoramic view. Thursday, we drove through what looked like a rainforest that actually has wild pumas and monos/monkeys. We arrived at ‘Abra del infiernillo’ the top of a mountain at 3042 meters high and took pictures and met some of the locales. Note, the people of these regions are indigenous and look like what Americans would call Indians. The land is absolutely beautiful but also poor. It was hard to see tiny children begging for pesos, anything, one little boy said he would tell me a poem for 5 pesos!!! Adorable!! The mountain tour continued as we headed to Amaicha del Valle y la city of Cafayate en la Provincia de Salta, then to Valles Calchaquíes. The mountains are so beautiful and you can see the erosion up close. There were wild alpacas, llamas, and goats in the road and land. We stopped at a little area on the side of the road with a few artisan tents selling souvenirs and crafts. Some of the locales brought their animals- alpacas there for the tourists to take pictures with for a small donation. In the part of the mountains where we were, there lives hardly any people because there is limited water and no electricity. It was so sad to see that the only way people could make money was for tourists to take fotos with their animals. Next, was the pueblo of Tefi del Valle- muy lindo! We finally got to the hotel Thursday night and got dinner there. We met some of the nicest people on our tour bus that were from Córdoba. We shared mate and talked about our time in Argentina. Friday was a city tour of Salta and we stopped at a local artisan feria. There are two main cathedrals in the city on is called Iglesia Cathedral and it is completely painted pink with white pillars. The other, Iglesia de San Francisco, which is completely painted in Red with gold pillars and was built 500 years ago. That night we went to una peña folklórica- a dinner with a show of dancers and music of the culture of Salta. There are about 50 songs that every argentine knows and the musicians on stage kept playing them and inviting people from their dinner tables to come on stage and sing- which lasted all night/early morning. Saturday we went to Quebrada deHumahuaca- Purmamarca, Uquía, Humahuaca, y Maimará. We visited the Cerro de 7 colores- a famous mountain that has 7 colors because of the different minerals and erosion. This mountain is famous and stunning. Along the drive we stopped at the side of one mountain that had a huge crevice on the side that led to this cave area inside. We walked in and saw some musicians with native instruments and we stayed for a while to watch them play. It was incredible- we were inside of a mountain with hardly anyone except for these local musicians playing- I took a video. We didn’t end up seeing the woman who supposedly sees visions of the Virgin María/Mary. One woman took a taxi drive for almost an hour up the mountain to the house of this woman, but she wasn’t there because of the Easter/Pascua holiday. This may sound weird to Americans, but the people of Salta/Arg. really believe that this woman speaks to the Virgin Mary/ sees her and that she can heal people. Sunday we toured some more in San Miguel de Tucumán and visited the house of Independencia of Argentina. We arrived back in Córdoba late that night.

Overall great trip! If you travel to Argentina you must take a trip to Salta WITH A GUIDE. If you go without a guide it is impossible to see everything because the provinces are so spread out and you’ll waste time trying to make reservations.

This week back to clases at the uni and we are going to an international feria north of Cordoba that happens once a year and a music show.