Last weekend I continued my travels with a 48 hour jaunt up to the north of Argentina, to a province called Salta. It was the second GW program trip, so everything was done first class. We flew up on Friday night (about a two hour flight) and were pleasantly surprised by our hotel, an adorable boutique establishment with Spanish colonial style architecture. After checking in we promptly went out to eat at a "peña folclorica", the salteño version of a porteño "parrilla", or steakhouse. We were treated to an extremely argentine meal of empanadas, steak and vino tinto (claro!) and after dinner there was a concert of traditional music and dancing, or folclore. Since we had to be up at 7 the next morning for an all-day bus tour, we all went back to the hotel after dinner and crashed.
The bus tour route consisted of driving about 3 hours north to the city of Jujuy and the Quebradas de Huemahuaca. "Quebrada" is another word for "canyon" and it was named a World Heritage Site in 2003 due to the breathtaking scenery and rich Incan history. Our first stop: Purmamarca and the Cerro de los Siete Colores, a small hill that nonetheless was extremely impressive because, as the name suggests, it is made up of rocks of 7 different colors. After taking a ton of pictures, we continued on to an open air market to do some shopping, and eventually made it to the town of Huemahuaca for lunch. A small village filled with colonial architecture, we enjoyed some more traditional food (some of the girls ordered llama!) and took a tour of the town. Apparently their church has a cuckoo-clock in the tower, except instead of a bird out pops Saint Francis of Assissi. Our guide also told us a little bit about the demographics of the region. The north of Argentina is much more "criollo" or Indian than the rest of the country, and shares many cultural roots with neighboring Bolivia. Therefore, walking around Huemahuaca we saw many indigenous flags hanging out of windows and doors. Since I can't really describe it, here is a picture:
After lunch we continued on our bus tour and routinely stopped to take pictures notable places, namely an indigenous cemetery and the Tropic of Capricorn. Our last stop was the city of Jujuy where we made a quick tour around the main square and ducked into a cafe for pick me up coffees. By this time it was about 5 in the afternoon, and we were exhausted from our long day of sightseeing. That night we went to another amazing restaurant and ended up at a bar with live reggae music. After getting our fill of Salta nightlife, we headed back to rest up for our last day in Salta.
Sunday we took a city tour of Salta, including an archaeological museum with mummies! During the Incan empire human sacrifice was a common religious ceremony, and they would bury the dead high up in the Andes to be closer to heaven. The Salta Museum of Alta Montaña has 4 such mummies, all kids younger than 14. It was interesting but very difficult to see because although they have been dead for over 600 years the mummies still had hair and eyelashes *shiver*. I was glad to continue our tour to the Salta Cathedral (it's pink!) and the Monastery of San Bernadino which had some more beautiful colonial architecture. We traveled up to a sub-tropical forest to have lunch, which was cool since the day before we had eaten lunch in the desert, and then had to head to the airport. A whirlwind trip but well worth it.
Monday, one of the loves of my life, Leah Spelman, arrived here in Buenos Aires. She has spent the semester in Cairo but decided to come to my lovely city for the summer. I am so excited she is here so I can show her all around! Which is what we've been doing this week, when I haven't been in class or at Bairexport. It is weird, and sad, to think that this past week marked the 4-month mark that I have been here, and I have barely two months left in South America. It definitely does not feel like four months, it has gone by so fast.
Political update: the conflict with the campo is still going strong, and yesterday I had a terrifying cabbie who told me that if progress is not made soon it is likely people will start rioting. Obviously, I hope he is exagerrating, but with every passing day it seems the two sides are becoming more and more entrenched in their positions: the government refuses to either adjust the tax or negotiate while the campo's rhetoric becomes more and more inflammatory. For a quick summary of the developments since March, go here:
I hope everyone is enjoying their summers!!!
Besos
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