Salta continued

On Sunday, we made another day-long excursion (we actually made them Saturday-Wednesday) to a place called Cachi.  All of the excursions, except for the first day, were fairly similar so you may notice some patterns.

At first on Sunday we drove through some beautiful green mountains and semi-dried rivers for a bit, stopping once for a small walk around a little area of flowers and a cool bridge, and another time for a refreshment break before a long drive up the mountains.  After another ridiculously windy road, we reached the highest point of the day called Piedra del Molino at 3348 meters or 10985 feet.

We continued on a bit until we reached a place called Parque Nacional Los Cardones, or The Cacti National Park.  This was just a desert with the most cacti that I've ever seen.  It was technically a cacti forest, but since cactus don't get super tall and don't grow very close together it just looked like a lot of cacti rather than a forest.  We explored this for a bit.  Me and Brenny took our shirts off because a desert at 10000 feet is very, very hot and dry.  In the 5 minutes that I didn't have my shirt on, I got a little burn, just to show how strong the sun was.

We then continued on to a small pueblo called Payogasta where we ate lunch.  Payogasta is the closest we came to Chile, and from it you can just see a snow-capped peak or 2 of the Andes mountains.  The lunch here was incredible.  We ordered a bunch of entrees and split them all.  Included in the meal was: eggplant, goat cheese, quinoa, more mixed vegetables, steak, chicken, baby goat meat, tamales, a lot of bread, and goat meat stew.  It was all delicious.

We continued on to Cachi afterwards, but to be honest there was really nothing there except another super old church and a cool llama that me and Brenny found.  Plus it was literally like 95 degrees with no breeze or moisture to be found, so we just got ice cream.  After Cachi we headed back toward Salta because we were about 90 miles of mountain roads away.  We just stopped to take some pictures on the way home.  Here's some of them from the day, click to enlarge:

 Beautiful green mountains and dried up rivers.  The province of Salta and the parts of Jujuy that we saw are pretty much just filled with gorgeous scenery.

That's not a river, that's the road we took up the mountain.  Its one road, not a million.

Flat Evan at Piedra del Molino.  He made it to the top of a ton of mountains.

 BC kids making a pyramid on top of a mountain.  You can see the clouds below us in the background.

Me next to a giant cactus in the cactus forest.  Nobody's cameras could really capture how dense the cacti really were, but I promise it was way more than this picture shows.

Of course I hugged a cactus.  It looks like I'm faking it, but the needles were like 5 inches long.

 Flat Evan visits Payogasta on the edge of the Andes mountains- home of the Incas!  You can see a snowcapped peak straight above my head.

Town square in Cachi.  Like I said, not much there.

I have to go now, my friends and I are having an American brunch at Hannah's apartment- Aunt Jemima pancakes, eggs, bacon, Tropicana, chocolate milk, syrup, etc.  I'm pumped.  Stay tuned for more from Salta!

Fotos de Salta

Town square in Salta.  Lots of people out to enjoy the nice weather.

View of the mountains from the rainforest.

The Seven Color Hills where Purmamarca is located.

 The road we took through the desert on the way to the salt flats.  Too bad our van only did 50mph for the entire thing.

A shot of the salt flats.  This picture only captures about 1/4 of the actual length of it.  There's a road that divides it, and this is halfway across one of those halves.  The flats are surrounded by mountains and volcanos.  I think I took this picture with one of the volcanos in the background.

 Eatin some cactus.  The needles are huuuggeee.

Again click here for more.

Salta: Land of the Desert and Rainforest and Mountains and Salt Flats and Vineyards

Hola todos.  Just got back from Salta yesterday.  The week in between Svetlana leaving and us leaving for Salta was pretty standard- we had some friends over one night, went to a boliche, hung out, went to class, etc.  Art history is the last class I want to be taking right now- pretty hard, intangible subject matter, boring, long, etc.  Literature is pretty sweet.  My teacher is really young and very cool and we're reading some interesting stuff, plus about 15 of 20 kids in the class are from the States.  I only have class Tuesday through Thursday too :)


We took a bus to Salta last Thursday evening and arrived Friday afternoon (it was a 20 hour bus ride).  Salta is a province in the northwest of Argentina where it borders Bolivia.  The actual city is about an hour or 2 from the border.  Its also fairly close to Chile and the Andes mountain range, so there are a lot of Incan remains, museums, descendants, etc in the area.  Friday afternoon we explored the city center a bit (its considered a city because it has something like 60000 residents, but its just a big town) and went to an Inca museum.  The museum had a lot of artifacts found in ancient Inca ruins and 3 mummified Inca children.  There was a ritual every year where young children between the ages of about 5 and 16 would be sent up the mountain to "be reunited with their ancestors", which in reality meant being drugged and abandoned at the frozen peaks.  Because of the conditions, the children would freeze and die, and because it was so cold, their bodies were almost perfectly preserved until recent times when they were found.  The museum had 3 of these children in sealed glass compartments.  It was kinda creepy, but very cool.


Saturday through Tuesday we took day long tours with a tourism company.  Saturday was awesome.  We first took this long winding road through a semi-arid area filled with dry rivers and wild horses to the mountains nearby (not the Andes, but a smaller range).  As we climbed the mountains we entered an actual rainforest.  We took an extremely twisted road up the mountains and eventually go out and walked for a bit.  It wasn't a typical rainforest with monkeys and crazy bugs and stuff everywhere, just a very wet forest with a lot of waterfalls and tropical looking plants.  The view from where we were was incredible- tons of giant mountains covered in rainforest with clouds covering the peaks.  I believe the land was actually privately owned but open to public (not really sure how it worked), but there are cattle farmers everywhere in the region, and its entirely free-roaming cattle.  So in this rainforest there were also horses and cows walking around all over the place.

We got back in the van and made our way further through the mountains, until we ended up back in a semi-arid series of valleys.  As we continued on, the landscape suddenly turned into full-blown desert.  I'm talking just tiny little plants scattered about, tons of dirt, lots of cactus, and every couple of miles, an adobe hut in the middle of it all where somebody actually lived and worked.  We took a long, straight, flat desert road towards the horizon, until suddenly the ground became completely white.  There is a gigantic salt flat in Salta (hence the name "Salta).  It's not as big as the salt flat in Bolivia nearby (which can be seen from space) but it is huge.  We parked the van in the middle of it and go out to explore.  Our tour guide warned us, "If you don't have sunglasses or sunscreen, this will not be enjoyable."  She then explained that we were at about 8000ft and the sun in the middle of an enormous hard-packed white desert is fairly strong.  She was right.  I hadn't brought my sunglasses, and as I stepped out of the van onto what seemed like a 1000 degree version of Antarctica, I immediately felt my skin burn and my eyes slam shut in the light.  I put on some sunblock and borrowed a hat from a friend (which didn't help because the ground was almost as bright as the sun), and we began exploring.  There were huge lines of holes dug into the salt.  Companies dig holes which naturally fill with water and crystallize the salt, then they drain the water and collect the salt for refining and distribution.  We took some cool pictures then had a picnic on the salt then headed back into the van.


We headed back the way we came, stopping at the highest point of the day at 4200 meters, or about 13780ft.  We then stopped at a small town called Purmamarca.  It was a tiny pueblo in the middle of the desert at the foot of the "Seven Colored Hills", a series of mountains that are super colorful (if you couldn't guess).  The town was made almost entirely of adobe and cactus wood, with a church built in 1648, extremely old for South America.  We explored the perpetual craft fair in the town square (I bought a cool sweatshirt made of alpaca) and then headed back to Salta.


That night we hung out by the pool at the hostel and chatted with other travelers at dinner.  Hostels are so cool.  Ours had a big backyard with a pool, bar, big dinner tables, ping pong, a pool table, a lounge with couches and a big flat screen, a few small other places to chill, a nice comfortable kitchen, etc.  Every night they cook an included dinner for everybody next to the pool and bar.  You can meet some very interesting people at hostels.  A lot of earthchildren who spend months at a time backpacking around the world, all with amazing stories and all very open-minded.


I've been inside for too long today, so I'm going to leave off here for now.  Tonight if I'm around I'll post a few captioned pictures of the first day, but if you're antsy and impatient click here for all my pictures.  I'll also try tomorrow to post about the rest of the trip.  Enjoy the warm weather everybody. Later.

Fotos

Hey everybody.  Ive decided to start a photobucket page so that you guys can see more than 4 or 5 photos of everything that I do.  Warning: This page will contain all of my photos.  I have way too many to sort through, so some may or may not be "mother-approved" (sorry mom).  Here's the link, enjoy: Argentina Photos

The internet here is a little slow and the website is also a little slow, so its a work in progress.  Hopefully soon Ill have all of my 300+ photos there, but for now theres not too many.

Gualeguaychuuuu

Ok ok, Ive really been slacking, Im sorry.  After a few hours of sleep Friday night and a long day Saturday (extending to 730am Sunday morning), I slept a ton last night and woke up at 715pm.  The only thing I did today was go out to get dinner (really, breakfast).  So now its almost 4am and Im wide awake with nothing to do.  Ive got some good music playing and Im gonna go ahead and catch up on some stuff.

Gualeguaychu.  I mentioned earlier that its a small sorta city a few hours up the river from BsAs.  Last Friday a group of about 30 of us got on a bus that we rented through a tourism company and headed there for a weekend at Carnaval.  We didnt arrive until about midnight and then checked into our apartment.  When we got off the bus, everybody sang me happy birthday (that Saturday was my 21st) and a generous friend handed me a beverage to toast and start off the weekend for everybody.  Afterwards we headed to a parrilla for some steak and choripan with the whole group.  The area next to the river where we stayed was just a big row of bars and boliches (dance clubs) and there were thousands of people out just hanging and partying in the streets.  We were super tired and didnt feel like dealing with the huge crowd of people so we headed to bed around 2 or 3.

Saturday we woke up to a nutritious breakfast of dulce de leche-covered croissants and coffee, and then chilled for a bit before heading to the beach.  This beach was awesome.  Our group stayed in this little separated area which had essential nobody on it, right in front of a parrilla, and next to a some locals who had set up a dj-quality sound system playing reggae and salsa all day.  The weather was a perfect 82 and gorgeous with a slight breeze of the water.  We tanned, played soccer, swam a little in the river, and just enjoyed it.  At one point a guy came up to us on a boat and offered a free ride on his banana-tube.  4 of us hopped on and went for a ride.  It was super fun, especially when everybody but me got bucked off it :)

After the beach we headed back to town and got dinner quickly, then headed towards the parade.  The parade was set up on a street with barricades and bleachers on either side for people to watch.  We bought these bracelets for 40 extra pesos which allowed us to be on the street leading the parade through the people.  There were probably about 200-300 people with us at the front, all dancing and jumping and making conga lines.  The parade behind us was playing some cool music and getting everybody around us into the show.  It was very cool and tons of fun.  When we reached the end of the parade route we headed into the bleachers to watch everything that had been following us.  We took a million pictures and danced some more and had a great time.  After the parade we headed back to a bar near the hotels for a bit then headed to bed.

Sunday, Svetlana and I headed out early to catch a bus back to BsAs because her flight was at 930pm that night.  The rest of the group went to a hot springs bath and pool that day, but apparently we really didnt miss much.  They got back to BsAs around 2am Monday morning.


Heres a few pictures from the weekend, click to enlarge (some may not enlarge)

Our little spot on the beach.  Tiki cabanas to either side, plenty of sun, and good music.  Overall a great birthday.

 Me and Svetlana on the beach.

A shot of the bigger part of the beach.

 My lovely ladyfriend and the group got me a birthday cake.  She's pretty isnt she?  Thanks everybody.

Tons of people dancing in front of the first float of the parade!

 Me and some awesome looking dude in the parade.

A cool float.  I dont know why everything has boobs, but that seems to be the trend.

Most of our group plus a few random people who jumped in.  Im sitting all the way at the top.

So thats my Carnaval experience in a nutshell.  We did some cool stuff this week too, but its almost 5am and Ive been up for 9.5 hours, so I need my beauty rest.  I promise Ill try to update soon.

PS- I know there are a good amount of people reading this, occasionally somebody will mention it and it surprises me that so many do read it.  I have a small request.  It feels good when somebody comments on it, not to mention the knowledge that somebody is actually reading it gives me some motivation to keep writing.  Once in a while can somebody leave some comments on it?  I dont care what you write.  Just let me know if you love it, hate it, tell me how your dog is doing, what you'd like to hear more of, what your favorite color is...anything.  Thanks!

I guess they were serious when they told me not to drink the water

Hola.  Long time no post.  Sorry about that, after my last post Svetlana was here for a week keeping me busy, classes started last Monday, moving into the new apartment has been time-consuming, Ive been sick, etc.  So here's a quick recap of the last week and a half.

The whole week Svetlana was here, we went out a bunch to some friends' apartments, a bar or 2, and a few of the dance clubs Ive been to before- all in between going to classes and showing her some cool sites around the city.  We went to Caminito, the Casa Rosada, Calle Florida (the big outdoor mall), the Plaza Intendente Torcuato de Alvear (the actual name of "that cool park"), the Recoleta cemetary, and some other cool places.  On Friday we left for a magical place called Gualeguaychu, but I'll talk about that later.

Classes have been going well so far.  Im taking 3 classes at Universidad Di Tella and 1 at Universidad San Andreas.  At UTDT Im taking Business Organizational Theory, Contemporary Argentine Literature, and Art History.  Only BOT and Art History have met so far, except I was sick the day Art History met so I have no idea how it is.  BOT is great so far, my teacher is young and super smart and has a very impressive resume.  Seems fairly interesting so far, although Ive covered a lot of the material a BC already.  Literature is a class for exchange students and begins on Tuesday.  My class at San Andreas is only for BC students, and its focused on a mix of Argentine history and culture with a few field trips here and there.

I mentioned that I got sick earlier.  Gualeguaychu is a small city/town about 3 hours from BsAs.  Tap water here is hit or miss depending on the building youre in because of the pipes, but in BsAs its safe 99% of the time.  In Gualeguaychu, because its small and poorer, its not recommended to drink the water.  I found that out a few hours in.  Im not saying it was the water that got me sick, because I had a stomach virus and not a bacterial problem, but Im sure it didnt help.  I was in bed all of Tuesday and half of Wednesday, but Im perfectly fine now, I even joined a new gym and went for a bit today.


Our apartment is great, although not as perfect as we thought.  Its super big and comfortable, but its pretty old and a lot of stuff is on the fritz.  At first the kitchen sink caused the whole kitchen to flood, the oven didnt work, the back door didnt lock, the toilet was broken, and we couldnt figure out the internet.  But now we've solved all those problems and are loving it here.


I have a bunch more to write about and a bunch of pictures to post, but Im super tired and its going to take a bit to write it all.  Ill try to write again tomorrow.  Goodnight