Jujuy

Sept 25-sept 28. Jujuy, (Who-who-ee) Argentina.
Jueves: started off early meeting at the domestic airport all 60 of us (only half of our program). We flew into San Salvador de jujuy, then got on a bus and drove to Tilcara. We arrived and many of us were a bit hungry since it was about 3pm and no one had eaten lunch. We arrived to a merienda (which turned out to be the same as our breakfast for the next couple days. Media lunas, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, bananas, apples, oranges, toasts, jam, dulce de leche, crackers and bread). We all inhaled the snack, and then listened to a presentation about what we were going to be seeing. We checked into our rooms and then went to explore the town. We walked around the tiny town and enjoyed the silence. We almost got lost on the way back but luckily we found some other flacsitos and made our way back for dinner (bread, salad, mashed potatoes, milonesa, flan). It was my friends birthday so we sang her happy birthday and ate cake. We had an impromptu birthday party with a bit of music and dancing in the restaurant the hotel. Then the birthday girl and I walked into town to try and find something to do (it was her 21st birthday), but we couldn’t find a bar to save our lives. We ended up just chatting about the cultural differences, one of our favorite subjects. Came back and my bed was “crumby” literally. EWW!
Viernes: We visited the Pucará de tilcara, a bunch of ancient ruins. It also included a pyramid constructed by some architects that thought that they should include something that looked neat even though it wasn’t historically accurate. The pack with the pyramid is a bit of a slap in the face to the local people. We are at a restaurant (all the locals did a second take when we walked through the door) with live traditional music. The food was okay, although my meat turned out to be mostly bone and fat. We spent the afternoon shopping around the tiny town (now our group looks like it has been eaten by llamas since now everyone has sweaters, hats, mittens, and all else.) I treated myself to a local ice cream and a local afajor. We returned to tilicara only to have a couple minutes before meeting up with some friends to hike the mountain. (the only reason I went was because they told us that they were going to get llama afterwards). Now our hotel was surrounded by mountains but there was one that had a cross on it and had a welcome to tilicara sign. We started up…but couldn’t find a way to get up to the mountain. We ended up climbing through the indigenous community, the cemetery; peoples back yards and then hiking straight up the rocky mountain. Rocks were sliding under my feet, and I thought that this would be something probably end up with me rolling town the hill hitting a house, through the cemetery then the indigenous community. Luckily it turned out okay, I was a bit out of breath when I reached the top the huge cross. We took a couple pictures, some of which I will include, and then hurried down since it was a bit dark and walking down the (or sliding) down the hill in the dark would be less than fun. We found the path on the way down which made it a whole lot easier. We reached the town and chatted a while since it was still too early for dinner. We then found a locals place (filled with argentine men watching the futbol game) we went in and split a litre of beer for 6 pesos or 2 dollars! It was an experience. We headed to find some llama. We went to a restaurant with hardly anyone in it and plastic chairs and table cloths, a real simple place. After dinner we walked home and went to bed early since we were going to get up early again for a busy day.
Sabado: This day was the busiest, and most fun. We rode the bus for a long time to the salt flats which were everyones favorite part of the trip. Its just a vast sea of salt. On the ground are geometrical shapes since that is the shape of the salt crystal. They harvest the salt and sell it. We got to run around, take pictures, and sample the salt. Some of the pictures are included. We then went to another small town Purmamarca, and looked at the hill of seven colors and ate lunch and I walked around the street fair. Loaded the bus and went back to tilicara. We had a bit of free time before dinner which turned out to be a huge asado. Salad, tamales (cheese and meat) and then every kind of meat you could want, and French fries, then strawberries and cream. Yum. Then we all headed into town to watch some folk dancing. It was fun although our group was a bit more rowdie than I would have liked. On the way home, we joined a group of argentines to do some more dancing. I said I was from the states and they said “bill Clinton!” stopped for an ice cream on the way back then hit the sack.
Domingo: low key, we woke up (early), ate breakfast (my usual hot chocolate, bread, dulce de leche, bananas) and bussed it three hours to salta to catch our plane. When we arrived we found out that it was delayed. We had a nice picnic lunch of a huge ham and cheese sandwich and 4 empanadas. It was very satisfying. Then we waited around in the scorching hot weather and finally got on our plane. We arrived in BsAs (with a couple of bouts of scary turbulence) 3-4 hours late. Shared a cab home and had a low key night unpacking and relaxing before the week begins.