Salta and Jujuy

Next, we went to the cities of Salta and Jujuy, and some smaller towns around these two very historical cities. We went on walking tours of both, seeing gorgeous cathedrals and old buildings, as well as statues of various heroic figures of Argentina, usually on horseback. We went up on a gondola ride (that freaked out all the students who have never skiied before) up a mountain to look at some gorgeous waterfalls, where there also happened to be huge spiders the size of Black Widows, who make their webs from trees to catch flying insects. At the market near the waterfall, I bought some shoes called Alpargatas that are made in the traditional style of the gouchos here. From the top of the mountain where we were, we could see the entire city of Salta and it was absolutely gorgeous, with lots of red roofs and white exteriors. Then we walked down the mountain (after buying ice cream of course) to another big plaza and statue of a man with a horse, and looked at a few more little shops but didn´t buy anything. We went out for dinner that night and had classic steak and potatoes of Argentina. The next day, we went white water rafting, which was very fun, but which I couldn´t take any pictures of because, for obvious reasons, you don´t want your camera on a raft when you are sure to get soaking wet. We also went this gorgeous mountain lake and had a barbecue for lunch (sausages of all sorts, including blood sausage) and swam in the lake to cool off, because we were so close to the equator that it was hot, although it is nearly winter here. I also tried what are called coca leaves here, which are good for your digestion and get rid of headaches, unprocessed cocaine. The next day we went to Jujuy and saw lots of red rock simlar to the southern desert in Utah, as well as a little archeological town. We saw the stereotypical cactus, three times as tall as me or more, with lots of thorns and arms, which were very neat. They build doors and things out of cactus wood here, with lots of little holes. We went to the market in Jujuy and bought lots of souvenirs and llama wool products, since that is what this region of Argentina is famous for, and went to the Tropic of Capricorn, where big rock marked the imaginary line. We had lunch at a restaurant in Jujuy where a little band played traditional music for us and I ate empanadas with llama meat, and went to an old archeological site with an amazing view and lots of llamas. It was all very neat.

Flan!

One of the old buildings in Salta

A neat church in Salta

A weather vane on top of one of the old cathedrals
in Salta

One of the stray dogs chilling out

Me and a statue of the National hero San Martin

San Martin and the attack of the pigeons

Me and girls from Denmark and Iceland on the gondola

View of the city of Salta from the Gondola

The gondola

The birds eye view from Salta

Our whole group with another statue

Toothpicks for antipasta shaped like different animals

Me and coca leaves

Me and girls from Germany, the USA, Iceland, and Norway

Mountain lake

Swimming!

Actual sausage strings, like I´ve only really ever
seen in cartoons

The black one is blood sausage

Appetizer for dinner on night-- ham, cheese, and a potato-vegetable
pie thing.

Dinner at the hotel

Flan!

Mountains in Jujuy

The street in Jujuy

Lots of mates

Cactus wood door

It is prohibited to climb, because you might die

My friend Kata from Germany and I above the archeological city

Lots of red rock

Big cactus

A church in Jujuy

Llama meat empanadas

Tropic of Capricorn

Resistencia

Me, and girls from the USA and Iceland

 My next step on the trip to the North was meeting up with all the other exchange students in Resistencia, Chaco, Argentina, a town a little further North from Córdoba. There were about fifty of us in all, coming from a large variety of countries including Italy, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany, Finland, Belgium, and so on. We all met up and dropped our luggage at the house of a volunteer and chatted and drank mate for a while, before venturing into the downtown area (called el centro) and the plaza to look for lunch. We had pizza and Coca Cola for lunch, which doesn´t sound that different from American lunch, but the pizza is thinner and always has ham underneath the melted cheese on pizza--there is meat in everything here. We also looked at some old buildings and churches in Resistencia and wandered through the park, which was full of flowers and absolutely gorgeous. We went to the house of another volunteer whose home is like an art exhibit, with lots of modern art and a sculpted garden full of green and life, then piled into taxis and went to the bus terminal. We had our own bus, without any strangers, which was very nice, since it is a double decker bus like are always used to go long distances here in Argentina. At about seven o clock at night, we had snack (which should honestly just be dinner) and they played some movies and music on the buses before dinner at eleven. We slept on the bus and were in Salta by ten the next morning. Resistencia wasn´t really a part of the trip--just a meeting place for everyone to get to know eachother and catch a bus--but it was fun nonetheless.

Me, Kata (Germany), and Sofi (Italy)

A pretty church we saw

Our bus

Snack time (at six at night) on the bus

Breakfast (or the Argentine version) on the bus

Córdoba

The long river that stretches throughout Córdoba

Statue in the plaza

A mural showing the famous photo of
all the people who were killed or
disappeared during the last military
dictatorship, which ended in the
1980s.

An old prison--albeit a very elegant one--just for women,
which is now an art museum with a fountain and a tourist
attraction.

An art piece outside, near the fountain showing
a playful dog and his master

A beautful church in the San Martin plaza in Córdoba

A free concert in the plaza, with a hard rock band
singing interpretations of nationalistic
songs

A Monster sandwich, with lettuce, tomato, and lots of beef

A student from Italy (Camilla), Josefina (the AFS volunteer), and me
outside the art museum that used to be the home of a very
rich and extravagant doctor

An exhibit in the part for the bicentennial of Argentina in 2010

A rose garden

On my recent trip to the North of Argentina, my first stop was a big city called Córdoba, which is the capital of the province of the same name. I took a comfy, double decker bus with airline like seats that form beds, almost to a 180 degree angle, and stayed with an AFS volunteer there named Josefina, a university student studying tourism. We walked around the city looking at the many old buildings, and saw a few churches. We went to the plaza to see the churches and old buildings, including a beautiful old building that was once a prison for women only, and there turned out to be a free concert playing, a heavy rock band playing national rock songs, many of which center around the oppression and horrors of the dictatorship in Argentina. At the concert, we were handed coupons for a nearby restaurant, so went there and had monster sandwiches, as they were called. The city is very old and beautiful, and there are statues all over. There is a glorious lake and river flowing with life, and a beautiful rose garden. We went to the park and saw the exhibit for the celebration of the bicentennial in Argentina--whose birthday is celebrated by the May Revolution on May 25th rather than its actual date of Independence (on July 9), although that is celebrated as well. There were 200 rings with different years on them and short summaries of what happened that year. I enjoyed Córdoba very much, but only spent about a day and a half there before I got back on a bus, bound for Resistencia, even further North.