ALRIGHT FOLKS. It’s been too long since I updated this thing. I REALLY need to update this thing, or I’m gonna forget all about the amazing trip I took like 3 weeks ago.
It was the big trip planned by the program, the one that involved a taxi, an airplane, and a bus just to GET there. We went to Jujuy , the northernmost province of Argentina
I really enjoyed the in-Argentina plane experience, by the way! Except for the newsweek I was handed complimentarily as I walked through the airport towards my flight. It was in English. WHAT IS THAT, ARGENTINA
…goes without saying that I read the whole thing, almost. Hey, it was an interesting edition! The Bin Laden edition, in fact.
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| Gotta love that terrain... |
Anyway. After passing from city on the coast to sub-tropics to desert in the span of a few hours, we finally arrived at Tilcara, Jujuy , Argentina Bolivia and Chile Andes mountain range, so we definitely had a bit thinner air where we stayed.
We stayed in these cabins at this sort of mini-compound with a good 10 or so cabins and a big main eating-meeting hall. And upon arriving we gorged, which was EXACTLY to my liking. I was HUNGRY. Good food, too.
The cabin really wasn’t anything too special, but I was pretty happy with it. 3 beds in a nice little room, , plenty of space for our stuff, a few chairs, a little fridge, a TV (didn’t expect that…more on that later), and a mostly functional bathroom (the toilet got unhappy the last day, hahahaha). Even the showers were warm and stuff! Well…most of the time. The first shower I took was a mean trick. Warm, warm…nice, nice…2:30 into it and BAM, FREEZING. Then hot water, all calm, about 30 seconds later. What is going on?!
We had a few hours after eating to walk into town and check it out. All you have to do is climb out from under the rock you live under to see how incredibly beautiful this place is. And for those who don’t live under rocks, you can’t escape it! I don’t have words for it, but it was incredible. Tilcara is a humble but active little town of a few thousand people (or like 5-6? Can’t remember).
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| Welcome to Tilcara |
It’s a pretty old settlement, actually, because the day after we arrived we checked out some reconstructed ruins very nearby. I went with a few friends to the feria (fair) in the center of town, at the plaza. It was lined all the way around with stands selling mainly alpaca and llama clothing and things. I got a SWEET alpaca sweater for like $15 (USD, CHEAP BRO!). There was a ton of trinkets and little silly things too, most of which was themed after llamas. Oh, llamas. There were plenty of those in the area.
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| Alpaca sweater model |
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| The ice cream prices blew my mind! See also: Alpaca sweater! |
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| I'm telling you the truth about the Llamas and Alpacas... |
So, after that and a long, half interesting half I’m-asleep-what-were-we-talking-about presentation that we got right after lunch, we had dinner and slept. I NEEDED the sleep, too, because we had to all be at Aeroparque, an airport that is NOT, in fact, very inside of Buenos Aires
I grabbed that sweet (see above, also a TRAP) shower and headed over to get breakfast, takin mah Spanish/english Bible along. Soon as I opened the door of the cabin (which had like one window which was very well darkened, if that) I was hit with THIS:
My instant response was to run back inside the cabin and grab my camera, because LOOK AT THAT. Also, it was pretty chilly when I went outside. The night before, as soon as the sun dipped below the mountains, the temperature dropped like a rock. The wind’s archrival needed to take some rest and had full reign…it got cold. Same in the morning, except it takes a good while to warm up. It was weird, I was the very first person to breakfast. I guess people wanted to sleep…somehow I had worried about food being gone or something (after some hostel experiences with strawberry jam getting all snagged!). So I had breakfast with Jesus and read psalms as I ate. It felt like some sort of camp or retreat for a few minutes, and I loved it.
We hit up the reconstructed ruins. It was absolutely fascinating history, which includes a lot of shameful eradication of Quichua, the native language, and poorly handled investigation into the history of the area by earlier governments. Just across the borders, they told us, up in Peru and in Bolivia
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| Reppin' Suburban College Ministry! You know what's up! |
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| a real Pucará, which is a pre-Conquest fortress. Has only one way in it, which is fairly easily defendable. The people of Tilcara would go here if someone came to attack them. |
After that big load of beauty, we loaded up and took the 45 minute drive North to Humahuaca, another small town. Humahuaca was absolutely beautiful (I overuse that word, but my English vocabulary has gone out the window, I barely speak the language anymore!), and we got to hear about the history of its growth and the story behind its incredible monument to the people who fought in the war of independence.
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| Sort of indigenous music with lunch! Sweet! |
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| We are a culture that walks in a globalized world |
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| It was a hard war...we all had to do what we could. |
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| The old Spanish church tower |
It also had a very Mexico-esque cemetery. Apparently a lot of the culture is quite similar to Mexican culture with respect to the treatment of cemeteries and the dead. They wash and keep clean the graves and adorn them richly with flowers, celebrating those who died and remembering them in a very active way. I loved it, hearing about it and seeing it more than anything.
That night passed much like the last, though less eventful and we didn’t visit the town like before. The next day I got up later for breakfast and there were more people there, though I still beat plenty of them. I took my bible again and again it was very worth it. This time we were about to go on the 3 hour trip to las Salinas Grandes (big salt flats!), wayyyyy up in the mountains. So, somewhere around 4200 meters up when we took a break,
Luke got altitude AND motion sickness. The road was suuuper windy. But...just look:
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| Above the clouds. No complaining allowed, no matter how sick you are. |
And the air was quite thin. Good thing they had coca tea and coca leaves on hand! Now, I know some of you might be saying: “Luke, aren’t coca leaves what people use to make COCAINE?” and…well, they are! However, just chewing on the leaves isn’t going to get anybody high. What it does is relax the stomach and increase circulation so that more oxygen gets into your blood, which is the problem the body is dealing with already. It thinks you’re being starved of oxygen because it’s not used to getting so little, so you get dizzy and shakey. Silly body, we’re just checking out the Andes ! And they were indescribable. So impressive. So, after being really sick, I had the coca and Dramamine and took a nap…and the bus hit a HUGE bump that nearly threw me from my seat, waking me up violently. And then we were there, las Salinas Grandes. I don’t know what to say about them, nor can I explain well why there are there…but they are. Look:
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| That is one of many big humongous piles of...salt. MMM |
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| They built it out of the most convenient thing around...salt. Salt tables, salt house. |
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| Look Mom, I'm in las Salinas Grandes, AND I'M USING NO HANDS!!! |
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| Well...when else does one get to lick the ground for sport? |
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| Go beavs. Seriously, GO BEAVERS! |
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| Salt macro! |
Also, let me just say that there is a LOT of salt there. I ate some, bought a huge chunk for a few pesos (it cost like nothing)….you’ll get to see it when I bring it home, it’s really pretty. And big.
After that we finished with a stop at Purmamarca, another little town, this one more nestled inside the mountains than the others, and probably the smallest of the 3 by a fair margin. The town had a really nice atmosphere, but the best part (and my favorite part of the trip, actually) was the optional (can’t IMAGINE opting not to go and instead going to the feria…they’re all the same!) walk/hike to see el Cerro de los Siete Colores and some other of the Andes . No words, guys and girls, I don’t have words to describe it.
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| El Cerro de los Siete Colores |
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| Again, no words...just look at that. |
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| A casual stroll through the Andes...you know, everyday stuff. |
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| Awesome shaped rock |
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| Purmamarca has a LAME VIEW. Ugh. Just nasty. |
That night we had a free dinner (as in we got to go buy it and choose where we wanted to eat) and which I finally got my wish…I ate LLAMA! And it was good. It’s kind of like beef…kind of like sheep, too. Hrm, I’m no good at describing it, but I enjoyed it a lot. The table was large and we filled it, having a big epic conversation about sexuality and religion and stuff. It was intense. I feel as though I gained from having been there and hearing a lot of other perspectives, though I was definitely fairly unique in my beliefs, which I had the opportunity to share.
After that we had a little night on the town (in a smallllll town) and visited a bar/boliche of the Northern type. That’s right, local bands (REALLY cool music, lots of wood flutes of different types, etc, etc, etc, cool instruments)! It was good. That night, in fact, I felt incredibly homesick, but thanks to some great friends (shoutout to you, Sharon, if you’re reading this!) I felt better by the next day. I got home pretty late, even danced to the music a little before heading out the door, and since I was the first of my cabin-mates home…I flipped on the TV. BAM! Gameshow.
The previous night I had watched about 10 minutes of a RIDICULOUS movie with one of my roommates…I can’t remember what it was called. I ended up continuing to watch it to just find out what it was called, since my curiosity was killing me. Something about…hell, in the title. It’s worth mention because it I literally flipped to it as soon as the guns started going off. Apparently a team of men dressed like Elvis were robbing a Casino of something REALLY valuable…so they took M16’s and MANY pistols with them to ensure success. It was…violent. And hilarious. I mean…they’re dressed like Elvis, guys, come on! It’s comedy gold! They escape in a helicopter, after a good bit of firefight on the roof (ending in like 10 dead guards)…and then I needed to sleep.
The gameshow was cool though because it sucked me in. It was a word scramble…and after about 3 minutes of not being able to figure it out, one of my roommates walked in, sat down, looked at it, and gave me the answer in about 1 minute. I excitedly texted the number on the screen…got confused, so I called the number…and so on. They just run you around, making you prove you’re a human by answering some question about Argentina
Next day was the last day! We got up, cleaned up, packed up, and then had about an hour to hit up the town one last time. I bought a few things as gifts and headed back for lunch. After lunch, we loaded up and drove the 3 hours back to Salta Jujuy Salta , which is the capital of the province of Salta
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| Catedral Basílica de Salta |
People look a lot more…dark skinned, dark haired, in Jujuy and Salta , and it was kind of a change from the Buenos Aires Argentina
The flight was uneventful but nice, and I was quite happy to be “home” in Buenos Aires Buenos Aires
And to close, this made me incredibly happy to see:
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| See the words? |
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| "God is love" |
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