Salta, Argentina

In the first week of June, Meredith, myself, and three of our friends took a 5-day vacation to Salta, the province in the north of Argentina. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life. The landscape is anything but boring; there are mountain ranges of various colors, deserts, beautiful cities and itty-bitty towns. Coming from Florida I am not accustomed to seeing mountain ranges and cacti on the regular, so it was a nice change of scenery - both from Florida and Buenos Aires.

The bus to Salta from Buenos Aires is 22 hours. Meredith and I met up with our friend Samm around 4 in the afternoon to head to the bus station, fully equipped with several bottles of wine and the most comfortable clothes we have. The 5 o'clock bus was sold out, but we got tickets for one a few hours later. What to do in a bus station with three hours to kill? Find the bar and play some cards. As buses are a huge method of transportation here, long rides aren't nearly as miserable as they could be. The chairs are similar to La-Z-Boys, you get several not-dog-food-quality meals, and if you don't have an iPod or any other form of entertainment (such as two half-drunk girlfriends to tell ghost stories with) they usually show a few movies.

We arrived in Salta the next afternoon and met up with our friends Damien and Ashley, who'd gotten there the day before us. Damien had rented a car so we could travel to other cities in the province - best idea ever. There's just so much to see in the province that the car was crucial. It was INCREDIBLE.

We only spent about 15 minutes in the city of Salta before heading north because we wanted to get to Purmamarca before sundown. The drive was about 2 hours and quite the eye-opening experience. There were times when we were driving in the middle of nowhere and there would be a shanty little house sitting at the base of a mountain. Nothing, nothing, nothing - BOOM - house. We found ourselves repeatedly asking, "People LIVE here? HOW?" No electricity, no heat in the freezing northern weather, no running water. There wasn't even a store for at least an hour's drive... and there certainly wasn't a Ford Focus sitting in the driveway.

Passing through Jujuy, one of the bigger cities in Salta.

Because we took the scenic route to Purmamarca, we arrived later than we'd expected, so after some llama empanadas for dinner (yeah, llama), we called it an early night. The next morning, we had a quick breakfast and headed out in search of the famous 7-colored mountain. After wandering around a mountain range, examining some cacti up close, and getting excessively winded from a relatively short hike (it was the altitude, I swear), we found the 7-colored mountain. We took some epic pictures and appreciated the sights for a while before heading back to the car to drive to the salt flats - which are about an hour outside of Purmamarca.

Purmamarca.

All of us at the Purmamarca market. You can see part of the 7-colored mountain behind us.

The 7-colored mountain.

The salt flats are unlike anything I've ever seen before. The ground looks like ice and sounds like packed snow when you walk on it. For as far as you can see everything is blindingly white. The day was cool, clear and absolutely gorgeous. A perfect day for a dance party and some picture-taking in the saltiest place on Earth. We were all surprised to find that the ground was painful to the touch. I don't know why I was stupidly imagining the flats to be made up of granulated salt, but that is definitely not the case. After a few cartwheels my hands were about to start bleeding. Painful. Gorgeous, but painful.

From the salt flats, we drove a few more hours to a city called Humahuaca. We explored the city for a little less than an hour before the sun went down. Another llama-filled meal and back to the hostel to get some rest, knowing we had to get up early the next day. Damien had heard of a little town called Iruya that was supposed to be a "once in a lifetime place" to visit. You can only get to it by bus from Humahuaca. The 2.5-hour bus ride takes you out of the city, off of the highway, through the mountains, through rivers (not over them - through), and along cliffs. Eventually the road ends (literally) and you find yourself in a little town on the side of a mountain. The entire city is made of cobblestone and due to the high altitudes and steep roads is like one giant cardio workout. We watched a local futbol game, explored the area for a few hours, befriended some little girls on a playground and had some coffee before catching the bus back to Humahuaca.

Elementary school geography throw-back: the Tropic of Capricorn! Had to pull over and take a picture with it on our way to Humahuaca.

Humahuaca.
The dirt road on the way to Iruya.

Iruya.

After getting back to Humahuaca, we began our four-hour journey back to Salta. Though there was a lot of traveling - be it by car, bus or foot - involved in this trip, I never grew weary of moving from place to place. We got to experience so much more as a group than we ever would have in pairs, or even a group of three. Ashley figured out the hostel and rental car situation, including making CDs for the drives; Damien knew how to drive stick, had a surprisingly reliable internal navigational system, and did a lot of research on what to do/where to go before we left; Meredith, ever the photographer, made sure we all got great pictures and - more importantly for me - was there to experience it all with me as my constant South American travel partner; and Samm, well, you'd have to know Samm to understand how important the comedic relief she provides is. Everything was perfect, with one exception..

I am apparently allergic to both high altitudes and salt. My Mom always told me that my body "can't process salt," but I never actually believed her when she told me I would blow up like the Michelin Man if over-salt-ified. She wasn't even exaggerating. I woke up every morning and my eyes were virtually swollen shut, my cheeks were puffier than usual, and my hands were so swollen it hurt to make a fist. So keep that in mind while you're looking at the pictures - I'm not fat and I'm not chronically wearing sunglasses just to make a fashion statement (though I do love sunglasses as a fashion statement) - I'm just having an allergic reaction to the region.

Allergies aside, though, we are all so lucky to have been places that few people ever get the opportunity to visit...and we did it together.

Colonia, Uruguay

As May came to an end and my three-month anniversary with Buenos Aires came closer, I had to leave the country for a day to renew my tourist visa. Meredith and I woke up earlier than I have in months, caught the first ferry of the day, and suffered through a rocky, hour-long ride from Buenos Aires to Colonia. Despite warnings from several people that Colonia was a small town with nothing to do we decided to spend the afternoon there. We could have easily gotten our passports stamped and immediately returned to Buenos Aires, but we figured if we'd paid the fare to get there we might as well get to know the city. And thank God we did because I absolutely fell in love it.

(Sidenote: the number one thing I've learned about traveling thus far - get all the advice you can from other travelers, but never take anything as an absolute truth. Though they are fellow travelers, everyone experiences every place in a different way.)

The morning had been cold and overcast, causing the ferry ride to be rocky and nauseating. Therefore, our first mission was to find somewhere to eat and grab something to settle our stomachs. What was supposed to be a quick bite turned into an hour-and-a-half meal. Though my lifestyle certainly isn't strenuous in Buenos Aires, it was still nice to relax over a lunch outside of the city, knowing I didn't have one thing to do for the rest of the day besides explore a new place.

As we are two Floridians, accustomed to being driving distance from some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, it took us about 2 seconds to decide that the first thing we wanted to see was the coast. There is a river in Buenos Aires and beautiful places to go enjoy the water, but there isn't a coast and there isn't a lot of green. We started walking down the tree-lined, cobblestone streets in the direction of the nearest shore. At the end of the road we found green fields, palm trees, and the water. Though we weren't on a beach and the water wasn't crystal blue, I still felt closer to home there than in any other place since I arrived here.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city's center. We found that Colonia is a small, antique city filled with ruins, museums and gift shops. It can be explored in full in less than a few hours. This definitely isn't the place for someone looking for a party or an excitement-filled afternoon. However, there is a peaceful nature about it that seems to spread throughout the entire city. Everyone was friendly, calm, and slow moving. We heard "hola" more often than we heard the honking of a car horn. People smiled more and stared less. It was a nice change from the big-city feel of Buenos Aires.

After a total of 6 hours in Uruguay, we were on our way back to Buenos Aires. Our passports were stamped, so we had another 90 days to live legally in Argentina, but I have a feeling I'd like to escape to Colonia - or another small, beach town similar to it - sooner than that.

This street still has the original pavement and houses from the first colonial period.

Ruinas del Convento de San Francisco y Faro. The ruins are of a convent that was built in 1694 and burned down in 1704. The lighthouse was completed in 1857.

Cultural Center

What I miss

Quite a few people have expressed curiosity about what I miss the most from the States. My standard answer is my family and friends…obviously. However, there are some things that I miss that are not so expected, yet not surprising enough to be classified as unexpected. Here’s a short list:

- Peanut Butter! I didn't realize how often I consumed peanut butter until it became unavailable to me.

- Driving.

- Making American dollars.

- Light beer… and Yeungling.

- One-stop shopping. I would kill for a Target.

- My beautiful, big, comfortable, wonderful bed.

- LaSpada’s Subs.

- Ft. Lauderdale Beach.

- Quarterdeck (the bar where I worked before I left) and my former coworkers.

- Using my cell phone without worrying about running out of credit.

- Getting text messages from my sister throughout the day that make me laugh out loud. It’s just not the same getting her jokes, observations, and comments via Facebook.

- Watching “Two and a Half Men” with my parents while drinking wine and eating a dinner I didn’t have to pay for or prepare.

- Turkey.

- Fresh fish.

- Stores that sell books in English.

- Watching “The Office” on a T.V. instead of a laptop.

- Being “in the loop” about U.S. news. I didn’t know about the oil spill until almost a week after it happened. God only knows how much celebrity gossip I’ve missed out on.

- Blending in. I don’t know if it’s the way I look or the way I dress, but people take one look at me and know I’m an ex-pat.

- Understanding what people are saying to me.