Spring Break #2 of 2006!!

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Last night, we stayed in Buenos Aires to go to Teatro Colon to see Swan Lake. We could have left on Thursday night, but decided to stick around to see the ballet. Teatro Colon will be closing soon, so we had to take advantage of the opportunity. It was a beautiful ballet, and worth missing a couple days of vacation. Mark, Sean, Danielle and I got on the bus at 4pm and are now on our way to Salta to begin our Spring Break adventure.

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Today, we arrived in Salta at around noon. We were bombarded by hostel people at the bus station and decided to hop into the tiniest excuse for some type of mini mini mini van I’ve ever seen. We got to our hostel, Salta Backpacker’s, checked in and went out to lunch and the local artisan’s market. It was a relaxed day, walking around Salta – beautiful sunny and warm! Later, we sat and had café in the main plaza and then sat through the evening mass at the huge cathedral – Iglesia Catedral. While it was a little difficult to understand the Spanish with the echo of the microphone through the huge church, it was a beautiful mass. After that, we just went out to cheap pizza and beer and went to bed.

Monday, October 2, 2006

5:30 am wake up! Yeah we’re hardcore travelers. We got on a bus to Humahuaca, a small town in Jujuy – 5 hour bus ride. It’s a tiny old indigenous pueblo surrounded by multicolored mountains – Andes. We had a lovely day, walking around, perusing all the tourist traps and taking lots of pictures. We ate lunch at some cheap place that was $5 pesos for a 3 course meal. I love Argentina! And nothing short of a dog laying on the restaurant floor. I wouldn’t expect anything less. We went back to Salta (another 5 hour bus ride), got ready for tomorrow and went to bed.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Another early rising for another early bus. Today, we went checked out of our hostel and headed south to Cafayate, another small pueblo. Again, we were attacked by people when we got off the bus, but we put our faith in a cute tiny lady, named Ema Inti. She and I assume her family and friends run the only tourist office in Cafayate and their own hostel. She kindly led us to the hostel where we could drop our bags and then explained to us all the ways we could spend our day. We ran into about 10 other people from IES too (no one here ever wants to run into more Americans, but I guess that’s an impossible wish). We originally had planned to go to Quilmes, ancient Indian ruins, but after hearing all the other things we could do, we decided on the Quebrada tour. A quebrada is a canyon / gorge, and here in Cafayate we were able to trek through 6 different areas of the canyon. It’s similar to the Grand Canyon (for reference) but completely different. We climbed up and down all around these beautiful colorful formations and of course took tons of pictures. We went into this one that was just a giant enclosed circle; they called it some type of theater. When we walked in, this man started playing a flute. We all just stood in silence watching him and listening to the beautiful music inside this well amplified “theater.” He then put down his flute, and picked up his guitar and started singing. We had a mini concert inside of a quebrada! Who could ask for anything better. I had been in kind of a bad mood on and off the whole trip before this, but after hiking through some of God’s beautiful creation and clearing my head, I was all better. The last stop was la Garganta del Diablo. Basically a little kid’s climbing dream come true. There were hundreds of rocks to climb on that kept going up and up. Lots of fun! The bus ride back to the hostel, we were serenaded again by the guitarist/flutist. We had tamales for dinner, said goodbye to Sean and Mark as they would be heading onward to their next adventure at Iguazú, and we went to bed in the Balcon International.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Danielle and I got to sleep in! Woohoo! (until 8:30am). We walked around Cafayate, bought some sandwiches to go and hailed a cab that would take us to the Indian ruins at Quilmes. It was about an hour drive there, an hour to fart around at Quilmes, and an hour drive back. When we got there, this guy gave us a mini tour of a museum of old artifacts, giving us some background information. The Quilmes Indians were there around the same time that the Incas were. They’re small city is left completely intact to show where and how people of the time lived. The Quilmes Indians were influenced by the Incas and with the advanced technology of the Incas, were able to have irrigation. But before Incan interference, they used to put water out in the open, knowing that it would evaporate and over time turn into rain. We wandered through the ancient ruins telling stories of how there were probably Quilmes children who snuck out at night just the same as kids today, and imaging little babies taking their first steps on these rocks and dirt. We imagined how many people had walked this same path over hundreds of years.

After Quilmes, we went to Tucuman to catch a bus to Mendoza. We had a 2am hot chocolate while waiting for our last leg of our journey to Mendoza.

Thursday, October 5, 2006

We arrived in Mendoza at around 4pm. We met some more hostel people and put our lived in their hands. We got on board this crazy beat up jeep and were taking to the Casa del Sol. We relaxed a little, used the internet, took showers, and decided to go out to dinner. Just as we were leaving, Christian invited us to an asado. Of course, we would never pass up meat and wine so we agreed. The told us to be back at around 10, so we went shopping at Mendoza’s daily artisan’s fair and walked around Mendoza a tiny bit. Then it was time for the asado!! Probably one of the best I’ve had in Argentina so far. The company was great, the food was amazing, and the music was great! The family that runs the hostel has 7 siblings, so 4 of them and the father were at the asado and some of their friends. Then there were these two beautiful Israeli boys just fresh out of the Israeli army, and Danielle and me. Spanish, English, and Hebrew went around the table as did the meat. After dinner, we were invited to go out on the town with now 4 Israeli boys and Raul (the oldest brother), and of course we would not pass that up. We went to the “bar/club street” and settled on some random bar, where we just sat around and drank beer and listened to the Israeli army stories. Dude, I’m so over Latin lovers!

Friday, October 6, 2006

We really slept in today – until 11! Then we got lunch, the worst I’ve had (a super pancho). And then we went PARAGLIDING!. Raul (the dad), Raul Jr., Christian, and Jorge took 2 of the Israeli guys, Danielle, and I paragliding. They drove us in the crazy jeep up to a mountain in Mendoza and took turns taking us down the mountain with the “parapente.” It was a beautiful view of the Andes and Mendoza, very slow and relaxing. There was not a lot of wind so it didn’t last very long, but it was a good experience for sure! Since we had worked up such an appetite, we went to the store and bought fresh pasta, sauce, hamburger meat, and bread. I kind of ruined the pasta, but it still tasted good. We invited Raul Jr. to eat with us and he got up from the table while we were eating. A minute later, I heard his voice from behind me tell me to close my eyes. When I opened my eyes, there was a package in front of me that said “panaderia” on it (bakery). He made me open it and it was a beautiful chocolate cake with whip cream and strawberries. Mmmm… he put a little tea light candle on it, and he and Danielle sang “Que les cumpla feliz” to me. We ate cake and then at midnight, they sang to me again.

Saturday, October 7, 2006

My Bday! Raul Jr. joined us for a day of biking and wine tasting. We biked around Mendoza and this huge park and then we later got on a bus to Maipu the country’s biggest wine place. We went to South America’s biggest wine museum, toured, and tasted a few wines. After that, we went back to the hostel and finished our left over pasta. Raul Jr. gave me a bracelet for good luck and then walked us to the bus. We bought an extremely cheap bottle of champagne for the bus ride, $4.75 pesos ($1.50 USD), to celebrate my birthday and we watched a weird movie on the bus and fell asleep. All in all a good bday.

Sunday, October 8, 2006

Back in BA. Reality hits. My wallet was stolen – we think while we were sleeping on the bus. What a wonderful spring break and my happy mood was so easily destroyed. I know it’s not that big of a deal, everything is replaceable but I can never understand why a vacation can’t be 100% flawless. (at least for me). I spent the day trying to get online, eating, and sleeping. And now we're going out to dinner with Bri’s parents.