Touched,Eaten, and Worn Llama

Friday Feb 22
Us district 4910 exchange students from la plata met up in the bus terminal here, and took a 4-hour and a bit bus ride to Merlo. In Merlo was the travel Agency. we waited for a few hours, so we ate lunch, and met some other exchange students that were also one of the first few to board the bus, who were all from the city of Buenos Aires. One of the guys that lives in Bsas goes to the school with Christina Alak´s (the president) daughter. We went for a longgg bus ride, picking up exchange students from all over the province, and slept on the bus the whole night.

Saturday Feb 23
I have to say this now: I am TERRIBLE with the names of places.
So, we went to some place with really high rocks. and that just about as detailed as that one gets! We climbed them, took pics, and left. Oh. Apparently that place is called La Falda. I think.Or Capilla Del Monte. Que sé yoooo. We went to Cosquin, where some concerts or soemthing take place. We drove for a while, then stopped quickly in the province of Cordoba. We got out of the bus, took pictures in the Geographic centre of Argentina, then hopped back in. And that was my trip to Cordoba.To bad I couldnt visit Gabi´s parents...hahah. After that, we went to Villa Union, where we stayed at a hotel in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. The nearest store was like more than 10 blocks away. As we were walking there was some bike race going on, so we cheered everyone on..thought of you, dad! That night at dinner, after I could only eat pieces of the lasagna because it had pork and they wouldnt give me anything else, a band came to play, which was really nice.

Sunday Feb 24
We went to Valle de la luna (moon valley), they couldn´t accept us because they didnt have the right vans or something silly like that, so we went to talampaya, but our bus got stuck on the way out in the rocks in the ground, so we were waiting for hours, then ended up going back to the hotel and going swimming. After that, me and Signe went to the ¨centre¨, where there was a relaly crappy grocery store and a park. We sat in the park, chilled for a bit, went to a cyber cafe with really frustratingly slow internet, then came back. I was changing in Signes bathroom when I hear a HUGE crash. Signes was doing something with her laptop so I was like ¨Signe.......¨ but she replied that it wasnt her, so we both went outside, to see Laerke, from denmark, lying on the ground outside with glass pieces everywhere, and blood. She was dancing/running and ran right through the door. Well, She was clearly in shock because she just sat there laughing (although she is a very laughy person anyway), and within the next few minutes everyone came, they took her to the hospital, and the glass was cleaned up.

Monday Feb 25
We returned back to the Cañon de Talampaya. We were seperated into two groups, and taken into combi vans around the place. We got out a lot to see the rock formations, which were very very cool. It was really dry, but the rocks were amazing, and we learned about the history of the place and the people that lived there.
Later on that day, we drove to the city of La Rioja for dinner, where I bought a Manu Chao c.d that I´m very happy with :) We didnt stay long, because we spent the night driving to Salta.

Monday Feb 25
We arrived in the city of Salta in the morning, and at about 10 am we were woken up on the bus because we were on our way to the public hopsital in the city to get immunizations for Yellow Fever. We were doing this because at the end of the trip we went to The Iguazu Falls. Only thing is, The shot really only ¨activates¨ itself after 10 days, and we were going to the falls before ten days. Anyway, I got it although I didn´t know if I had gotten it before, then after was told by everyone it can be fatal and this and that if you get it two times in your life or whatever, so I freaked out, phoned home from a locutorio and mom and dad told me I didnt get it before...haha.
We arrived to our hotel, called Plaza Hotel which was overlooking the park in the centre of the city- very very pretty. I went to eat empanadas with the girls from North America, we bought a very bling pin for my blazer (which Ive decided to not post any more pcitures of until I get home- its getting full!). and we bought all the north american candy that we´ve been missing out on from a store that had it all. After that, we all went to a cyber cafe and checked our email.

Tuesday Feb 26
We got a pretty boring city tour (the guy was veryyy monotone and he made jokes, but we all thought he was being serious from his tone...no one laughed.) After that, we went shopping...I was walking with my friend Haley, when we decided to go into one store, and saw two guys who sounded like foreigners, so I asked them where theyre from. They were two couchsurfers/backpackers making there way around South America from the US. We stayed for a half hour or saw chatting, then made our way to the centre with them where we met up with some other exchangers on the trip. After dinner that night, Lisa from Manitoba and I organized a game of ¨charades¨(pick out an action or noun from a hat, act it out and guess whats being acted out.) More and mroe people came, then we were told by the hotel staff we were being too loud (because it was in the main lobby, and the second floor was directly above us, with nothing seperated the two floors..get the idea? basically what Im saying is you could lean over the balcony from teh top floor, and drop something down to someone in the lobby/main floor. So we must to the restaurant and played till the late hours of the night.

Wednesday Feb 27
This was the day I was dreading: going HORSEBACK RIDING in ¨los cerros¨(hills...sierras? who knows. basically rolling hills...) So, we woke up in the morn, and took the bus ride down to the area where they keep the. The minute they brought out those forms to sign just incase we die, I went into panic mode. Man, oh man- the horses were being brought to the fence, and we were just standing there. watching. It felt like forever. Anyway, the time came for me to get on a horse, so I made the guys give me the calmest and slowest horse possible. After waiting, and my horse taking two steps back, I decided I was not going to go through 3 hours with this. I told the guy I wanted to get off, and after about 7 times of that, I told him I AM getting off, so he called the other guy which was all like ¨its tranquilaaa, we´ll just ride a bit down there, and if you want to get off you can get off at my hosue...its a few blocks down¨ I was still hesitant, so I was like uuuhhh and then next thing I know he takes the reins or wahtever it is that you steer the horse with and starts walking. So Im sitting there, just holding onto my horse for my dear life, its going a lot slower than all the others because I wouldnt let the guy go fast. Everyone else was all like yeeeehaaaa and trying to make their´s gallop (these horses wouldnt really..theyre trained for this) while I was basically on a pony ride which was sooo totally fine with me. We crossed a stream which was actually pretty cool, went up and down some hills, my horse almost made me fall off once from when he sunk into the mud, but the complete GORGEOUSNESS of all the whole made it fine, although Id never do it again. I can´t even begin to describe how gorgeous the view was. behind us was a mini mountain with trees (I dont know what those are called) and the town, and infront of us were rolling hills, with cows and a river...soso gorgeous. The photos on here dont justify how gorgeous it is, youll just have to see for yourself! The guy that was plling me along, José, gave me a hug at the end for being so brave. haha.

After getting back to the centre, I went to a restaurant that has Arabic empanadas with Maggie from the States... they were the grossest empanadas I´ve ever eaten. They had lemon juice in which I wasn´t so fond of at all, but I had a really good cheese empanada. (Empanadas are famous in the north, by the way.) A bit after lunch and getting lost in the town, the group walked a few blocks to a ski-lift type thing that took us up a mountain. It was pretty and all, but a prettier site: The Feria down below. We didn´t spend too long up there because we wanted time to go to the market. So, we went down, and spent hoursss walking down the road, looking at all the different booths and what they had to sell.. I ate the best empanadas ever, and bought some stuff. We got back to the hotel, showered, and changed to go to a restaurant called Balderrama or something like that... It´s a restaurant with a live folklore show. It was really nice and fun, people in our group got brought up to dance...soo so sos os os so funny when bekah was brought up...she was attempting to do the man´s footwork when it came to doing that part in the dance. The main rotarian that was in charge of us on the trip was sitting at a table with some students drinking a whole bottle of wine to himself, which I think led to the idea of allowing us to drink beer just because we were in salta. So, me and Laura shared a beer with the chaperones because the rest of our table didnt want one. It got to the point that people were falling asleep in the restaurant, so we decided it was time to go, but outside, the roads were basically flooding...it was ridiculous. (All the while, apparently in la plata there actually was flooding in some places...not like ridiculous huge floating in teh streets, but Gabi told me about her friend who was sitting on her counter in the kitchen because it was so full of water).

Thursday Feb 28
We woke up SUPER early, ate a really bad breakfast because they werent ready for us, and went to Valles Calchaquies. We slept most of the way going there, obviously. It took a few hours to get there if I remember correctly. We got to a big rock formation thing that sort of echoes, but not as much as one that we went to in the Cañon. We went to Cafayate where we went to a wine vinery, tasted wine, and bought some. We returned back to the city, went to the feria again, to a museum of Incas or something with little frozen children, and grocery shopping for the next day (we had to buy lunch for the bus ride)

Friday Feb 29
We woke up, ate regular breakfast in the hotel, then went straight to the bus. We drove for a few hours to the Termas de Reyes (Thermal pools). Me and some other girls went to a river nearby and took some pictures, then returned back. We stayed there for a few hours, then went to Purmamarca. It was a really poor town, but also really interesting. We went to yet another Church, and went to the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a mountain with 7 different colours. We climbed up, and ate our lunches that we bought in the grocery store the day before there. By the way, we weren´t actually on the mountain, we were on the big rocks just before the mountain. Anyway, Laura (from the States) and I stayed longer and became all philosophic and pensive up there, sat for a while looking at the town below, then went down because laura had to go pee in the bushes.haha. We took a bunch of photos there. If you ever see a photo of Laura psuhed me or me near or looking¨natural¨ is because she tries to take natural photos, but ends up almost killing me each time. After that, we drove to Bolivia, sort of. We all needed to renew our passports because our three months were almost up, (some people were actually over three months), so we got our stamp for exiting Argentina, crossed the borderline (technically), but couldnt get the stamps to go into Bolivia because the people from the US had to pay 100 dollars which they clearly didnt have. May I mention that the altitude we were at at this point was so incredibly high. One guy from Belgium got all weird..he started shivering and turned pale, I got a migraine, but one of those that hurts your eyes, and pounds like never before, and everyone was freeeeeeeezing. So, we were up there for a few hours standing, waiting. And let me tell you, we stood out. Our group is made up of about 70 percent blondes. The people passing by were like in photos..it was actually amazing. All the woman looked oddly the same... They were short, fat ladies with long braided hair, and really colourful blankets carrying a baby wrapped around them or a bag. I had bought a pin for my blazer earlier on of people from the North, and they were like the real walking talking things. It was a bit ironic because that day , the 29th of each month, youre supposed to eat ñoquis (Gnoccis).. its like a whole lucky thing. Well, we went way over dinner time, so by the time we got to the hotel, we ate and headed straight for bed.

Saturday March 1
We woke up at 6:30, brought our luggage down, drove to get our passports stamped (yeah, before that we werent technically anywhere...) So, we were driving,sleeping, and driving, when all of a sudden I hear Lisa whispering to me and chessie that theres a guy infront of her sitting that isnt part of our group.. he was sleeping with no one next to him, the chaperones were sleeping, so we had no clue whatsoever who he was.. I went to go ask Mariana why there was a random Bolivian man sitting on our bus, and she said hes the friend of a guide that had just come on, andwere giving him a lift to the next city..

From there, we went to La Quiaca, Humahuaca. We went to a town called Yavi, where looked around in another Church (surpriseeeee!!!!!!!!), and got a guided tour of the city by our tour guide. He took us to one shop which he clearly got ocmmision for or had family connections to or something, because there were a million other shops like that, that sold sweaters and stuff...anyway, the lady showed us all the different fabrics and furs she had, I obviously knocked over a basket of fur by mistake, and I bought sweet pants to hang out in from there. We wanted to go eat empanadas, so the guide told us about a ¨really good¨ restaurant just around the corner! from there. We went, and durprise surprise, all the other girls had also been told about it. Anyway, we met a guy that was backpacking with like 4 other people or something, and he used to be an exchange student in Argentina, he came here to go backpacking and surprised his first host family. He gave us one piece of advice: if you go backpacking, do not go with more than one person. He said the girls he were with were reallllllyyyy annoying, and its impossible to choose where to go and always get going. And, Guess what I ateeeeeee?(its sort of in the name of this article...) milanesa de llama!!! yes, I ate a piece of llama!!!!! It tastes good, but I didnt order it, I just wanted to be able to say that I´ve eaten llama. Another folklore band played, which was nice. After that we went to a feria/market type thing, where everyone came up to us and listed everything that they were selling, every single time. After, we all gathered in teh bus and drove to the tropic of Capricorn. How cool is that?!?!? Ive been to the tropic of Capricorn!!!!! It was exactly 3:15 in the afternoon when I stood at the tip of the sundial´s shadow. Oh, I also pet a llama, which is how I can say Ive eaten,worn and touched llama. (I bought a sweater made of llama fur earlier on in the trip).

We went back to the back, and drove to an ancient city or something..I forgot what It´s called, Patricia explained to me that its so high up so that the people could see the enemy coming in from anywhere...which is really true. There was cacti everywhere, and I full on with my bare hands grabbed a prickly pear (cactus pear,fruit, whatever you want to call it) because I was so excited to see one here, peeled it open from the top, and ate part of it..it was small, but tasted good. I got a bunch of thorns in my fingers, but they were oddly really easy to remove..and really visible. We went back down, then went to our next hotel. Becky from the US and I went to a feria, where I got a rasta (dread), so we both had rastas. its like a friendship necklace, but with dreads! haha. mines sorta coming out now slash splitting into two at the root, because he didnt do it properly, but oh well...you cant see it with this mess of hair that I have anyway. Dinner that night was the funniest thing Ive ever seen/heard. We were sitting there, eating dessert, when we hear this obnoxiously loud chair moving on the ground type noise. So, I look over, and I see in the doorway, a tiny end of an intrument sticking in, sort of just peeking in there, then it made that sound again. Next thing you know, theres this ATLEAST 3 metre long horn-instrument thing coming in, making a not-so-attractive sound, and a guy playing it dancing around. he lifts it up in the air and swings it while he´s playing, almost hits the ceramic pots up for display one too many times, puddles of condesation, sort of like from any other horn instrument was dripping onto the people sitting infront of him when he lifted it up and swung it... then, more people entered, and next thing, theres 4 or 5 of them playing some song.

March 2
We drove, drove, and drove some more. We stopped at a gas station once, then drove, then stopped to eat our lunch in a park. We drove, drove, watched a series of friends, drove, then slept over night on the bus while driving.

March 3
Wake up around 6:30 am on the bus, ate really bad breakfast, and went to Minas de Wanda. Basically, it was a mine site, with quartz and all those pretty rocks, we got a really boring tour around, our guide said justamente and si enough times for the count number to be over 40 (some people were actually counting). After that, we went to Punta del Este, where Paruguay,Brazil, and Argentina meet. Theyre all so close to eachother from that point, it looked quite cool, actually!
From there, we went to the hotel, and I roomed with Signe, laura, and Dani, who´s also from the states.
We decided to dye my hair one colour that night because the bottom half was more blonde than the top, so signe did it for me... At 11:45, we met downstairs, had a meeting about something, then wished Signe and Rose happy birthday at 12:00..we went outside, and we did the whole pouring flour and eggs and water and stuff on them, except someone made the stupid mistake of putting yerba mate into that mix... which completely stains. (I have a tank top with a big green stain.) Anyway, my hair dye got left in over an hour too long, (I hope it didnt leave any bad side effects...). That night my roomates, rebekah and signe celebrated with signe...We decorated the room as a surprise, with the balloons I brought from Home Hardware that say ¨Canada is My Home¨, and party hats and stuff...

March 4
We left to Parque Nacional de Iguazu (Iguazu national park). We walked tons, and had a filmer with us filming us walking at every turn. (Later on we watched the dvd to see if we wanted to buy it, I had to buy it. it was the WORST filming/editing EVER soooosososo funny...) We got to go on a small boat (not like the maid of the mist) under the falls, which was really fun, and wet. That night, we celebrated Signe and Rose´s bday witha cake, went to a boliche, and got ready to go home the next day.


Overall, I LOVED the trip. So,sososo much more than the first one. I think because most of the people already knew eachother, it was a lot more ¨tranquila¨(calm, I guess?) and we did a lot more. I also made a bunch of friends that I didnt really talk to on the last trip.



This past Monday I started school again! I jsut finished my three month summer vacations, the weather is definitely cooling down. It was nice to see my friends again, and now I live a lottt closer to the school so I can walk there in twenty minutes in the morning, and walk back, without having to wait for a bus for 40 minutes, then deal with the crazy bus driver. I also walk back with some girls in my class. Im enjoying it more too, because I can understand mostly whats going on. Our economy teacher is nice, she was explaining to me what they were talking about. A long time back I wrote about how it´s IMPOSSIBLE to get coins here. Sometimes at kioscos they give you candies in change because they just dont have the coins. She told me that people are taking 10 pesos, for example, in coins to the kioscos and theyre buying them for 12 pesos, thats how bad it is. I haven´t had one full day yet, because teachers didnt come, not because of strikes. (when a teacher doesnt come, you just go home...there´s no substitutes). My friends also said that I talk a lot better now and I understand more, which is nice to hear!Tomorrow we start school 3 hours later.

I´m going to a castellano tutor now, that´s been helping a bit, but I´ve only gone about three times.
On Wednesday I went to the Alarcons, and we had Asado!!finally!!!!! Soo yummy.
Also, this past Thursday I started art lessons! Gabi´s friend is an art teacher, and I´m going to mosaic class. Its really fun, actually. Ive only been once, and Im with people from 20 years and up, so they actually talk to me..theres only 4 others in the class, I think. Im currently making a mirror.

So. On facebook, theres this group called CISV travelers or something. Basically its for people in CISV that are travelling through the world and want to meet up with other CISVers. I joined, and saw that a girl from the US, Rachel Wiseman is backpacking through South America with her sister. She was in Bsas, so I messaged her, and we decided to meet on Friday. She came to La Plata at around 10:30 am, I gave her a mini tour, we went to Plaza Moreno, the museum, around the centre, then back here, to meet up with Signe and go to La Republica. It was a realllllyy nice, chills day, she´s such a sweet girl, and told me that when I go to Boston shell try come up to visit (she lives in Maine).

Friday everning Mario Legarto called me to tell me that the exchange students are going to go help serve food and coffee and stuff at some meeting for rotarians and the governor. We got there at 11, and only had to start serving a few hours after... It was actually reallllly nice though, we all wish we could do stuff like that more often... We just sat and chilled, talked. talked about our lives back home, here, when we go back home, visiting eachother, everything. We stayed till 5:30ish, then Peter, Bekah and I went down to La Plata to go pant shopping for Peter. That was succesful. I returned home, The Gabis invited me to come to a fam friends for dinner with them, but I stayed home, invited Signe over to sleep, and we ordered sushi, watched Sex and The City Season one that I bought for 10 pesos, and even comes with special features, listened to different bands on myspace and looked at old photos of us and our friends, then went to bed at around 2..

And that, everyone, is my recent life.

Sorry for the ridiculously long blog, but you know me... that´s what I do.

Mom and Dad coming to Argentina countdown: 17 days!

xoxoxoox
Haley

P.S. 2 more days, makes my 7 MONTH ANNIVERSARY IN ARGENTINA AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

P.S.S I return home August 17th. That means I will have been in Argentina for a year and 364 days.

P.S.S.S If anyone wants to send something really sweet and coola long with my parents for me, go right ahead!!!!!!

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