Blogs from San Salvador de Jujuy, Jujuy, Argentina, South America

Iš ryto pažadina prie lango atskridęs ir pradėjęs čiulbėti paukštis. Bet tai vienas malonesnių būdų atsibusti. Aptvarkom namą, susidedam daigtus ir keliaujam į miestą.Aplink kalnai, bet diena debesuota, tad jų viršūnių nesimato. Bet nuo to eiti tik lengviau, nes eiti plentu kepinant saulei, būtų gerokai sunkiau. Ant kelio nemažai suvažinėtų gyvūnų, įspūdingo dydžio varlė, šarvuotis, gyvatė ir kiti laukiniai gyvūnai. Nepati maloniausia pažintis su iš arti anksčiau nematytais gyvūnais. Apie piet jau būnam namie, ir vos tik psarėjus Saros mama paruošia pietus. Po tokio žygio šiek tiek pailsim namie, o vakare keliaujam su tais pačiais draugais į kalnus. Nakvosim maždaug už 30 km nuo miesto palapinėse prie kalnų upelio. Atvažiavę į vietą susirandam vietą stovyklavietei, prisirenkam malkų ir užsikuriam laužą. Aš su Sara dar neinam iki miestelio parduotuvės nupirkti mėsos kepimui ant laužo, be... read more

I did bring a journal to write stuff down, and after the 1st day it´s been neglected for 4 months. As a result I´ve forgotten a load of things, so back to the beginning we go. In Brazil, on Ilha Grande, when cooking rice I used washing up detergent instead of oil. Mind, the kitchen was proper filthy so it would have been for the best to eat the rice. And in my previous life I was a chef.. ho hum. In Paraguay, a delightfully odd country, we went to the most amazing museum in Concepcion. The fella who showed us around was really very pleased with the artifacts, which were essentially just a load of old things bunged in a storeroom. A 2 million year old fossil next to a phone from the 1970´s and ... read more

Aldea Luna was Awesome! One whole month without any contact with the outside world except the radio and visitors that came to the reserve. A private nature reserve deep in the yungas in Jujuy, the most North-Western province of Argentina, Aldea Luna was the cherry on my Argentine Pie. The owners are Martin, Elizabeth, their 13-year-old son Matias, and their friend Gerardo. All wonderful people. Many different groups of people came and went during my stay and I met people from England, France, Holand, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Germany, Canada, Kentucky, Washington, and New York. The work was always something different and almost always fun. The one job that I really didn't like was sifting sand out of a huge pile of stones, it involved attempting to shovel loads of stones onto a big wire grate that ... read more

After our overnight in Jujuy we woke up early, grabbed our laundry and mad a 2 hour drive to Salta. We dropped off our rental car at the airport and took a short flight to Buenos Aires. I accidentally forgot that I had my pocket knife in my check on and got caught with it. This knife is a stainless steel swiss army knife. It was my wedding gift from Mark and engraved with my name and our wedding date. It cost $300. Would you believe that I also got Mark a knife as a wedding gift; he collects big knives so I got him one with a dragon as a handle. Neither one of us knew we were getting a knife. It was a cool moment to realize we picked the same gift and not ... read more

We wrote this a while back, but hadn't had a chance to publish it yet... On the 13th we bussed it from Tilcara to San Salvador de Jujuy (pronounced who-hwee but John took to calling it ¨hooey¨). There we met Louise (from Scotland), Thomas (from Liverpool) and Pace and Laura (fellow 'Mericans who have just finished their 2.5 year Peace Corps stint in Malawi and decided to bike around Argentina before going back). We had breakfast together and then decided to all go to the hot springs. This was really just a modern pool but quite at bath water temperature. That night (Valentine's, actually) we drank some wine at the hostel and then went to a club to see a folklore band. Unfortunately we have no photos of these fun events as we were busy talking ... read more