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Purcará
The landscape in the north is completely different from the city as you can see in this picture! Last weekend I went to Tilcara with a group from FLACSO. It was really interesting. Tilcara is in the north of Argentina, three hours away from Bolivia. It is definitely a place you have to go if you visit Argentina. It is very different from Buenos Aires. Everyone says that Buenos Aires is not Argentina and that to truly know Argentina you have to get out of the city.
We took an airplane to Jujuy, the capital of the province of Jujuy which is where Tilcara is. We then took a bus to Tilcara. What was supposed to be a 3 hour bus ride quickly turned into five hours. The picoteros (protesters) were blocking roads so we couldn’t get through. They were a group of unemployed workers who want more financial help from the government. From what I hear, it is really common to have road blocks. That is the way the protesters get what they want. We ran into five road blocks on our way. It took an hour just to get outside of the city, which should’ve only taken about thirty minutes at the most. At one point we were finally able to stop at a gas station
The Colored Rocks
This was in Humahuaca, where we were our second day. It's really hard to caputre the true color of the rocks on a picture, but believe me they were beautiful! and get some food and go to the bathroom. Our directors somehow found out that the protesters were going to stop shutting down the road for an hour and a half, and at 9 they were going to close it down completely. We had to rush, but we eventually made it to Tilcara.
Tilcara is way up in the mountains so some people had trouble with altitude sickness. I had a headache the first day, but it past after a good night’s sleep. Each day we went further up the mountain, so each day I felt sick at some point. It was very interesting to see how the altitude affects our bodies, and also to think that some people live in those areas all the time.
On Friday we started our Archeological adventure. In the morning we had a lecture on the different types of natives in Jujuy and the different lifestyles. We then got a tour through the museum, which was kind of cool but also kind of boring. Later that day we went to Purcará where we saw a reconstructed native village. It was really cool. They believe that their “houses” were made out of stone
Las Salinas
This picture doesn't do it justice, but if you look closely at the ground you can see hexagonal shapes of salt. with dried cactus. Besides the village, there was a beautiful view of the colored mountains.
Saturday we went to Humahuaca. We saw some rocks which we could see formed the outside of what was once a village, but to me it wasn’t very interesting. We then went into town and went to some ferías (fairs).
Sunday, I thought, was the best day. We reached our highest elevation of the trip which was 4170 meters above sea level on our way to Las Salinas. Las Salinas is a salt desert. I had never seen anything like this before. The ground was pure white with hexagonal shapes of salt making the outline. Some parts of the desert resembled snow because it was more granules of salt, while in other parts the salt was “soaked” in the ground. We saw how they extract the salt from the ground. It was very interesting. What they do is dig a layer of salt off the ground, probably about a half a foot thick. Under the salt is water. They then leave these “pools” of water to evaporate. Once they evaporate they peel off the salt and they have salt granules to distribute. The
Ángeles de sal
This is Sarah and I making salt angels. Some parts of the desert were more like sand or snow. evaporation process takes a while, and our guide told us that the ones we saw were probably dug in December. We also ate lunch at Las Salinas. There was a place where you could bring a sack lunch. The building we ate in was made of salt. The only thing that wasn’t was the roof. The tables we ate at were also made of salt. It was a really interesting experience.
On Monday we came home. I had an amazing time on the trip and was so glad I went. I definitely wasn’t expecting the trip to be as enjoyable as it was.
On a different note, I am slowly collecting pictures of the city and of how I “live” here. Hopefully I will be able to add journal like that soon. I am also pretty excited because the professors at UBA in the social sciences career are on strike so I won’t have my taller radiofónica class this week. My classes seem to be going pretty well, although I’m not sure how I am doing in them. I took a parcial (mid term) in my econ class two weeks ago, but I am still waiting to see how
The 'pools'
This is Mariela and me in front of the 'pools' they use to extract the salt. I did. I don’t think that it went very well. Last week I turned in a paper in my literature class and I did pretty well on it. My taller radio class is a radio workshop where we learn how to make radio “shows.” Our first presentation was to make a panorama of the news that was 5 minutes long. We had to take the news from the newspaper and put it in radio format. With our second presentation we had to make a radio theater show. It was really interesting. The class is pretty easy because we work in groups and since Spanish isn’t my first language, the Argentine students help me out a lot.
Okay well I have to get going, but I just realized that I am more than halfway done with the semester! It’s so weird to think that I’ve already been here for almost two and a half months! Okay I’ll talk to you all later.
Chau,
Jamie
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anonymous
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Jamie! Just wanted to say hello, because I know you IMed me a while ago while I wasn't around my computer. A group from my school is in Argentina right now, and I just thought it was coincidental. I bet you're having the best time - I'm jealous! Have fun!!!!