Heathers Mucky World: Salta and Jujuy

Our final stop in Argentina, the northern provinces of Salta and Jujuy. I think this is my favorite part of Argentina, at least of the parts that I have seen. It is incredibly beautiful here. Salta is a nifty little city that is big enough to have all the nightlife and fun stuff, but small enough so that when I am terrified of driving in the city (there are no rules, you just have to go and pray!), we can walk to all the places we need to go (though our legs really are getting quite a work out). It is situated in a beautiful valley surrounded by lush green mountains. it is so nice to see the color green again! The most famous site here is the Iglesia San Francisco, a very crusty church, as Katie would say. The light was horrible today, but you get the idea:

And here is Katie appreciating the scenery (not sure if she is looking at the church, or the cute boy who just walked past, but oh well ;)

We took a skyrail ride up to a hill above the city, the view was pretty cool, if the top was kitchy with all the tourist trap junk and crazy religious monuments.

Here are some of the mountains surrounding Salta and the valley, lovely, sigh...

At the top, we had a different kind of adventure. See, Katie is not the worlds biggest fan of spiders...

and of course she was the first to look up once we reached the top and got off the tram...

I think they were kind of pretty... but I must admit, I did my share of unecessary ducking as we walked around.

A few days ago, we went off into the wilderness in a search for my plant. It was a real treasure hunt here because the one place I knew for sure it would be (Laguna Volcan) supposedly didnt exist according to almost all the locals I talked to. We first took the scenic route north to Jujuy

It was an amazing drive through tropical forests and CURVY roads. I am getting some good practice driving here! We went to 3 little lakes in the mountains, that didnt have my plant, but some good did come out of it. We gave this crazy Argentinian a ride to the top, and though he didnt speak too much english, he ended up helping us greatly in finding the plant, mainly by translating the crazy local spanish into my kindergarden speed. His name was Martin, and we ended up spending the rest of the day with him, poor guy got suckered into helping with my work!

We finally encountered the elusive Laguna Volcan simply by going to the town and asking around. But the way, my plant here goes by totora, junco, and probably some other names that I have never heard, all which are in no way exclusive to Schoenoplectus californicus. We were given directions to cattail, pampas grass, even some trees! So, even in the town, they werent sure if the laguna existed, but we played connect the dots (thank goodness for Martin!) and finally went to the gas station where we were told that there was indeed a Laguna Volcan, but that it was dry and there was definitly NO totora there. But, darn it, I had seen many herbarium plants collected in the silly lake, so I pushed everyone on.

It was very dry looking at first, but beautiful if nothing else... then, off in the distance at the far end of the lake... what is that? Could it be? So we grabbed all my gear and hiked in, hoping...hoping... Yippie!

The funny thing was, what we had seen was actually cattail, not my plant, but it was there regardless.

After that, we gave Martin a ride to the town he was staying in so he wouldnt have to take the bus after all he did to help, and ended up staying there ourselves. The town was called Purmamarca and it was a lovely little adobe mountain village situated in some of the most colorful hills I have ever seen. It is famous for the Cerro de siete colores.

We also played tourist a bit, and bought some fun stuff. This kid was very fun, and very persistant! He let me take his picture because Katie let him keep the change from the little vase she bought.

The next day we explored north to the Quebrada de Humahuaca. It was a wonderfuly colored high mountian canyon with crazy cacti and other fun plants.

The town of Humahuaca itself was kind of fun too. The church was goofy looking, but cool. The tamales we had for lunch were spectacular!

Finally, as we headed back towards Salta to return the car, we stopped in the little town of Palomita looking for a place to spend the night that wasnt a city. Try again! There was basically nothing there! But, it was kind of cute...