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...

So, we leave Argentina tomorrow, headed through Bolivia and onto Lake Titicaca. More adventures to come!

Mar Chiquita

I actually have access to a computer that works today! Dont have many exciting pictures, but I will show you what I saw just for fun. We spent the night in Parana last night, in a pretty fancy hotel. See, we got into town in the late afternoon, extremely hungry and tired after a long day of mosquitos and sweat... Of the three of us, I am the one who likes driving the least, and guess who was behind the wheel? Yeah, so I was getting pretty frazzled trying to navigate through this town. Did I tell you that Argentines drive like crazy? Or at least, I dont get it. So, when we found a hotel with a room, we took it, no questions. It was a pretty cool place, but the best part was the view from the roof (we snuck up in the morning after breakfast). Cool church, no? Today we drove to Mar Chiquita. I am learning to drive a bit more like an Argentinian, for better or worse... drive in the center of whatever space you have, be it a lane, a road, a field ;) Pass everything and anything, stick your nose out and go... I miss Cesar cause he always drove!
We didnt have much luck in finding my plant today, but did find this beautiful river. The birds were amazing, but I really am not equiped enough (or patient enough) for those kinds of pictures.

We then watched the sunset, this place is absolutely lovely in the evening!

Dinner tonight was horrible, I really pray we dont get sick, but there is a breeze, it isnt boilingly hot, and life is good. Lots of love to you all.

Mosquitos!

It was pretty sad, but the only pictures I have of Buenos Aires are of the port at night. My camara, with its fancy expensive battery, died during the one day that I had to take pictures. Bugger technology. The original battery actually lasts longer than the fancy one! We´ve moved north now, on to Santa Fe. It is incredably hot and humid here, and the mosquitos are unbelievable. The city was pretty interesting though, we walked through at night. Got eaten alive, but oh well. We spent the day today on a typical treasure hunt for my plant, finally found it in a field full of cows. We have a Swiss kid named Paco with us for the week, and he wasn´t so cool with passing through the cows, but he survived. I think he thought we were crazy for doing what we do, but he eventually even joined in (I think he was desperate to get out of there!). Later we went to Parque National Pre Delta. Talk about mosquitos! Katie and I braved a walk through the woods to a lookout, and there were litterally clouds of the little buggers! Katies white shirt was black with them. Suprisingly, I am not too itchy, yet. My face is a bit lumpy though, good thing you can´t see me now!
You can run, but you cant hide! This area is quite beautiful. Unlike the rest of Argentina which is flat flat flat, the ground sort of rolls here (I know, there are hills and mountains, there is just more flat!). We are in the land of soybeans, I have never seen so many soybeans. We drove for 6 hours, and other than an occasional field of corn or this mystery plant, there was nothing but soy. Talk about monoculture. By the way, if anyone knows what this crop is, please tell me, it is driving me crazy!

Tango!

I dont have any photos, but I thought I should tell you about last night. I finally did it! I danced the tango in Buenos Aires! Not very well, I must admit, but I really did improve, and was told that I was suprisingly not bad for a beginner. So, I had a lot of fun. There was one rather dull spot in the evening, a big black pit actually. See, this guy asked me to dance, and like I did with everyone who asked me, I told him that I dont know how but that I can follow ok and I would love to try. He said fine, then after 30 seconds of the dance, dropped me and walked away with his nose in the air. It was HORRIBLE! But, I was rescued by the guy sitting at the next table who took me out and actually led, so that people would see that I wasnt the worst dancer ever and never ask me to dance. But, ugh! Regardless, I had lots and lots of fun. Yippie!

Mar del Plata

I met with another Schoenoplectus groupie in Mar del Plata, it was wonderful. Karina was the best, so much fun, and so very helpful. I got a lot done here, even if the weather was foul for the day that we worked. The city is one of the top tourist destinations for Argentinians, which made it a bit crazy and a bit cool. Karina's family was amazing. they had us over for a barbeque. I ate so much that I almost puked, but it was sooooo good! Then we played a game called paddle to work it off. Cesar loved it so much, and didnt stop till the last person quit on him, he went through 3 groups. Suprisingly, he wasn't much use as a muscleman the next day;)

Cathedral Casino Lovely weather for working outdoors! Hanging out Karina's lovely family Cesar playing paddle My helpers, the lovely ladies of Mar del Plata and the adorable Cesar Pretty trees

Viedma

We got stuck in a town called Viedma for a few days. It was an odd place, the capital of the Rio Negro province, but so small that we couldn't find a place to rent a car. We did finally find one, but the trials of waiting and dealing with crazy people took a bit of a toll. The odd thing was, we ended up loving the place, it had a definite charm.

Argentinian Patagonia

It is amazing how things work out sometimes. When we were crossing the border into Argentina (which was a pain in the butt by the way!), Cesar ran into an old friend of his who happened to be a truck driver. Since the boys hadn't seen each other for ages and had actually lost contact, David and his mechanic Alfredo offered us a ride north so they could catch up. It was an incredible trip, if a bit cozy. They even stopped and let me collect my plant twice! Much better than taking a bus, for sure. We went out dancing, partied in the truck, and Katie even got to drive!

The truck
Katie driving Sunset in Saramiento My work Crew Sometimes, you just get stuck On the road