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Okay once again it’s been awhile since I wrote so I’m just going to write about the 8day trip I took to the North of Argentina & Bolivia with my 4 German friends, Marcel, Helena, Marco & Pascal. It was a great experience even when I was about to kill my friends for only speaking German for almost the entire time (they are also fluent in English…) I’m writing day by day because I don’t know what other way to remember…
Friday- We left the bus terminal at 9pm for Salta. Busses in Argentina are much different than the busses I have experienced in the US. They have “semi-cama” and “cama” seats which make it somewhat easier to sleep. It isn’t wicked comfortable, but more comfortable then an airplane (but what isn’t?). It took us about 14 hours to get to Salta so we arrived around 11am in the morning. We found our first hostel and then took a city bus tour around the city. I wasn’t that impressed with the city but it was alright. That night we went downtown for dinner and drinks and watched some performers from outside restaurants. They were dancing some kind of flamenco style dance, and the men were dressed as Gauchos. They were so good!
View from the road in the providence of Salta :)
It was really interesting to see the difference in how the people looked in Salta compared to the people in Cordoba. Because Salta is farther North and closer to Bolivia, the people look more indigenous, are darker skinned, and generally shorter. It’s crazy how even in the same city people can look so different! The other thing I noticed was that the Spanish spoken here is much clearer to understand. I am really seeing how thick the Cordoba accent is. They also use different slang which was also expected…
Can't help but do cartwheels on an abandoned road like this
Tons of cows in the road while we were driving...
Sunday- we got up and left Cordoba bright and early in a rental car because the busses do not go up into the Salta province where we wanted to explore. We drove up through Jujuy, stopped for lunch, and then continued up into the mountains. We spent the day driving around and exploring small pueblos (villages) that were literally in the middle of nowhere (almost 6-7 hours past Salta). We took so many pictures, and it was really cool to feel so isolated. Little did I know that we would feel even more isolated when we arrived to Bolivia… We stopped in Pumamarca and found a hostel and had dinner there. It was a bit touristy, but we had no choice since we needed to find a place to sleep.
All of us in Pumamarca
Monday – We started driving to the Salt Flats (Las Salinas) de Argentina. It was about a 2 hour drive from Pumamarca, and on the way we stopped to enjoy the view at one of the highest points in the area. From the road, the hill didn’t look too high and my friend Marcel and I wanted to climb to the top to get a better view of the surrounding mountain peaks. Little did we know that this “hill” was extremely deceiving and was actually way steeper and higher then we anticipated. Nevertheless, we started climbing and about halfway up we were both so dizzy from the altitude and were having trouble breathing. Because we were halfway there, we decided to just keep going but literally had to stop every few steps just to breath. Now I guess I know how smokers must feel hahah it’s a terrible feeling to not be able to breathe! We finally made it to the top and it was incredible. Pictures could not do it justice, it felt like standing on the top of the world.
The small dot in the left corner is my friend Marcel - gives the picture alittle perspective
Enjoying the view from the road to Las Salinas
Although going up and down took over 1 ½ hours (our other friends were pissed and waiting for us haha) it was so worth it. Afterwards, we went to Las Salinas and sampled the salt there and took pictures…the sky was so blue that the white looked really neat. On our way back to Salta, we saw a herd of wild llamas and I was dared $10 pesos to chase after them so of course I couldn’t turn the offer down…once we returned to Salta and returned the rental car, we bought bus tickets to the border of Bolivia and left around midnight.
Word to the wise: DO NOT go to a foreign country like Bolivia and decide to “wing it” without a tour book, information, and plenty of money.
Las Salinas de Argentina
Chasing the llamas...haha
Tuesday – We arrived at the Bolivian border at 6:30am, one hour early. The busses NEVER arrive early. We exited the bus and everyone was wearing blankets and huge coats. Of course none of us researched the weather up in that area, and we just assumed that because it was closer to the equator it would be warm. WRONG. Because it is more of a dessert climate, the days are hot, and nights/mornings are freezing. And the bus terminal was a good 20 minute walk from the actual Border. We arrived at the actual border to find that it didn’t open until 7am. Okay fine… so we shivered in the cold for 10 minutes and then exited Argentina (by the way it was still dark outside because the sun hadn’t risen yet) We walked over to the Bolivian side only to find that they were still closed for another hour and would “open at 7am”. Bolivia has an hour time difference, one hour behind. So we got to shiver outside for another hour huddled together with our flimsy hoodies and flipflops. I felt like such an idiot tourist…
SO. At 7am Bolivian time, my German friends handed over their passports and got into Bolivia. When border control looked at my passport they shook their heads at me and told me I needed a visa, that is it a new law for this year in Bolivia. GO FIGURE. $135 American dollars… and I barely had about $50 pesos on me because I was just planning to get my money in Bolivianos at the bank in Bolivia. Thank God my friend Helena had enough money to lend me for my visa. I had to first find a “Casa de Cambio” to change my money to American dollars, and then make a photocopy of my passport, then fill out a mountain of paperwork for the Visa. What a headache…and all of this on 2 hours of sleep and in the freezing cold…yay. An hour and a half later I had a visa to enter Bolivia free of charge for 5 years. I’m going to have to make use of that once I get to Peru…
So we then realized that at the border of Bolivia, there isn’t much. At this point we were starving and none of the Germans were able to get money out of their banks in this town so I had to withdraw money for everyone…another long and painful process. Afterwards we grabbed a quick coffee and got bus tickets to the nearest “city” called Tupiza. We spent 4 hours on a bus that was literally driving in the middle of the desert. I am not exaggerating when I say there was no road. Apparently most of Bolivia is like this and they are working on making roads, but for now the busses off road the entire way. Since we were the last to get tickets, we had to sit in the last row and felt the worst of the bumps. A huge 2 liter water bottle fell on my head while I was trying to catch a nap (which was impossible anyway) and with the coffee we all had to pee SO badly it was terrible! But it was comical at the same time because at this point we were so tired from not sleeping for 2 days that we were just laughing at everything.
So it’s still Tuesday (I know, felt like the longest day of my life) and we arrived in Tupiza. We paid to use the bathroom and looked around and saw that this “city” was nothing more then a small town in the middle of nowhere. I felt like I was out west in the United States. It was gorgeous, but extremely small. It was funny because literally all the other foreigners from the border were on the bus with us, and everyone was so confused as to why this well known place of Tupiza was so small. The guys wanted to buy tickets right then and go to the next city, 8 hours away, but I refused. We got into a heated argument because Helena and I didn’t want to go to an unknown location even farther up into Bolivia without having any information/rest. We finally convinced the boys and found a hostal and figured out our plans for the rest of the week. After having a llama steak for lunch (which I loved by the way) I took at nap at 5pm and I ended up sleeping all night until the next morning. Traveling is exhausting…
Wednesday – Today we went horseback riding for 3 hours and it was a blast! We were the only ones with our guide so it was nice to not be in a huge touristy group. IT was the boys’ first time so that was comical… the horses would randomly start racing each other and cantering and the boys would freak out it was great to watch. We saw a bunch of rock formations and mountains on the ride, and it had been awhile since I had ridden so I really enjoyed it. Not to mention we only paid about $9 each to ride for 3 hours…it was so cheap.
Me & Junca
After the horseback riding, we quickly grabbed our stuff and Pascal, Helena and I set off on our Jeep Tour with Hugo. We drove for 6 hours to the “city” of Uyuni which is near the Salt Flats. It was the most gorgeous ride of my life. We wound up and down mountains on a dirt road (way better than in the bus), enjoyed the views and saw so many different types of landscapes. We also saw tons of llamas, many that were in the road. They look so funny when they run... we also ate shredded llama (kind of like shredded beef but tastier) for lunch with tamales, egg, and corn. Hugo was 22 years old, and really quiet at first because we were speaking English. We then decided we should only speak Spanish since it’s kind of rude to be in the car with someone who couldn’t understand (although the Germans had no problem speaking mostly German with me around the entire trip…oh well). We learned a lot about his family (he has 7 brothers & sisters…big families in Bolivia) and his interests. He showed us a huge variety of music that they listen to in Bolivia, everything from the more indigenous music to the reggaeton that has become so familiar from Argentina. Finally we arrived in our destination… during sunset…a hostal made completely of salt, complete with an outhouse and no showers (I got very used to not showering for days… not something I enjoy doing but you get used to it). Hugo made us dinner and despite the mice, we slept very well.
Part of the drive in the Jeep :)
Thursday – Hugo woke us up at 4:30am to get in the car to get to the middle of Las Salinas (120 sq km of salt flats) by sunrise. The sunrise was INCREDIBLE being in the middle of the salt flats. All you can see is the mountains in the distance, but mostly it just looks like a flat bed of snow. There was not a cloud in the sky when the sun rose and it was spectacular. After the sunrise, we drove to an island in the salt flats where we explored and had breakfast with tons of other foreigners & their jeeps. There was a baby ostrich wandering around, and as it came close to me, I was so busy taking pictures that I didn’t even realize that it was coming for my breakfast. One second later it snatched my bread off my napkin and left… story of my life. We toured Las Salinas for the rest of the day, and got to shop too. I couldn’t believe how cheap all of the handmade stuff was. I got things for my cousins and family back home, and spent less than $12 for 6 hats, a scarf, blanket, and a bag. Afterwards drove the 6 hours back to Tupiza. We didn’t want to say goodbye to Hugo since he became our friend during the trip, so we took him out to dinner (a luxury for Bolivians since they can rarely afford it… and it is so cheap for us). It was hard to say goodbye but he told us if we ever come back we’d have to look him up.
Beautiful sunrise on Las Salinas Grandes de Bolivia
Us & Hugo after dinner :)
Friday – We got up at 3am so we could get our bus out of Tupiza by 4am to get to the border to return home. Of course something got screwed up with our bus connections (between the border and Cordoba) and we missed our bus at the border because going through Immigration took too long. After 4 hours of waiting in the heat, we were able to switch our tickets and went through Salta instead. All in all, it took from 4am (in Tupiza) until noon on Saturday to get back to Cordoba. So exhausting…but very worth it. It felt good to be “home” in Cordoba. I missed my hostfamily and friends even though it had only been 10 days…I have no clue how I am going to say goodbye in less than 2 weeks…
So today it is raining so much that I can’t go to work (nor do they want me there because they don’t want me coming to work soaked around the kids). The roads are flooded as usual and it’s a cold rain today. No me gusta… anyways, it’s a nice day to catch up on some Spanish conjugations, clean my room, and plan a trip to Mendoza before going out tonight.
Last weekend was the same as most weekends, Friday night I went out with Matias and his friends which was fun, but difficult because his friends speak in such a heavy “Cordoba” accent. I recently found out about this accent in this area (would have been nice to know beforehand, I thought I was just slow and couldn’t understand). Apparently in Cordoba everyone speaks with a heavy accent that makes it harder to understand them then anywhere else in Argentina. Go figure! So maybe once I get to Peru things will be easier then I thought…we will see. After the club closed around 5am, the boys wanted Churri-Pan and hotdogs (in Boston we have Cappys/Pizza/Chinese, I’m going to miss churri pan SO bad). People here eat their hotdogs with everything under the sun...seriously they have about 15 toppings to choose from including mayo, those potato stix from middle school...haha. Finally got home around 6:30am as usual… man it’s exhausting living here but I love every second of it :)
Saturday I started to get the sinking feeling like I might have lice. Before you all get grossed out and think it’s weird for me to get lice, let me explain. I work with over 50 or 60 girls in the orphanage. Every single one of them has lice. I take precaution and wear my hair up and don’t let the girls brush or play with my hair…but I was told that it was pretty much inevitable for me to get lice. I ran to the pharmacy and got a brush and shampoo and when I got back my host mom looked at my scalp and sure enough…Lice. AWESOME. First strep, now this, what next? So I started treatments on my hair and everyday after work I am constantly checking for new lice so that they can’t lay more eggs in my hair. They multiple extremely fast so it is a huge pain… and now I’m paranoid. UGH. No es bueno… 
El río en Cosquín
Sunday, I got up early (shocking for the weekend) and Matias, Andrea, Maxi & I took the train to Las Sierras (Mountains) to Cosquin. It was a long train ride and kind of annoying because it was so crowded. IT was a beautiful day so many people had the same idea to enjoy the lake/river in the sunshine. We spent the day relaxing by the river, swimming, and getting some sun. I got so burnt even though I wore sunscreen…I was burned for 4 days. Ahh the sun here is STRONG. We took the bus back later that night because the train took too long on the way up. The scenery up there was gorgeous though! I can’t wait to see more amazing scenery when I get out to Mendoza near the Andes!
Sunset in Cosquín
This week was pretty much the same as always, working at the orphanage, and then hanging out during the afternoon and relaxing. Things are at the orphanage are getting better. I have been working more with the younger kids while the older ones go to school, and I really enjoy being with the little ones. I have been working on writing simple Spanish words with them, coloring, playing outside, and of course changing poopy diapers. I am REALLY not a fan of having to shower the kids every time I change their diapers just to rid them of poop…but hey I guess I will get used to it. I have been eating lunch at the orphanage too and my stomach isn’t enjoying it too much. Half the time I feel sick afterwards but I figure my immune system will get used to it at some point. It just kind of urks (is that the word) me a bit to eat with a fork on a plate that I know is not clean. They barely rinse the plates and cups, let alone use soap… very unsanitary. There also isn’t toilet paper in the bathrooms because they don’t want the kids to clog the toilets, so they have debay (not sure how to spell it..) so that kids can clean themselves. I always bring tissues with me everywhere… and hand sanitizer. I was never one to carry hand sanitizer with me around, but here I have to. I never know what I’m going to have to do… let alone I have yet to find soap in my entire work place. I also met another American this week, Shanna, who works in the orphanage too. She’s from Colorado…it’s nice to know another American in the orphanage now..
As for this weekend, I’m trying to get tickets to get to Carnaval in San Luis, but I’m not sure if it will happen. A lot of the tickets are sold out…but we really want to go so I’m hoping that it happens! Not too much else going on, I can’t believe I have only 5 weeks left here until I’m off to Peru…where is the time going?! I have way too many things I want to do before I leave this place…
Oh, and for any of you who heard about the earthquake in Chile, we did feel it here in Argentina. It happened at 3:30am and I was out with friends so it wasn’t enough that I noticed…but my host parents woke up because they felt it…and then about 12 hours later we had an earthquake in Northern Argentina which I was asleep for so I missed that one also.
SIESTA TIME. <3
My blogs are becoming more and more scarce because I have nooo time to write at all! But that’s nothing to complain about… I’m trying to remember the last couple weeks but it has been a blur and has been flying by…
2 Weekends ago I met a bunch of Americans that are here in the same program as my roommate/hostbrother, Mike. On Friday we had about 15 people over our house to hang out (pregame) before we went out to Rafael Nunez. It was cool to meet some Americans but I didn’t like talking in English because it doesn’t help my progress at all! I love his friends though. We went out to some club HillRose and saw a band play for a bit then danced till 5am as usual…I met a couple more argentines too. I’m really starting to like the local drink – Fernet & Coke. Here they sell it in pitchers in the club haha it’s like walking around with a huge scorpion bowl with tons of straws sticking out of it… on Saturday I went out with Mike and his friends again, and we ended up going downtown to Studio Theatro again which was fun but I could tell I was starting to get sick…ughh.
Hill Rose with some Clemson people & Fernet of course.
On Sunday it hit me full blown. The whole following week I was pretty much bed-ridden because I had strep throat…I think (it’s called Agina Roja here). I was too stubborn to go see a doctor all week so I thought I’d try to tough it out…finally by Thursday (I had been sick since Sunday) my host mom dragged me to the doctor because I couldn’t even move my neck… the doctor scolded me for waiting so long to get antibiotics. I was feeling much better after the medication! On Friday (yes the day after getting on the medication… I couldn’t help it, I was so restless from not doing anything all week) we went out to a club downtown called “Room”. It was really small but the crowd was really chill and “tranquillo” as they say here. I met up with some of my argentine friends from before, including this kid Matias who looks just like someone I know from home which is really bizarre (except for the fact that Matias doesn't speak ANY English whatsoever). They were attempting to teach me salsa but it is muyyy dificil para mi… Saturday we went out to a club in the Chateau which is this area pretty close to my house (in the sticks, remember?). It’s really weird, we were driving in a cab and there isn’t much around…then all of a sudden there is a huge lit up sign for the Chateau, and there’s a whole strip of clubs. It’s nuts! We went to a club called Trip Club and we got free entrance because Mike’s school had some passes. It had an awesome deck section where you could hang out outside and enjoy the summer night :)
Mike & I and our host parents - Adriana & Pepe <3
So this week I had my last days of spanish classes. At first I wasn’t a big fan of my Spanish teacher because she seemed like a really negative person, but when I got to know her and I was able to speak more Spanish and understand her, I realized she just has a lot of issues. Once we got to be friends she opened up to me and told me about her issues going on at home with her husband and a bunch of stuff… so on our last day I was really sad to say goodbye :( I also wish I could take more lessons, but I think it will be good for me to learn some on my own (verbs, vocab etc) and then if I have more questions maybe I can take more lessons in Peru. It was difficult learning some grammar with Soley because she didn’t speak English so I had to ask questions in Spanish which in itself is difficult…oh well.
Things are the orphanage are looking up for me. I’ve started to spend more time with the younger kids, because they seem to enjoy playing with me. The older kids (not all) love to tease me and make fun of me so I’m not going to give them the attention until they stop. One day I helped Stefi (another volunteer from Germany) sort through old toys to throw out ones that were filthy or broken. I couldn’t believe some of the stuff that people had donated…it was seriously trash! Oh well… later I was asked to change one of the toddlers, and I was told that they don’t have wipes (or toothbrushes or anything for that matter) so I should just put the baby in the shower to wash her off. I couldn’t believe it! The girl had diarrhea (yes I’m going to be descriptive so you can all feel like you were there with me) and I literally had to wipe her clean with my HANDS in a shower/sink in the orphanage. My mom sent me to Argentina with a few packets of wipes/tissues so I think I’m going to bring those in so they at least can have some wipes… the girl was screaming the whole time because the water in the shower is cold and I was just trying to get her clean ASAP. Ahh man… the only TV in the orphanage was also stolen this week during the middle of the night. It was pretty much the only thing these kids had for entertainment :/
Cookie, Axel, & Lucia :)
Milly, Valentina, Axel, and I don't know...
Now that I don’t have class, I have been going to the orphanage in the morning. The kids have started school, so the afternoons are pretty uneventful, and I can’t really help the kids with their homework so it is pointless for me to be there. Therefore, I come around 8 or 9am in the morning so I can help get the kids ready for school (they all go at different times…I still haven’t figure that out yet), play with them, help prepare lunch, and then serve food to 3 huge groups of people. One good thing is I’m allowed to eat with them too. The kitchen at the orphanage is huge, and when we eat I feel like I’m in the movie Annie (Spanish version of course). They have 10 huge long tables where the kids sit, and we pass out the plates with some kind of mush on it usually (either potatoes or noodles of some sort) and sometimes meat. The food actually isn’t as bad as I expected, and I’m used to usually skipping lunch so it’s not bad for me. It’s still difficult for me to understand instructions when the other adults tell me to do things…but I am learning. I feel stupid because many of the other volunteers from other countries (“extranjeros”) are majoring in Spanish or have worked in other locations where they learned Spanish. So basically I look like the idiot American once again…oh well all I can do is try I guess! I’m having too good of a time here to get discouraged too often.
my favorite...Santiago, "Santi" <3
On Wednesday my friend Matias invited Mike and I to have dinner at his house with his sister and some friends… it was a really good time! We weren’t able to speak any English, but it was really good practice and they were all so hospitable. They treated us to dinner, wine and beer. In return, we taught them to play Kings (describing the rules in Spanish ahah) . That was interesting and sort of difficult but so worth it! It was a good night, and I’m really glad we have more friends that are locals now. On Thursday Mike and I were lucky enough to have dinner alone with Pepe and receive a hilarious sex lecture... seriously I think it went out for over 45 minutes. Mike and I tried not to laugh and everytime we did Pepe would say "EN SERIO!!! siempre usar protecion..." It was hilarious. He told us that because we were his "hijos" (children) he felt as though we should have the conversation... oh Pepe. He has 4 daughters so he had no problem talking to us about it, no embarrasment whatsoever.
Okay I can’t think of what else to write right now…it’s time for my daily siesta before the typical Friday so hasta luego…
Chau, besos! <3
