Viaje a Salta y Jujuy

Hola gente linda,

For my last Knox-sponsored trip, which I got to plan myself, I went to Salta, Argentina (in the north)! I chose Salta because I loved the colored cathedrals I saw on its Wikipedia page and saw that it had some nice museums. It's in the north, a region I haven't seen, and is known for being Spanish-style, which I thought was interesting, too.

Although Salta seemed a nice place to go, I was on the verge of foregoing the trip and staying in Buenos Aires. A few weeks ago I decided that I'd love to stay in Buenos Aires for the rest of the school year (in Argentina that means until July!), and have been busy arranging things with my family, Knox officials and professors, and host parents/employers since then. If for some reason I couldn't complete my degree here, or couldn't find a place to stay, I didn't want to miss out on the last days I'd have with Fede. Plus, looking for a hostel and arranging the transportation was a pain, especially with limited funds. My plans to stay here, though, seemed more and more promising, and when my friend Katie emailed me the address of the hostel that she and two more of our friends would be staying at the next day Salta, I decided to meet them there!

I had investigated bus prices a few days before that, and so had three different companies in mind (there are about a hundred at the terminal). The ride would last 23 hours, so the deciding factor for me was whether food was included with the ticket: if it were, I could save a little money and do more on the actual trip. When I asked the salespeople whether meals were included, two said "Una bandejita, nada más" ("Just a little tray, not a real meal"), but one assured me that merienda (snack), dinner, and breakfast would be served. To be sure, I asked, "So there are three meals included?" The salesman said yes, so I booked my trip with Almirante Brown.

 

If the people in this photo all look crabby, it's because they are traveling with Almirante (Admiral) Brown! The bus arrived an hour late to the terminal, went laughably slowly, and definitely did not provide what I would consider to be three meals. The bus attendant tossed cookie packets to the passengers without a smile or a response to any of our thank you's for both merienda and breakfast, and for dinner?: a bandejita (tiny tray). I arrived a few hours later than expected, but the girls had spent that time switching hostels (the one we'd booked turned out to be dirty and bug-infested) and resting. Their ride had gone a lot better, but unfortunately they had Almirante Brown tickets booked for the trip back!

Despite the annoying journey, I was excited to meet with my friends and to be in Salta. On our first night there we checked out the historical district and saw the cathedrals. They were okay during the day, but much more impressive at night.

 

The insides of the cathedrals were pretty cool. They're covered with wooden sculptures of saints and lots of gold (some real, some painted).

 You can't see it well here, but this is a wooden sculpture of a saint's corpse. I've seen a lot of these around Argentina. (About 76.5% of Argentinians are Catholic.)

This is Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe: Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico). This saint, a symbol of both Aztec and Catholic mythology, played a key role in many South Americans' conversion to Catholicism.

On my way back from the Cathedrals, I went to a modern art museum featuring herméticos populistas (which I am not sure how to translate). It was really great! Here are some pictures of my favorite works and the associations I made with them:

 The photo shows a person walking on the highway with the blanket draped over him/her. It made me think of the Latin American street vendors who sell linens, desensitization to poverty (the sight of these vendors stops being so sad or surprising when they're everywhere), and globalization (usually the blankets are brightly colored and patterned with indigenous or natural symbols, but this one looks like a highway — a symbol of modernity — and has no local character at all: there are more and more things like that the more globalized and consumerist the world gets).

 This is the very bottom of the movie poster for "Lost In Translation." The rest was lost! I love it.

 Looking at the world through mass-produced, plastic windows/lenses.

And finally: a work I have many associations for! Living standards, tradition, and struggle for change.

On my way back from the museum I saw some peatonales (pedestrian streets) filled with people and street vendors. It always makes me sad to see kids out working and selling things. =/ Otherwise, though, it reminded me exactly of Seoul, Korea.  

The next day we took a trip to Purmamarca, the seven-colored mountains in Jujuy. It was quite the adventure! We were in this truck with our guide Fabricio for most of the day:

A lot of the roads were rocky and curvy and our route was high uphill. We put coca leaves between our teeth and our cheeks as a preventative measure for altitude sickness. After this trip I got a bad stomach flu, though, and it might have been the altitude. =/ Just take a look at this small portion of our route!

Despite the dizziness and sickness, though, this trip was very worth it. I saw beautiful landscapes...

Cacti...

Llamas...

Salt Flats (the entire ground here is salt!)...

And, of course, among other things, the amazing colorful mountains of Purmamarca!

I have to say, though, that I appreciate these things better now that I'm far away from that rocky road!

I saw some amazing Incan artifacts, too. Salta is famous for it's Museo Arqueológico de Alta Montaña (MAAM / High Mountain Archaeological Museum) which houses Incan tapestries, dolls, pottery, sandals, and most famously... mummies! One mummy, La Doncella, looks almost alive: her skin and clothing are well-preserved. She was about six years old when she died about 500 years ago. She was incredible to see. Unfortunately there were no photos allowed in that museum.

I did get photos of etchings of Incan heiroglyphics from a different museum, though:

 At MAAM I saw lots of stone llamas shaped like these ones and learned that from a young age, Incans learned to launch them with ropes as weapons. That might actually be what's happening in the corner of this picture!

This was my favorite etching. There's so much going on here! At the top left is a woman giving birth.

Here is me with some ruins. They're Incan in the sense that the Incans invaded and ruined them! lol. I can't remember the name of the tribe they belonged to, but it started with a T.

The craft market in Purmamarca was one of the best and cheapest I've seen. I bought a suéter de lana de alpaca (alpaca wool sweater) and a beautiful blanket there!

Even though I was sick the whole time, with a cold and then the flu, it was a pretty amazing trip. Still, though, as always, I am glad to be back in Buenos Aires!! =)

I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!

¡Besos!
Kaeli