Oh Argentina

What little I saw of this immense country was simply unbelievable. From the colors on the mountains that, I promise, I didn't photoshop to the kindness of people even in the bus station. And you know no country puts their best foot forward with transportation personnel.

Because I was planning to hang out in Salta, Argentina for a few months, I was not at all in tourist mode and do not have pictures of the bright red and yellow cathedral or lively plazas. Someone should teach me that people really don't mind tourists taking pictures in tourist towns. But though the city of a million's economy is tourist-based, it has the openness of a small country town that you read about in Steinbeck and aren't sure ever really existed. It makes you want to ask for directions even though you're pretty sure you're two blocks from the center and there are signs all around anyway.

The only thing I did touristy, I think, was have a meat filled lunch the day after my arrival with random guy #17 that treated me to a meal. Yes, I really did eat half my share of that feast below that included cow parts better left in Spanish. Chew with your eyes closed and you won't believe that you're only going to pay $15 a person in what looks to be one of the swankiest places around.

The rest of my time there, I bought my own wine ($3 each) and steak ($2 for 2) to cook a feast with the friends I met at the hostel. I found a cheap room at the home/hostel of a generous and concerned family--grandmother, 4 children, 3 grandchildren--that prepared breakfast every morning and gave me more than enough advice to get around.

The first days in Salta were a bit crazy because I went dancing, thus destroying anything akin to a sleeping schedule. After the first night, I went out with the kids at the hostel at the usual 2:15 (get there before 2:30 for free!) and stayed not quite til the end but 6am is fine for me. The more traditional club had an older crowd and all the salsas and cumbias you could stand, while the younger clubs mixed in rock and an enthusiastic YMCA.

After dancing my hiking shoes off for a couple of nights, I got down to business and easily found employment at some institutions that teach English. Seems like everyone here knows a little English and is thinking of improving it. It's a completely different vibe from Peru, probably because of the stark economic difference. Despite Argentina's recent crisis, they have the customs of a 1st world nation. I suppose it's not surprising to feel some relief leaving the hassle and constant attention needed in Peru, and the feelings of guilt that accompany seeing such naked, arbitrary structural inequality.

But after a week in the dry paradise of Salta, I saw how relaxed my life for the next three months was going to be... and I went crazy. Searching online for jobs that I can't get in the states. I decided I needed something more challenging, something to do with something to do with my career, no?

And now my excitement over the project I undertake in less that 12 hours, as I write this. I am helping a research team in the southern Amazon of Peru observe the salt-licking (perhaps more helpful to say mud-eating) behavior of macaws, parrots and parakeets. Apparently, just chillin isn't really in me. I get to wake up every morning around 4am and count the number of birds that come to the salt licking site, then enter data and hopefully help with some analysis. I am so stoked to be rain-soaked for 2-3 months, you can't imagine.

I took the same bus route back between Argentina and Chile (wow, ow) and took some amazing pics of the mountains from the bus. I'm sure they're not as impressive in mini, but those colors were really unbelievable.

(Ew sorry it's crooked!)

A bit scattered as I sign off here. Won't have technology access at all while in the forest, but if I get bitten by an agressive spider with deadly neurotoxins, I'll have my mom post a link to the Get Well Cindy webcam.