WHO WHO eee!!! (Jujuy)

This weekend, FLACSO, our program took us on a trip to Northwestern Argentina. We left Thursday night, and after a 4 hour delay (I wasn´t surprised) we finally took off. We flew into Salta, spent the night there, then took off early in the morning for Jujuy. We did random tours, seeing how the native people used to live. Apparently it is the poorest region in Argentina, which was very apparent. The people lived off of hardly anything, but they were very nice and welcoming (I´m thinking it´s because we had money.) Every afternoon we visited the fería, where the locals sold Andean sweaters, hats, socks and other souvenirs (for really cheap). The animal of the area is the llama, (pronounced Cha-ma) and I even ate some!! Llama steak is amazing! I also tried coca leaves and coca tea... yeah, made from the cocaine plant. Yes it was good, and no, sadly, I didn´t get any type of buzz.

Saturday was by far, the best day of the trip. We started with a very long bus ride up and over the mountains. it was absolutely beautiful and reminded me so much of Colorado. We were in the mountains and it was hot and dry and the air was clean. MMM. First we went through the canyons (which reminded me of both Colorado national monument and Glenwood springs) then the mountains changed, and it was all bare, freezing and windy. We were at an altitude of 4,170 meters, which is over 12,000 feet, so the air was really thin. They let us get out and walk for like 20 min, so I took a little hike, sat on a rock on the top of the mountain, and enjoyed the world (and views) around me. We continued up a little more, crested the mountain (yes dad, I said "...and top it out) then descended into a valley of salt flats. Here we got out, learned about how they extract salt, then a little about the history of the area...then it was play time. It was really hot and everyone was lathering on the sunscreen, cause the sun reflected off the salt, just like skiing (at this point, I was appreciating my Arab skin...). After, we went back over the mountains, had lunch, then went "treking" (hiking..kind of). It wasn´t even really hiking either. I give props to FLACSO though for making us actually get up into the mountains. There were people wearing flip flops and skirts. It made me laugh. It was beautiful hiking though with amazing views, and amazing trails. It was such a tease; it made me want my bike SO bad!! It was very obvious who was athletic and who wasn´t, the air was very thin, but the group was definitely divided in half. All in all, the day made me appreciate how much I love Colorado, how much beauty I live in, and how lucky I am to appreciate the environment around me (rather than just bitch the whole time about how much it sucked to be hiking).

I also got to meet a lot more people from my program and actually spend time with them. I realized how cool some people are, and how cool some people think they are. That´s how it goes though.

Conclusions from the trip:
1. A big group of Americans = obnoxious.
2. I am more athletic than I realize (even though I might not be in shape)
3. I come from a pretty cool place
4. I LOVE WINE (OK, I knew that before)
5. The guys in my program are all really cool and nice, but NONE of them are datable...and that´s probably a good thing considering how much drama and gossip goes around!
6. I am LOVING studying abroad and being away and learning about myself!!