Salta

Salta is in the north of Argentina. It is still cold... haha. This place is much more arid and dry than Buenos Aires, but it still maintains a very green look and feel. The people here are more native and of darker complexions. It is so different from Buenos Aires--less people, less crazy traffic, less everything. I like the way the people talk here-laid back, slow. I would say it's like talking to people from Savannah; they enjoy talking and pronouncing the language.

Today I went to a place called Cafayate. It's about two hours south of Salta, but along the way it goes from green, leafy vegation to rocky, dry amazing rock formations. There are cacti. Brent, Sumanya, and I went on a tour with a guy named Fernando today. It was a lot of fun. We saw lots of rocks... no I swear, it was much more exciting than that. It was really very beautiful. The drives were very nice, very scenic. We also went to some bodegas, but they were nada que ver with the ones in Mendoza. I wasn't impressed.

I've meet up with some people from my program here and we're enjoyng ourselves. The hostel is a little warmer than the one in Rosario and filled with much more people. I haven't been out and about because I've been getting up early to go on tours.

The regional food for here is locro (a kindaof stew), humita (tamales without meat), and tamales. I think we are going out to get some tonight. It's good heavy, filling, and warm food. After tonight though, I think I might have to resort to PB&Js to save on the moola.

I should be moving on from Salta sometime at the end of this week. We will just have to see.

A bit of humor:
Because my parents worry about me traveling alone, I like to send them update emails because they ask me. The last one I sent from Rosario mentioned that we had gone out to Madame, which I mentioned as "the biggest boliche (club) in all of Argentina" (boy was Sumi happy). My dad's response e-mail was as follows:

"What is a boliche? Your Loving father-Russ"

hmmm... maybe I shouldn't explain all the Spanish I sprinkle in my posts ;)

check in later. besos.

Rosario

I am currently in Rosario, first stop on the exciting "Shiney in South America" road trip. We, Brent, Sumanya, and I, left Buenos Aires yesterday in the morning. It was rainy and cold. We arrived in Rosario and it's rainy and cold. But I say that with a smile. We are enjoying ourselves. Antonela, Carmen's granddaughter who is our age, meet up with us and showed us around a bit yesterday. We visited the flag monument, which is this hhhuuuuuggggeee monument to the Argentina flag and its flag maker-Manuel Belgrano.

Today we are going to meet up with Antonela and watch her play hockey, then eat at her house. It is still cold, but less windy. There's a fine mist going.

Packing and leaving was fine. I can't believe I fit it all! Naturally I'm beginning to realize what I'm missing right now (like I forgot a mesh laundry bag), but I'm making due. I also bought a sleeping bag that is for -15 degrees Celsius and boy am I glad I did that! The hostel may have been a little cold, but I was nice and toasty last night. It's bright orange and small (making shifting in my sleep a little difficult), but it compacts easily and is well worth the money I paid for it (less than a hundred US dollars!). The hostel has really hot showers, which I am super thankful for becase I don't know how much longer I'll be getting hot showers.

Well, the day has started, and I must go! I'll write as I can.

me falta un poco..

So I haven't blogged in a while for good reason--- Natalie came to visit me!!! We had so much fun. We went to two soccer matches, one for Boca and one for River Plate. They were a lot of fun and I have come out a River fan-I even bought a jersey to prove it!

Having Natalie around helped me finish up on the last little bits of touristy things that needed to be done. I also had to finish finals though... eeepppss!! I've done pretty well so far, seeing as today I'm sacar-ing my grades. Natalie was very chill about me having to go to school and her amusing herself. I really really appreciated it (thank you again Natalie!!). We even got a little bit outside of the city--we made it up to Tigre. The tour was a little bit of a bust, but I would say that we enjoyed ourselves.

And now I'm starting to make plans to travel for a month. As it would happen I'll be traveling alone, but I should be meeting up with people on the way. Starting Friday I will be heading toward Cuzco, Peru to see Manchu Picchu. Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to fit everything into my hiking backpack!

More details to come on everything... :)