the new normal

the argentine way of life appears to be a triangle- one point being "working hard," one point being "playing hard" and one point being "sleeping occasionally." one can pick two out of the three, but balancing all three is a tightrope act. as there are only 24 hours in the day, it's fair to say that sleeping takes a backseat in this country. i still haven't quite figured out how people here function in the long-term (siestas definitely play a role, but who has time for those?) so i'm a bit worn out nearly all the time. projects abroad pushes us very, very hard.

this past week, i split my time between working at my main placement with nonviolent offending boys (see earlier post for more details), working at the copa de leche aftercare program in the blas pascal government estate, attending a blas pascal neighbourhood meeting, sitting in on a human-trafficking awareness workshop, and taking spanish lessons. it is admittedly a bit terrifying to take on this many responsibilities. it's been tough to carve out downtime amidst all of the work- time for exercising, reading, sketching, even sightseeing has been hard to come by. it's thrilling to be a part of real fieldwork, though, and i'm absorbing everything possible.

something i've noticed in córdoba has been how much of an interest the general population takes in current affairs, and how politically and socially active people are. as soon as people find out i'm from d.c., everyone wants to know my opinion on syria at length. portraits of che guevara, scrawled messages about the horrors of monsanto, and various exhortations about human rights are graffitied on walls all over the city. and a weekend book fair that marit and i hit up yesterday was full of not only the ubiquitous literature of borges and cortázar, but also of multitudes of nonfiction texts explaining the ideologies of peronismo and antiperonismo. 

tomorrow afternoon, projects abroad is taking all of the human rights volunteers to visit la perla, which was the main centro de clandestino de detención (CCD) of the province during the military dictatorship and is now a museum to the atrocities committed. and later this week, i'm going to get to sit in on a court session where children of the "disappeared" will be testifying against those who were in power in the dictatorship. i'm really looking forward to getting to experience these; both are very special opportunities. 

this weekend was also busy, but in a fun way. it was my first weekend here in córdoba and it was great to hang out with friends, sightsee, and explore different parts of the city. from tango dancing to wandering around and getting lost to meeting new people to exploring the feria artesanal and the ferio del libro, it's been an eventful fin de semana.

x

msb

a weekend in salta

after taking an overnight semicama bus on friday, we arrived in salta at around 10 on saturday morning. we quickly stopped at our hostel to check in before rushing into the car that we had hired to take us around the region for the day. our driver was knowledgeable and interesting, and he took us on a tour of salta and jujuy provinces that spanned from mid-morning until well after sundown. 

it's funny how a new place can compel you to relate it to places you've been before. i don't know what that says about human tendencies to make patterns or connections, but i definitely saw traces of the american southwest- new mexico, southern colorado- here. marit said the terrain and the mountains reminded her of south africa, and some of the more treacherous cliffside sections of the road made me think of the drive between málaga and ronda, spain. the scenery felt both familiar and completely foreign.

we stopped for lunch in a town called san antonio de los cobres, at the base of old copper mining mountains. salta is known for its empanadas, so of course i had to sample one. our friend alice, the only non-vegetarian of the group, decided to be adventurous and ordered a llama milanesa. 

our next stop was the salinas grandes salt flats, which were absolutely phenomenal. they stretch on as far as the eye can see, blindingly white and utterly flat. 

yoga break. 

as we left, we saw some vicuñas! on the right are a mother and child. 

then we wound our way through switchbacks and hills in jujuy province.

we disembarked at the town of purmamarca, known for its view of the hill of seven colours. 

after a bit of souvenir-shopping and picture-taking and wandering around, we got back in the car to head back to the city, getting a beautiful view of the hillside as the sun set. 

the next morning, we rose early and headed to the center of the city to experience salta proper. 

the colonial cathedral, resplendent in pastels and gold, is gorgeous, as is the main square it overlooks, plaza 9 de julio. also nearby was the museo de arquelogía de alta montaña, where we saw the mummified corpse of the famous incan "lightning girl", one of three perfectly-preserved human sacrifices from the incan empire which were unearthed at the summit of llullaillaco, a mountain on the border of argentina and chile. 

afterwards, we took a cable car up to the top of the cerro san bernardo for a panoramic view of the entire city.  

once back down on the ground, we found an adorable empanada place for lunch. the owner liked us because we ordered so many empanadas, and he ended up giving us free humitas and showing us photos of his community service work with rural children! after eating, we hit up the sunday market on la calle balcarce before hitting the road. balcarce is one of the main streets of the city, and it doubles as both the nightlife hub of salta and as the location of the sunday feria, where jewelry, art, and other local crafts are sold. i didn't buy anything, but it was fun to taste fruit-infused honey and peruse necklaces and rings. 

by mid afternoon, it was time to make our way back to the bus station for the 12 hour trip back to córdoba. this week is busy, but i'm looking forward to our first weekend exploring our own city. there's so much i still haven't seen. and of course there will be more weekend excursions to come soon enough. 

xo

m

p.s. a gift from me to you: