This past weekend, I was able to travel to Jujuy and Salta to meet up with Joseph and Victoria and see a very different side of Argentina (thank you, mom and dad for the birthday present...flying time was 4 hours round trip as opposed to 48 hours in buses round trip). These two provinces at the northwestern corner of the country are extremely indigenous in character and have some of the most beautiful scenery in the country.
My trip began in the underwhelming but conveniently located city of San Salvador de Jujuy, the capital of Jujuy province. So as not to confuse you, the city is often referred to only as Jujuy and not San Salvador de Jujuy even though that's also the name of the province. This city is not particularly beautiful, not particularly wealthy, and not particularly interesting (hence the lack of pictures), but it was a central location for us to begin the trip and rent a car, and I barely stayed there for more than 12 hours. When I refer to something beautiful and incredible in this post, I will generally be talking about the province and not the city. We left Jujuy (city) on Friday morning heading north through the Quebrada de Humahuaca (kay-BRAH-duh day hoo-muh-WAH-kuh). According to translate.google.com, the word quebrada translates as ravine, gully, or brook. Basically it's a cross between a valley, a canyon, and a gorge, although Joseph, Victoria, and I had trouble defining the differences between the three, that has some amazing scenery and rock formations and a few small towns. At the center of the quebrada, the low point in this valley, lies a two-lane highway, a set of abandoned railroad tracks, and a currently dry riverbed. There were bridges over the riverbed, so I assume that it fills with water during the 'rainy season' whenever that is.
We were able to hit 'the big 3' towns of Purmamarca, Tilcara, and Humahuaca (in that order...they are three but they are not big....I just made that term up...), which all featured tourist-catered artisan markets, dirt roads, and awesome mountains. We ended up driving back to Tilcara, the town with the most restaurant and nightlife options, and stayed there in the house of a family that we found through the local tourism office after (but not because) I accidentally overtipped them.
Saturday morning, we left Tilcara and headed west over the mountain ridge lining the quebrada towards las salinas grandes, the salt flats. These are basically gigantic open spaces with no vegetation that are completely white. We drove most of the day on a dirt road that when near but not into the salinas (whoops...), but the drive was still beautiful. This road left us at a pretty dismal looking town called San Antonio de los Cobres, which is connected to Salta by the tourist trap that is the Tren a las Nubes (train to the clouds), which costs $120 USD per person. Ridiculous. Part of our plan was to avoid paying for that ticket but still see the scenery by driving on the camino a las nubes (road) in our coche a las nubes (small rental car). We drove about an hour out of the way to see what was supposed to be a very impressive puente a las nubes (bridge...part of the train tracks), but it was underwhelming to say the least.
The drive to Salta was really beautiful and enjoyable, although the sun did end up going down, the paved road ended, and we wound up on some sort of construction detour through the bottom of a canyon/valley/ravine/quebrada on a makeshift road that ran next to and periodically across a stream. We did, however, make it to Salta without incident and spent a great two days exploring the city. As you can see from the pictures below, it was a really amazing trip!
If you don't believe anything I just told you and want a second account, check http://thesmallmarsupial.blogspot.com/ in a week or so when they have had time to update their blog.
Now, as my grandfather would say, I am visiting Buenos Aires before leaving for Mendoza (Andes Mountains + malbec wine/vineyards = good trip). My visit has already been long enough to witness the rebirth of a strike in Universidad de Buenos Aires (this was supposed to have ended for good last week...), a garbage strike which left the streets smelling oh so lovely, a murder resulting from a conflict between two train worker unions, and separate subway and bus strikes at different hours today.
Pictures of the trip are here on my facebook...I took too many and had to split it into two albums:
Album 1
Album 2
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Who are the gente in your barrio/El Teatro Colón
This is also kind of a two-for-one deal post, since I am about a week behind here.
If Saturday Night Live ever decides to do a Mr. Rodgers parody set in Buenos Aires, they can use this post to write the lyrics to Señor Rodgers' new hit song "Who are the gente in your barrio?". In my daily walks through my neighborhood to class, the subte, the bus, or anywhere else I might be headed, I have come across three distinct professions that don't seem to exist in the United States.
1) THE DOG WALKER
To compensate for the amount of time lost in the beaurocratic disorganized mess that is Argentine society, many porteños choose to outsource their dog walking. The legal limit is 8 dogs per person, but this is rarely challenged and seems to be enforced about as strictly as the Sullivan's Island whistling ban (or at least I hope that isn't really enforced). It's very common to see a guy walking down the street with 10-20 dogs at a time and just about as common to see all of those dogs tied to a telephone pole while the walker is picking up/dropping off a customer or taking a cigarette break. Don't believe me? Check this out: http://www.tripfilms.com/Travel_Video-v113-Buenos_Aires-Dog_Walkers-Video.html
2) THE FLYER-ER
This is exactly what it sounds like. A walk down any commercial street here usually means being bombarded with leaflets advertising restaurants, clubs, English classes, legitimate churces, less legitimate looking religious-y things, POLITICAL PROTESTS, and just about everything else you have no desire to be bothered with. These guys (and girls) are everywhere, and they must be able to make some kind of money doing this despite the fact that no one cares about anything they hand out.
3) THE SIDEWALK CLEANER
Okay so I have to admit that this one is kind of made up since it's actually a part of another profession. Despite providing free healthcare and education, the goverment here is not in charge of maintaining the sidewalks. Instead, these generally tiled surfaces seem to be maintained by whatever building they happen to be in front of. On most blocks, the pattern/type of tile is different in front of every building. Just about every building has some type of super/land lord/maintenance person, all of whom stand outside for 23 minutes and 34 seconds hosing of their sidewalk territory beginning at 7:30 in the morning, so the morning commute means dodging hoses and artificial puddles. This way, the sidewalk is free of litter and presents left by those 23 dogs for at least 40 minutes.
The song would probably continue to describe the vegetable lady, the empenada stand guy, the husband-wife bakery team, and at least one person with a pretty bad plastic surgery battle wound. These are the people in my barrio, the people that I encontrar cada día (the song went something like that, no?).
And now on to bigger and better things:
It just so happens that Victoria's brother Gonzalo (that would be my brother's girlfriend's brother) is an incredible/really well known oboist and was recently on tour in South America. I was able to go hear him perform at the Teatro Colón, which is certainly an item on any Buenos Aires to-do list. There's no need for me to write what wikipedia can already say better (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teatro_Col%C3%B3n), but the important part is it's huge, well-known, old, beautiful, and was just restored last year. I do have a few pictures, though--enjoy:
This picture is from the building's incredibly grand lobby. I couldn't do it justice:
The front of the theater from my 5th floor seat:
The end of the concert:
I was able to hang around afterwars and introduce myself to Victoria's brother:
If Saturday Night Live ever decides to do a Mr. Rodgers parody set in Buenos Aires, they can use this post to write the lyrics to Señor Rodgers' new hit song "Who are the gente in your barrio?". In my daily walks through my neighborhood to class, the subte, the bus, or anywhere else I might be headed, I have come across three distinct professions that don't seem to exist in the United States.
1) THE DOG WALKER
To compensate for the amount of time lost in the beaurocratic disorganized mess that is Argentine society, many porteños choose to outsource their dog walking. The legal limit is 8 dogs per person, but this is rarely challenged and seems to be enforced about as strictly as the Sullivan's Island whistling ban (or at least I hope that isn't really enforced). It's very common to see a guy walking down the street with 10-20 dogs at a time and just about as common to see all of those dogs tied to a telephone pole while the walker is picking up/dropping off a customer or taking a cigarette break. Don't believe me? Check this out: http://www.tripfilms.com/Travel_Video-v113-Buenos_Aires-Dog_Walkers-Video.html
2) THE FLYER-ER
This is exactly what it sounds like. A walk down any commercial street here usually means being bombarded with leaflets advertising restaurants, clubs, English classes, legitimate churces, less legitimate looking religious-y things, POLITICAL PROTESTS, and just about everything else you have no desire to be bothered with. These guys (and girls) are everywhere, and they must be able to make some kind of money doing this despite the fact that no one cares about anything they hand out.
3) THE SIDEWALK CLEANER
Okay so I have to admit that this one is kind of made up since it's actually a part of another profession. Despite providing free healthcare and education, the goverment here is not in charge of maintaining the sidewalks. Instead, these generally tiled surfaces seem to be maintained by whatever building they happen to be in front of. On most blocks, the pattern/type of tile is different in front of every building. Just about every building has some type of super/land lord/maintenance person, all of whom stand outside for 23 minutes and 34 seconds hosing of their sidewalk territory beginning at 7:30 in the morning, so the morning commute means dodging hoses and artificial puddles. This way, the sidewalk is free of litter and presents left by those 23 dogs for at least 40 minutes.
The song would probably continue to describe the vegetable lady, the empenada stand guy, the husband-wife bakery team, and at least one person with a pretty bad plastic surgery battle wound. These are the people in my barrio, the people that I encontrar cada día (the song went something like that, no?).
And now on to bigger and better things:
It just so happens that Victoria's brother Gonzalo (that would be my brother's girlfriend's brother) is an incredible/really well known oboist and was recently on tour in South America. I was able to go hear him perform at the Teatro Colón, which is certainly an item on any Buenos Aires to-do list. There's no need for me to write what wikipedia can already say better (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teatro_Col%C3%B3n), but the important part is it's huge, well-known, old, beautiful, and was just restored last year. I do have a few pictures, though--enjoy:
This picture is from the building's incredibly grand lobby. I couldn't do it justice:
The front of the theater from my 5th floor seat:
The end of the concert:
I was able to hang around afterwars and introduce myself to Victoria's brother:
Friday, October 8, 2010
Rosario
So I am a bit behind on my blogging thanks to my midterms and the two-day trip to Rosario right in the middle of them, but I might be able to catch up this week.
The strike in UBA is still going on, and there is a chance that the students there may actually lose a semester. This is extremely rare even for Argentina, and hasn't happened in the past hundred years (we are talking through a military dictatorship here). Even if the semester does finish, it is possible that it might not happen on time, so our study abroad program has put a "plan B" into effect that will allow us to complete our UBA classes in the form of an independent study.
Anyway, on to Rosario...
The trip to Rosario was the first of two trips organized by our study abroad program. Rosario is the second largest city in Argentina (if you ask someone from Rosario, most other people will tell you that Córdoba is actually the second largest). The city is located on the Paraná river, which empties into the Río de la Plata (by Buenos Aires) and developed as a major port city. Goods would arrive by boat in Rosario, would be transferred to trains along the Rosario waterfront, and then be taken to all other parts of Argentina. This system, however, no longer exists. Today, the port areas, which are still active, are located upstream or downstream from the city, and the Rosario waterfront has been converted into public space with restaurants and entertainment facilities in former railroad buildings. It's a pretty cool place!
While Buenos Aires seems to still have the economic crisis of 2001 fresh in its mind, Rosario is growing and not really looking back. There is an incredible amount of new construction, and I have to agree that their slogan ("Rosario: el mejor lugar para vivir"...Rosario: the best place to live) might have some truth to it. The city has parks everywhere, a laid back atmosphere, and less-visible poverty than Buenos Aires. It seems to be a relatively wealthy city, but I couldn't tell how people make money. Virtually all of the buildings here seemed to be residential and not commercial...I guess it's possible that they business district is either nonexistant/very spread out or located away from the waterfront where I spent most of my time.
One of the most impressive/noteworthy things to see in Rosario is the Monumento de la Bandera Nacional (the monument of the national flag), which traces it's origin to Rosario. The monument itself looks like something that belongs in Washington, DC, but perhaps with a bit more "Third Reich" architectural influence. We were able to visit the observation deck, which gave a great view of the city and the riverfront.
I've uploaded my pictures onto facebook--enjoy:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060862&id=1495500074
Jacob
The strike in UBA is still going on, and there is a chance that the students there may actually lose a semester. This is extremely rare even for Argentina, and hasn't happened in the past hundred years (we are talking through a military dictatorship here). Even if the semester does finish, it is possible that it might not happen on time, so our study abroad program has put a "plan B" into effect that will allow us to complete our UBA classes in the form of an independent study.
Anyway, on to Rosario...
The trip to Rosario was the first of two trips organized by our study abroad program. Rosario is the second largest city in Argentina (if you ask someone from Rosario, most other people will tell you that Córdoba is actually the second largest). The city is located on the Paraná river, which empties into the Río de la Plata (by Buenos Aires) and developed as a major port city. Goods would arrive by boat in Rosario, would be transferred to trains along the Rosario waterfront, and then be taken to all other parts of Argentina. This system, however, no longer exists. Today, the port areas, which are still active, are located upstream or downstream from the city, and the Rosario waterfront has been converted into public space with restaurants and entertainment facilities in former railroad buildings. It's a pretty cool place!
While Buenos Aires seems to still have the economic crisis of 2001 fresh in its mind, Rosario is growing and not really looking back. There is an incredible amount of new construction, and I have to agree that their slogan ("Rosario: el mejor lugar para vivir"...Rosario: the best place to live) might have some truth to it. The city has parks everywhere, a laid back atmosphere, and less-visible poverty than Buenos Aires. It seems to be a relatively wealthy city, but I couldn't tell how people make money. Virtually all of the buildings here seemed to be residential and not commercial...I guess it's possible that they business district is either nonexistant/very spread out or located away from the waterfront where I spent most of my time.
One of the most impressive/noteworthy things to see in Rosario is the Monumento de la Bandera Nacional (the monument of the national flag), which traces it's origin to Rosario. The monument itself looks like something that belongs in Washington, DC, but perhaps with a bit more "Third Reich" architectural influence. We were able to visit the observation deck, which gave a great view of the city and the riverfront.
I've uploaded my pictures onto facebook--enjoy:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060862&id=1495500074
Jacob
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