Journal Entry #19

Well, let me try this again. I accidentally did not save the page I had already written so I have to start from scratch. I guess that is the worst thing that can happen to a writer.

So I have had several adventures lately. I decided to make the best of my last free week in Argentina, and went out solo to explore the northern part of the country. I started out by taking the midnight bus from Córdoba to Tucumàn, a province in the northern part of Argentina. Traveling is great here, you can take a bus overnight, save on hotel fare, and have a nice comfortable chair that reclines very far, almost like a bed.

I arrived at my destination at around 8 in the morning, and walked around until I found a hotel. I stayed at the hotel Petite, which was kind of a dive, but for 22 pesos what can you expect! Well, the point of exploring a new city is not to stay in the crummy little hotel, so I spent as little time as possible in it and walked around all day. I went to the Museo del Folklore, Casa de Obispo Colombes, was given a free tour of the Plaza Independencia, and saw some live folklore music while eating lunch.

Later that night, I went out with some people I met in my hotel. Billy from Chicago, and Luke and Maggie from Whales. We saw the Espectaculo de Luz y Sonido, which explained the history of Argentina’s independence. Tucuman is actually the city where the declaration was signed, so it is very interesting historically speaking. The show was amazing (not really) as lights would flash from one side to the other, while an all audio play sounded from a loudspeaker from where the lights were flashing. Afterwards, things livened up a little bit and we hung out on the plaza, where a live band was playing and everyone was dancing. Then we went to eat, and saw some more live music and dancing. We could definitely feel the love in this great little city.

The next day, Billy decided to accompany me to Tafí del Valle, where we hung out in our 15 peso a night hostel, relaxing by the fire. We met some cool people from all over Argentina, and went out that night with a couple of Porteñas, who were very nice and pretty!!! Of course the main event there was also folklore music and dancing. We saw an even better show than the night before, as all of the gauchos came out in their traditional clothing and danced the night away. There were even a little boy and girl all dressed up that came out and were the stars for a couple of songs. The night ended with a kind of freestyle tap-dancing/break-dancing competition which was very awesome to see.

The next day I went on a pretty bodacious hike up to a waterfall. Scaling about 3000 feet in a single mile, we found a beautiful waterfall that was completely frozen over. The water flowing underneath sounded very cool, as it had great acoustic sound effects. My faithful guide, Matias, also explained about the history of Tafí along with the nature. Very interesting.

Yesterday I started to make my way back to Cordoba, but this was a challenge. From Tafí there are no direct buses, so I went to Tucuman to connect. However everything was all sold out, as vacations were ending. So I went to the next closest town in hopes of finding a ticket from there. When I arrived in Santiago del Estero, there was nothing from there either. Everything was all sold out through Tuesday, presenting me with a large problem, as today I had orientation. I was just about to start hitchhiking when someone from one of the bus companies informed me that someone had cancelled, so I lucked out and got the fare. Even when I was standing there, someone came to the counter to ask for a ticket to Córdoba, and they were told it was all sold out.

I had to kill sometime before the bus left, so I went down to Plaza Libertad. Santiago, Argentina’s oldest city, just so happened to be celebrating its 452nd birthday, which occurs every 25th of July. There was live music and even fireworks, and the place was packed.
I finally got on my bus and arrived this morning at 7. Took a much needed nap and had orientation today. Met the other students, and went out for a bit tonight. It is going to be a fun semester, and I will leave it at that. Hasta Luego!