Salta La Linda

(This is me trying coca leaves)

I just got back from my beautiful trip to the northwest of Argentina! We went to a place called Salta and also Juyuy. They were very beautiful places and I have never seen mountains so big! We didn't quite make it to the Andes, but the Oriental range instead, which are a few hundreds of years older than the Andes.

I started out my trip alone. I was a little nervous but didn't want to tell my mother for fear that she would worry. :-) But luckily I managed just fine to get on the bus and travel the 20 hours to my destination alone. I arrived at our cute little hostel, called "nuestro sueno" (our dream), pleasantly surprised by its cozyness. The woman at the desk was also very nice and helpful, telling me how to get to the center of the city to explore. I went out and walked along a long street that had different artesans selling some cool stuff. However, because I was alone, I appeared to be a great target for a few guys selling jewelry. I stopped to look at one guy's stuff and he quickly asked me if I would go back to his room with him! Wow, talk about moving quickly. I got out of there and continued on. On my way back another guy stopped me and tied a string bracelet to my wrist and also asked me if I would go out with him later. Flattering, but not exactly enticing. I do still have the bracelet though, and it's cute! haha.

The next morning my day got all messed up, but I will make a different post about that later. I ended up meeting Abby and Katie when they arrived in the late afternoon and we also went out and explored the city for a little while. We found a restaraunt to eat at and enjoyed the service of our friendly waiter, Max. The next day we began our adventures into the mountains. We were accompanied by our lovely guide, Viviana, and another traveler from Germany, Martina. They were both very nice and we had a great time together! I can't even go through all of the small places we stopped because I will never remember them! But some did include the salt flats, a few small towns, arquelogical cites, and the jungle! The salt flats were sweet because it is just white for miles. We stopped for the night at Puramamarca, a small town nestled in between the mountains. Katie and I got up early the next morning to take a trail around the mountains and apparently see a cool view of the mountains. Well, on our way to the trail a random dog suddenly jumped out of nowhere and attacked me! Not anything horrible, but he was jumping on me and trying to bite my ankles! We eventually got him under control and he followed us the entire way around the trail. We even eventually affectionately named him "psycho dog." It was quite interesting.

The salt flats!

The last day we were back in the city of Salta and had a city tour that we thought was private, with just us three. Well, little did we know, we were to be joined by about 15 others who only spoke Spanish. Good practice, but not quite what we were expecting! I had to go around noon to get back in time the next day for my class. But I did manage to snap a few good pictures!

Overall it was a great trip!