busy busy bees..... sorry its been a while

hola todos!! so this is a little late but i thought i´d put up our schedule for the trp to the northwest so you can see what all we did. it was amazing and beautiful and we had so much fun. the mountains were absolutely stunning and we had a lot of fun going out in salta. when we were in salta, we saw a dinner show by the winner of Argentina´s equivalent to American Idol. Lexie bought her very own llama sweater (pronounced szhama.. that´s the best way i can describe it) and i bought an official cowgirl hat for work when i get home. the bus we took to drive the 15 hours back to cordoba was a double-decker bus with full-reclining seats! soo comfortable! hope everything is well in the states. miss you all terribly!


¡besos!

VIAJE AL NOROESTE:

• Recomendaciones Importantes

Wednesday, June 3: Meet at bus at 2300hs (11pm) at the entrance of Universidad Blas Pascal. Please don’t be late. It is very important that we leave at the scheduled time.

Ropa: Deben traer ropa cómoda y zapatos cómodos. Hace frío por la mañana y por la noche así que trae varias capas (camisas de mangas largas, suéteres y chaquetas). Por favor, no traen más de una mochila pequeña y/o un duffel pequeño. No traigan maletas grandes.

Comida: Meriendas (snacks) para el autobús. Vamos a tener chocolate caliente, alfajores, jugos pero debes traer otras cosas si quieres (agua en botella, meriendas).

***Repelente de mosquitos y crema: En las partes en que vamos a estar hay mucho más peligro de fiebre de dengue (dengue fever). Es MUY IMPORTANTE que traigan repelente de mosquitos con DEET y que lo utilicen cada vez que estamos afuera. También recomiendo que traigan crema protectora (sunscreen) porque en algunas partes habrá mucho sol.

IPODS, libros, etc.: Este viaje es bastante largo (creo que al regresar dura 20 horas). Así que preparan estar en el autobús por muchas horas y traigan sus Ipods, libros, tarea, etc. También tendremos películas para pasar el tiempo.

***Está PROHIBIDO traer alcohol (y obviamente drogas) en el autobús. Si encuentro a alguien con algo prohibido, habrá sanciones muy estrictas sin advertencia (warning).

• Calendario de actividades

WED 03 JUNE: Meet at bus at 2300hs (11pm) at door of Universidad Blas Pascal. Drive throughout the night to arrive in Tucumán a las 8 de la mañana. Por favor, lleguen a tiempo! Es muy importante que lleguemos a tiempo porque tenemos un horario específico.

THU 04 JUNE: CORDOBA - TUCUMAN - TAFI DEL VALLE-
Arrival in Tucuman approximately 8 am. Meeting Estancion de Servicio YPF de la Terminal de Buses de Tucuman.

Breakfast. Later drive through the "Quebrada de los Sosa" ravine to Tafi del Valle. A wonderful winding road in the midst of lush vegetation that will take you to this little village at the foot of the Aconquija Mountain Range. Lunch. Visit of Los Menhires Park and Museum “Casa Duende”. Dinner. Lodging at HOSTERIA LUNAHUANA
Meals: B-L-D

FRI 05 JUNE: TAFI – AMAICHA DEL VALLE – QUILMES/TOLOMBON
Breakfast. In the morning, visit of the church and Jesuit Museum Tafi del Valle.

Drive to Quilmes crossing the Cuesta del Infiernillo, passing by small villages such as Amaicha del Valle where you will stop to visit the unique Cruz Cultural Center. Lunch in Amaicha.

You will visit The Quilmes Ruins. In the evening (about 4:30pm) drive to Ampimpa Observatory. There you will enjoy a video “The Origin of the Universe”, lecture under the open sky, and observe the stars with the main telescope. Dinner in Ampimpa. Lodging at HOTEL ALTALALUNA in Tolombon
Meals: B-L-D

SAT 06 JUNE: QUILMES – CAFAYATE- SALTA
After breakfast, drive to Cafayate, where you will visit a local winery that produces the Torrontes wine (Bodega Etchart).
Lunch. In the afternoon, drive through the colorful "Quebrada de las Conchas" enjoying the view of curious geological formations such as "Garganta del Diablo" and "Anfiteatro". Arrival in Salta. Salta, also known as "La Linda", was Founded in the Lerma Valley in 1582. It still maintains many of its beautiful colonial buildings such as the San Francisco Church.

Visit of the Artisans Market. Dinner at a local Peña. Lodging at HOTEL ALTOS DE BALCARCE. Meals: B-L-D

SUN 07 JUNE: SALTA – PURMAMARCA-TILCARA
You will leave Salta through “Abra de Santa Laura” and drive into the historical and
fantastic Quebrada de Humahuaca (Humahuaca canyon) until arriving in Purmamarca. Visit of this picturesque village at the foot of “Cerro de los Siete Colores”. Then, you will continue up the Quebrada to Tilcara. You will visit the famous Fort "Pucara" (a stone fortification on a mountaintop), and the anthropological museum. Picnic Lunch during the excursion. Dinner in Tilcara. Overnight at HOTEL VIENTO NORTE. Meals: B-L-D

MON 08 JUNE: TILCARA – HUMAHUACA – TILCARA
Leave Tilcara in the morning and drive to Abra Pampa (visiting the “cooperativa de tejedores de Abra Pampa”). Snack. Later return along Quebrada de Humahuaca until arriving to the town of Humahuaca. Visit of the Museum of Sixto Vazquez Zuleta, an introduction to the Coyas culture. Lunch. Afternoon drive back to Tilcara. Dinner in Tilcara. Overnight at HOTEL VIENTO NORTE. Meals: B-L-D

TUE 09 JUNE: TILCARA - CORDOBA.
Transfer to bus station (meeting point) Early departure by chartered bus back to Córdoba. We will arrive in Cordoba at midnight (approximately) and remises will be waiting to take you to your houses-please plan to have change to pay for your remis. Meals: B

¡Hola from Taffi del valle!

Hola todos!
Last night at 11 we left Cordoba for our viaje al noroeste (trip to the north west). For the trip, they got us a double decker bus with seats that recline all the way and a foot rest for each person.... AMAZING! It was more comfortable than the beds we´ve been sleeping on in La Casa de Lacoste! We arrived in Tucuman around 8 this morning and went to a hotel for breakfast where we had eggs for breakfast!! (it´s a pretty big deal around here) We then got another, smaller bus and drove through the beautiful mountains and stopped at a park and a museum of myths and legends where we learned about the symbols of the area and the religion, which was all about the earth and its elements. We are now in Taffi del calle, a very small town with one street. We walked aruond to all the little shops and got some icecream. I´m thinking about taking a siesta before dinner at 8:30 and then a celebration for Julie´s birthday!! (one of the girls from UR on the trip) More to come later. Love and miss you all.

¡besos!

ok so here's some of the old blogs from the first days here. the beginning is in spanish but the rest is all good. hope everyone is doing well. we miss you!

La dia dos

9:00

Despertamos un hora tarde. Nosotros despertamos a las 8:30 perro no levantamos a las 9. 

Comemos con Senora Lacoste. Tuvimos pan tostado y fruta y cafe con leche. 

9:30

Salimos la casa por la escuela. Esperemos mucho por la autobus y lleguemos tarde a la universidad. Nos reunemos con la clase y tomemos un tour de la universidad. 

12:30

Los tutores lleguen. Lexie y yo conocemos Pili y Lau. Son muy simpaticas. Nos sentemos a la mesa y esperemos por almuerzar. La primera comida que nos dieron fue pandaria. Es una comida muy rico con carne entre pan. Comemos MUCHO carne. Mucho tipos diferentes. Son carne muy rico. Tuvimos ensalada tambien.

After we ate, we played games with the tutors. We saw how funny Johnny was and tried to pop balloons on other peoples’ ankles with our feet. We also played musical chairs. After, we watched our tango teacher dance the tango and then Lau took us to Disco (the supermarket). The first one we went to was closed because everything is closed on Sunday. It seems to because everyone here is Catholic or “Catolico.” We bought fruit, yogurt (Lau laughted at us when we tried to say the spanish pronunciation. We couldn’t do it), granola, agua (water), y por su puesto una botella de vino. We thought hard about buying new pillows for our beds back at la casa de Lacotse but decided it would be rude to call her out on her very uncomfortable guest beds. The total bill came to about half of what it would be at home, if that. 

4:30

We came back to el casa de Lacotse and went up to our room. We discovered that our room seemed a lot bigger when you opened the window. Outside the window, there was a flat roof that we could walk on. We took pictures of each other posing in our “ventana” (window) y bebimos una vaso de vino (we had a glass of wine). After we were done with our photo shoot, we decided to try and sleep for a little while, since our tutors had told us that we were going to go out at 1 am later that night. We slept for a little over an hour and then went downstairs to Mama Lacoste who asked if we wanted to go either shopping or on a walk. 

7:45

We chose to go on a walk with her to the nearby park. The park was set up for excercise with a long sidewalk to run and stations to do excercises. We came back to the house and Mama Lacoste asked us if we liked seafood. We both lied and replied enthusiastically, “Me gusta!” (I think partially because we weren’t sure what the question was). As a result, we both suffered through a dinner, picking at our arroz con pescado (rice with fish). We made it productive however, by asking what the words for each utensil at the table were. Mama Lacoste said that we learn “mucho” because we are asking so many questions.

10:30 

We started to get ready for our night with showers and asked Mama Lacoste if we could borrow her hair dryer, which turned out to be a yellowed, very basic version of what we dry our hair with in the United States. While we dried our hair and put our makeup on in the room, we enjoyed a glass of wine and took some more pictures. 

1:15 a.m.

Lau came and picked us up from La Casa de Lacoste. Mama Lacoste and Lau had to tell us what exactly to bring. We could only bring a certain amount of pesos and everything had to be in our front pockets. She gave us a key to the house and with a few kisses on the cheek, we were off. Mama Lacoste said it didn’t matter what time we came back, because her girls had come back at 7 am the morning before. Gracias y Chao, Mama Lacoste! In the car, we started to realize that our American bodies were not made to go out this late but when we got to the bar, Mirando a la Cielo (look at the ceiling), with its disco balls and classic American music, we woke up. The environment was very modern and nos encata (we loved it). We each ordered a cocktail. Brittany had the drink “swing” and Lexie, “sin door.” Both great choices. We talked with Lau and Carla with more ease than we had earlier that day. Our spanish was already improving. We learned phrases unique to Argentina por ejemplo, que honda (what’s up), dame bola (pay attention to me), and our favorite, fondo blanco (chuggg). At one point, the table of guys next to us congragated in our direction. We met a guy from the University of Texas who was pretty cute. We all talked for a little while and Carla pretended to be french while Lau turned into an Italian. Carla was anxious to start dancing so we left Mirando la Cielo and headed out in search of some music. We found a small boliche with boys we learned to describe as “creepy.” When we told them we didn’t understand spanish, they whipped out their translator and shouted words like, “What is your name,” and “I love you.” We remembered some Spanish, enough to tell them, “tengo un novio en los estados unidos.” (I have a boyfriend in America.) They responded with it doesn’t matter, that is far away. After learning the dance to “De reversa mami,” we finally headed out to the car. 

6:00 a.m.

Outside La Casa de Lacoste, we struggle with what turned out to be a falty key. Apparently we struggled loud enough that Mama Lacoste came to our rescue and let us in. We very quietly then went to our oh-so-uncomfortable beds. Brittany asked the question, “Am I speaking out loud now?” a sure sign of the early morning. 

La tercera dia de nuestro viaje

12:00 p.m.

We woke up and felt surprisingly refreshed from our six hours of solid sleep. We were a little nervous that Mama Lacoste would be upset with us since she had to wake up and let us in this morning. When Brittany went to open the door, she pulled the handle right off and then other half went tumbling down the stairs with a loud bang. Our fears quickly vanished when Mama Lacoste came up with a big smile and apologized that the handle had falled off. We apologized for the morning and she said “tranquilo,” don’t worry. We love Mama Lacoste. She asked if we wanted breakfast or if we could just skip to lunch. It sounded like a great idea to us because breakfast solely consists of toast and jelly. Mama Lacoste nos preparo “Locro,” which is the typical dish of the holiday 25 de Mayo. It was delicious, except for the “huesitos” (bones) that she said were from pigs toes. (YUCK). Other than that though, we liked it alot. We grabbed an apple for the road and went to the bus stop. 

1:30

Waiting for the bus, we see Mama Lacoste running through the street towards us to remind us to ask the driver if they are going to Blas Pascal (La universidad). To our surprise, we navigated the system perfectly and arrived at Blas Pascal early. 

2:00

When we arrived, we saw all of the other students gathered in a circle and they were talking about their nights, which we decided that ours definitely beat all their stories (and we stayed out the latest!!)  Johnny had a soccer ball and everyone started to juggle and pass it around in a circle.  Once everyone arrived, we walked to the bus stop where Johnny gave us tokens to use for the bus.  We were headed to el Centro y la Plaza Espana, the center of the town which has a lot of history. There were big stairs, a perfect place for Brittany to fall flat on her face (tropezar!!)  Ella tropece mucho y ella dice que la razon es porque lleva sandales, pero en realidad ella es “clumsy”.  It started to get cold at this point, and we remembered it was really winter in Argentina!  We headed to our next destination, the park! On our walk, we were always accompanied by at least 2 stray dogs.  There were also a ton of dogs lying down, and we wouldn’t be surprised if they were dead...sooo sad!  It seems like there are hundreds of them roaming the streets.  At the park, we sat in a big circle and ate snacks and drank mate.  Mate is a drink typical of Argentina, which is basically very caffinated tea.  Every afternon los argentinos drink mate and pass time with frends.  Another game of futbol began and all of the players took of their shoes and played like real argentinos with barefeet.  While Brittany played futbol, Lexie drank mate and played Spanish games and sang Spanish canciones with some of the other tutors and students. We began to get very tired, as our feet hurt and it was getting colder by the minute.  

6:00 

We then walked for a while to un mercado al aire libre, an outside market.  The vendors were selling cups for mate, painted journals, jewelery, and purses.  It was very cool to see all of the argentinos outside and enjoying eachother’s company while looking at the beautiful items for sale.