I almost feel as if I have been avoiding this blog post all day because I have so much running through my head from the weekend and know that I can't even begin to share it all in a single blog post. Solution: I think I will give a brief overview of my weekend and then spend a few moments reflecting on the more memorable "characters" of my weekend travels.
First, an overview of why I had a long weekend to do some traveling. Last Wednesday and Thursday were days of memorial commemoration for Argentina's desaparecidos, individuals who were kidnapped by the Argentine dictatorship in the late 70's and early 80's and, more often than not, never seen or heard by their families again. A truly unfortunate, devastating period of the country's history remembered in these two days of pause. Not wanting to waste any potential travel time, Hanna (Fulbright ETA based in Corrientes) and I set off to meet Katie and Max (other ETA's) in Tucuman for a weekend of discoveries:
Wednesday evening, 7 pm: Board bus for Tucuman
Thursday morning, 7:30 am: Arrive in Tucuman to find it drizzling
Thursday: Explore the city of Tucuman including Plaza Independencia, Casa Gobierno (government house where the province's government is now housed and where Argentina's declaration of independence was signed in 1816), several cathedrals, a chic pizzeria for lunch, and parque 9 de julio which is home also to the Museo de la Industria Azucarera (museum of the sugar industry; one of the region's most important crops). Finally, we returned to the hostel where we took a short nap and then enjoyed an excellent, excellent asado (Argentine BBQ). After conversing with a two porteños at the dinner table for a couple hours, we decided to call it a night as the next morning we would start out very early...
Friday: Board the bus for Quilmes at 6:30 am. Promptly fall asleep for most of the ride to these ancient ruins, inhabited originally by the Quilmes community who, unfortunately, were forced out of their homes at the end of the 17th century by Spaniards. Spend approximately 4 hours scaling and enjoying the Quilmes ruins. Hike the 5K back to the highway to catch our bus. Say good-bye to Katie and Max, who stayed on the bus to return to Tucumán, while Hana and I remained for the night in Tafí del Valle. Shop in Tafí and enjoy several dishes native to northern Argentina throughout the day, including: humita (a corn stew with cheese), locro (a meat, corn and other vegetables stew) and probably the best empanadas I have had since arriving here.
Saturday: Take short hike to the top of Cerro de la Cruz (Hill of the cross), enjoy breakfast at the hostel. More window shopping in town, fruit and vegetable market stop, meandering down side streets of Tafí.
Saturday 2 pm: Board bus en route to Tucumán. Arrive in Tucumán, 4 pm. Board bus for Resistencia, 5 pm.
Sunday, 5 am: Arrive home in Resistencia!
As promised, a couple of the most memorable personalities of this trip; many of them interesting from my perspective as they capture new images of individuals from different provinces/regions throughout Argentina:
Gonzalo was one of the guys who also had asado for dinner with us at the hostel on our first night in Tucuman. He is currently studying English in his business program right now with hopes of coming to work, only periodically, in the United States. I found Gonzalo interesting because he stretched the box for me regarding the pesonality type of a porteño (someone from Buenos Aires); the general reputation for porteños is that they are pretentious, over-driven individuals who inherently turn up their nose to Argentines who live in the provinces. Gonzalo seemed like a genuine, genuine individual who was, along with his friend, eager to engage in conversation with us.
Laura (and also her family members, David and Pablo) was an individual that we met while scaling the ruins at Quilmes. She and her accompanying family members were super kind as we sat and conversed about a variety of things, mostly about each of our hometowns (Laura and Pablo being from Salta and David from Buenos Aires) and how the Fulbright exchange works to bring all of those things together. Most importantly, Laura and her family shared their mate (a tea that has huge cultural significance; I´m thinking yerba mate should be my next blog post...) with each of us!
Luciano was a gentleman that we met officially while we were waiting for our bus after visiting Quilmes. We had actually seen him earlier in the day as he chose to walk the 5K to the ruins while we grabbed a ´taxi´ and then as he perched on a boulder at the ruins, calmly tapping on a drum that he must have brought. In talking with him later, we discovered that Luciano is from Brazil and is on a spiritual journey through various parts of South America. While he doesn´t subscribe to any particular religion in regards to this journey, it was clear that he has strong convictions for social justice and his physical role in going to these places where justice is needed most. Included among these places, and coming soon in his travels, is an area just outside my city of Resistencia where there is a significant indigenous population that lives in relative poverty.
Mel was a shop owner in Tafí del Valle who truly touched my heart. After browsing a bit in her store and conversing with her about who we were, where we were from, what we were doing in Argentina, etc., Mel stopped us just before we said 'chau' and departed. She presented to each of us a small, painted ceramic plate as a token of gratitude. As I'm sure we had looks of bewilderment at the gifts, Mel explained to us that she has children and grandchildren who now live in the U.S. While uncertain of what their lives would be like when they immigrated some years ago, she is eternally grateful that her children felt welcomed and, eventually, at home in the U.S. Additionally, she explained to us that a number of years ago, she knew English quite well and was enjoying learning the language but unfortunately had been in a fairly severe auto accident. As a result of the accident, the part of her brain controlling her speech in English had been permanently altered/damaged, and, therefore, she has great trouble communicating beyond a word or two strung together in English. All this to say, she was encouraged and delighted to see that we were there in Argentina participating in such a cultural exchange.
Finally, although I went on this trip with other Fulbright ETAs, Sabine became a very important part of my experiences as we came to Tafí del Valle. We met Sabine in our hostel in Tafí and spent practically all of our time there with her. Sabine is 18 years old, from Salzburg, Austria, and traveling independently for 8 months throughout South America. It was pretty amazing to hear her story and soak up the details of the many other places she has already traversed in South America. Talk about a young woman with a voyaging spirit and truly international dreams!
I suppose that's all for now. More details might come on these travels in posts to come or maybe more exciting daily life adventures will fill my posts. Time will tell but you can check out my pictures from these adventures on facebook too! My love to you all near and far!
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