lluvia in la ciudad y mas fotos

Today it rained all day, and the city was completely transformed. Everyone was rushing around trying to get inside as quickly as possible, the plazas were practically deserted, and the only vendors were hawking umbrellas. I had a great time walking around sort of pretending I was in Seattle and rocking my raincoat (yes! using things I packed makes me so happy!!). I was literally the only person in the entire city wearing a raincoat, it was weird.. everyone had umbrellas or nothing, except for the guys on bikes/motorcycles, who had some nice ponchos. No work--for some reason the rain cancelled the Fundacion's activities at the hospital--so I did the rainy day museum thing and checked out the Casa Historica de Independencia and Museo de Arto Sacro. I'd say they were both worth the 2 pesos I paid, semi-interesting but not enough to hold my attention for long.

Back to los fotos..

I love this kind of thing.. Iglesia La Merced reflected in the Honda window (everyone rides motorcycles here, pretty muich all the traffic is either taxis or bikes)


Entrance to the big city park, Parque 9 de Julio


I walked around the park Sunday evening and it was a completely different scene from when I explored in the morning last week. Tons of people hanging out, flying kites, playing futbol.. all kinds of food and toys for sale, people fishing and swimming in the lake (ignoring all the trash washed up on the banks)
Lake in the park. Here's the lake, and some kids fishing:



The Casa de Gobierno, fountain in the Plaza, and Iglesia Catedral at night:




Monday was a holiday, Dia de la Raza (Colombus Day), so I had the day off and decided to venture out of the city. I set out for San Javier, a big park on the Sierra close to the city about an hour collectivo ride away, at noon. It was a little rainy and really cloudy, so the ride up a really windy road in the mist was pretty exciting. Unfortunately when we got to the top of the hill I couldn't really see anything, so I wasn't sure where to get off.. I caught a sign for la cascada just in time. There was a nice little trail down to the Rio Negro, through a forest that actually felt kind of like the Pacific Northwest rainforest. Maybe cause it was raining.. but anyways, the river valley was gorgeous, and I had a nice serene nature moment eating my sandwhich by the waterfall.
Mid-sandwhich, a whole huge group of kids (and then some teenagers and their parents) showed up and started throwing rocks in the water, running around, generally having fun. Didn't take long for them to notice me, and as soon as I introduced myself to a couple kids I found myself surrounded, explaining my life story/trip to an incredulous audience (estats sola? tienes diez y ocho años???)
But it was a nice interrogation, and one of the adults explained that they were from el campo (the countryside, basically) and I think they were on their way to have? give? all the kids communion.. or something, in Tucuman anyways. We took some photos, it started raining, and all of a sudden I was invited along with them and ended up on their private collectivo, eating sandwhiches with my new 10 year old novio and watching the dance party in the aisles.
Fotos! Nature, me (being crushed) and kids, more kids





On the way to Tucuman we stopped at a dam/lake and played lots of games that I couldn't understand despite everyone's best efforts to explain the rules to me.
Below, the lake w/dam and the ten year old who adopted me with people fishing in the background:




Back at Parque 9 de Julio in Tucuman, I exchanged phone numbers with one of the older girls (chaperones, I think) and possibly was invited to visit their pueblo/go out dancing with her this weekend. Definitely not how I thought the day would go.. but what a cool turn of events.

I'll finish up with some pictures of the hospital form this morning: