Salta & Finca La Huella

Back to having to walk to internet.. probably better for my general travel experience, but now I feel like there's just so much to write about. Probably a good thing that the USB port on this computer doesn't work, cause I don't know if I'd have time for pictures.. but it's beautiful here, so I'll try next week.

After leaving Tucuman, I took a bus for four hours to Salta, the capital city of one of the northern provinces. I just stayed one night in a hostel that weirdly had lots of English around, which, in addition to the fact that I was sleeping in a room with three girls from California, kind of threw me off after two weeks of all Spanish all the time. But it was comfy and there was free dinner and breakfast and internet, so in general a success. The city was a lot more touristy than Tucuman (I got accosted by multiple tour promoters in like 10 minutes walking down the street) but I had fun wandering around checking out the plaza, gorgeous churches, art museum, city market, etc. Tuesday I took the gondola up the big hill on the edge of the city for gorgeous views and a longish hotish walk down, went to the anthropological (is that a word?I kind of forget English a little) museum which had lots of cool pottery, musical instruments, tools, etc. from pre-columbian civilizations, and had lunch in the park; then I took the bus out to the "dique" (dam, but really a lake) that Beatriz said I should go to. It was about an hour and a half from the city on a very hot bus, and from the brochure the tourist office gave me I was expecting a kind of water park mega-tourist area with banana boats, bungee jumping, etc (and I just wanted to check out the scenery and maybe swim).. but when I got there it was basically a deserted picnic area, some abandoned-looking boats, and the big lake surrounded by gorgeous hills. I have no idea where the dam or the tourists were, but I had a nice couple hours walking around the edge of the water trying to see the whole lake and encountering lots of farm animals (I saw a horse climb on top of another horse and I almost got attacked by a turkey).

After I got back to the city I took a collectivo in the other direction, to the pueblo Vaqueros where Aviva had instructed me to go to the pharmacy, find Alice, and ask how to get to the farm. Alice was really nice, as was the 9 year old girl who asked me if I knew Hannah Montana and taught me a couple Spanish words while I waited for Alice to close up shop. She gave me a ride to Finca La Huella, where I walked down a dark road to a dark house and introduced myself to the dark when I heard voices and guitar, hoping that they were indeed expecting "la amiga de Aviva".. luckily it was the right place, Aviva was there with all the other volunteers, and it was dark because the power had gone out.

I love this farm. It's big; I don't know how many acres, but I've wandered around a bit and I don't think I've come close to seeing all the land. Everything seems so green, and they're lots of animals: ponies, goats, chickens, geese, rabbits, cats, dogs, birds.. The family who lives there is really nice, works really hard (they've lived there for 12 years and only left the farm for 10 days), and have lots of good ideas about how to use their land (in addition to growing tons of vegetables and fruits and taking care of their own animals, they also take care of animals for people who live in the city, and host field trips for schools from the city where they teach the kids how to make bread and all about the farm). Olga is from Buenos Aires and Yan is originally from England by way of New Zealand but has lived in Argentina for the past 20 years, and they have three sons: Theo, 4 and adorable; Inti, 14, who promised to take me to his Aikido class (!!!) next week; and another who is studyign in Cordoba who I haven't met yet.

There's a big group of volunteers, with people coming and going pretty frequently. We've been as many as 10, and we're down to 6 at the moment: Antony and Jeremy, two 30-ish guys from France who have been on the farm for 4 months with no money except for when they sell the amazing bracelets that they weave with string and who walked here from Brazil; Nati, also 30 I think, who came from Cordoba to help out her aunt who lives nearby and then found out about the farm, and who is really nice about teaching me Spanish and helping me figure out what's going on when I don't want to bug Aviva; Matilde, from.. Quebec I think, who speaks French as well as Spanish, used to be an acrobat, and cut her long hair shorter than mine; Romita, from Argentina as well,w ho I haven't gotten to know too well b/c she's been gone visiting her boyfriend in the city; Aviva, my friend from Seattle, and me. We pretty much speak Spanish all the time as it's the common/only language, so still immersion for me..

I've done a lot of different work in the last few days, transplanting trees, picking vegetables and helping out in the kitchen, cleaning out the rabbit poop, watering plants, making bread and helping with the school.. the food is delicious, there's fresh bread and goat milk everyday, goat cheese, jam made on the farm, and lots of vegetables. I had a little trouble remembering how to relax and slow my brain down after travelling/living in the city, and I'm trying to stay focused on the present while figuring out what I'm doing in November (it's looking like Bolivia is a go, but there's lots to plan), but in general I'm really happy to be here and excited for the next week (and possibly a few days more). Particularly I'm excited for: learning how to milk goats, and goign to an Argentine Aikido class!

Okay Aviva and Nati have been waiting,t his is way long, and I should go... so until next week!