El Norte

This is going to be difficult because from Thursday to right now, SO MUCH has happened. This will also be unapologetically lengthy. 

Two weekends ago, the three of us (usual crew) decided to plan a weekend trip to Salta & Tilcara, aka El Norte. This is the Tierra del Sol, the always (almost always) sunny, warm and absolutely breathtaking mountain range in the north of Argentina, very close to Bolivia, Chile and Brazil.

 For transportation, we booked an overnight bus for Thursday evening (bravely) and a return flight on Monday. Right after our Thursday classes ended, we hopped on the bus and were on our merry way. Now, this bus is nothing like the iguazu bus experience. Oh no no. This wasn't some janky-ass semicama, this was a cama servicio ejecutivo. Oh baby. So much room for activities!!! Our seats did indeed double as beds, as they reclined almost all the way back. Shoutout to the poor lad sitting behind me as I was horizontal as soon as we boarded... Gracias dude. 

As you should know by now, we gals love to eat. Understatement. That's why we came super prepared with our favorite salads from Baking BA, a healthy to-go place dangerously close to our Wednesday classes. Little did we know that it just wasn't necessary: exhibit A, our first course... As seen on Instagram :O

Yes, it is as sketchy as it looks. On the bottoms left we have an authentic roll up made with yellow cake, ham, cheese & mayonnaise. SOS. We were then served chicken milanesa, which is just like a big flat chicken nugget. Our little "ejecutivo" server came to us frequently with refills on agua and continued to offer us more food. With a movie playing in front of me, Jordan sleeping to my right, a big, beautiful night sky view to my left, and some good country music in my ears, I was quite pleased. In fact, 21 hours felt like nothing but a short commute. I woke up rested and ready for the next move. 

We arrived in Salta, Argentina the following morning, with confident hopes to be able to find and rent an automatic car for our travels. 3 cab rides - bus station, airport, town square - nothin' nada zip. At first, it was incredibly disappointing, since I had relished the idea of finally getting back behind the wheel after 10 weeks. Oh, forgot to mention, I am officially at the halfway point of my life as an Argentine! Time, stahhhp it. So after we spent about three hours car hunting, we bought a bus ticket to take us to Tilcara. Tilcara is where you'll find all the neature. Pretty neat. We had a few hours to kill before the 10PM bus, so instead of sulking, we turned water into wine. Literally. After checking our bags at the station, we took a gondola ride to see the gorgeous view of the entire city of Salta. Who doesn't love a gondola? 

I hadn't a clue how big Salta actually is. Most people who came before us told us not to waste any time in salta since there's "nothing there," but I think we successfully proved that theory to be falso. After our gondola ride and a fantastic dinner with a ..smidge.. of wine, we bussed it to Tilcara, the star of the show. The main appeal to travel to this area is twofold: the Andes mountains & the Salinas Grandes, aka the world's 3rd largest salt plains. Of course, at 2am, the three of us were the ONLY ones to get dropped off at the little town of Tilcara. The station seemed to be made of Adobe. It was pitch black. There was a dimly lit dirt road ahead of us. "Here we go," I thought. Frantically trying to find our hostel, we were surrounded by little shops and such on both sides of the street. Stray dogs stared us down with hungry eyes. A few groups of men and some women were hanging out on the dark street, said nothing, but obviously stared at the three helpless gringas. With a little help, we found our cute casa and prepared for the morning. When we stepped out the door the next morning, we couldn't help but laugh. This is probably the safest, cutest town in the entire country, UNDOUBTEDLY with the kindest people. Across our I little dirt road was a sweet yellow lab posted up and ready to greet us. Behind him, the mountainous scenery immediately swept us off our feet. At the crack of 9, we set off to find adventure. 

This is when it gets good. 

Retracing our steps from the night before, we found ourselves in the middle of a parade. People from this area are of indigenous descent, so their deep brown skin and long, black, tied-back hair greatly contrast the appearance of the average Porteño we see on a daily basis. These people came from different pueblos of the Jujuy region, all donning their local ponchos of vivid colors. When the sound of drums and those pipe music thingies finally died down, we were able to book our Adventure #1 with a sweet man wearing a Messi jersey and nike shox. He took us right up an uphill road, one that unbeknownst to us would become very familiar. He led us to Tilcara Hostel Mística, another soon to be familiar place. Before we knew it, we were piling into a little grey Fiat, complete with the hostel's owner as our tour guide. Her name is Elba Cristina. I adore her. 

Adventure day 1 seemed almost too good to be true, especially because we had no idea what to expect. Elba drove us to Pumamarca, my Elena's favorite part of the region. This is where Elba let us out to explore for an hour. The mountains are like nothing I have ever seen in my entire life. The "Hill of 7 Colors" is the backdrop of this sweet and quiet little pueblo, mostly made of red dirt adobe homes (but don't worry y'all...many have direct tv) lining cobblestone roads. The 7 colors is not a lie by any means: the mountain looks like God dipped a paintbrush in red, purple, green, gold, grey, blue and pink, and then went to town. Observe:

Our next stop was up, up and away. Elba drove us up the mountains, one dangerously curvy road at a time... Don't look down!! The mountains are nothing like a Tennesseean would imagine. Lush greens and trickling water, you ask? I say nay nay. In fact, It's probably as close to Mars I will ever get. The higher we escalated, the more my head began to pound. Luckily for me, Elba came in the clutch with an ancient remedy: the coca leaf. No, she did not administer drugs, this is the coca plant in its original form. She instructed us to roll up one dried leaf and stick it between our teeth and gums. Strange, but hey, when in Tilcara right? Elba showed us typical music of the region, then switched it over to an Enya CD as we admired the indescribable view out the backseat windows. Elba is quite a woman. She runs her hostile with the help of her son and daughter, both of whom are fully grown, probably in their thirties. Elba claimed to be sixty. Elba herself is a short and stout rubia. Her wavy blonde hair, wrinkled skin and bright brown eyes told me that she had spent her life happily and simply under the argentine sun. She speaks rather good English too, so not only did we never had an issue communicating, but we also taught and learned from each other each I time we exchanged our knowledge. 

At the top of the mountain, we found what we had come for: the salt plains. In the distance it looked like several football fields covered in snow. Up close, it looked like several football fields covered in snow. Elba parked the car and gave us time to wander and take pictures. How weird it was to walk on the rigid plain of super concentrated sodium bicarbonate! I tried to pick up a chunk that was firmly stuck to the ground and yelped in pain as I discovered how sharp salt really is. 

After several photos with the strong, chilly wind blowing our hair all about, we hopped back in the car. Elba took us to a quaint little restaurant overlooking the mountainous hills and the salty plains. We shared fresh veggies (A RARE DELICACY) and tamales as we enjoyed God's untouched creation. Afterwards, we drove all the way back down. Truly a humbling experience seeing such a different backdrop. That night, we had dinner at a peña, a restaurant that doubles as a folklore dance hall, aka dinner and a show!! Super cool to watch, but we were pretty wiped out.

The next morning, we embarked on our mini journey up a mountain, on foot, to see La Garganta del Diablo, aka the devil's throat. 4 km up, 4km down. Once we got up there, this is what we saw. Not half bad, eh?

Once we reached the summit, we paid ten pesos and were granted access to the Garganta. We walked down two sets of stairs cut out from the mountain, all the way to the bottom of the canyon. The terrain was of rocks of every color, along with a stream of cool, clean water. We walked upstream until the path ended. That was when I had to get creative and jump from rock to rock, climb a little, maybe slip and fall once... But eventually, we reached the beautiful Garganta: a giant waterfall that instantly cooled me off. A few couples were seated nearby, sharing a picnic. 

A selfie and a few minutes later, we began our trek back to town. Because we had originally planned on traveling to Cafayate, we only booked two nights at the hostel. Luckily, since we decide to stay in Tilcara, Elba had space for us to stay a night in Hostel Mística. Even before we had made that decision, Elba had invited us for breakfast at her hostel, and before the peña she had us over for mate and homemade biscuits with dulce de cayote, a cactus jam. She refused to let us go hungry, thirsty, or needy in any means. She truly went above and way way wayyyy beyond to make us happy, and I will forever be so grateful to her for showing us that unconditional love. 

Our final night in Tilcara was fantastically argentine. We dined at Tilcara's finest restaurant, where we enjoyed delicacies such as llama carpaccio, tomato tart and llama tenderloin. Llama for days. I swear, if I could pick that restaurant up and put it in Nola without making a single change, their earnings would multiply by twenty, easily. It was an incredibly lovely place, with exposed brick walls and rustic wooden tables, with brilliantly bright, abstract paintings to contrast. The owner was helping his son do his homework when we arrived, which reminded me how compassionate the people are in this country. Later on, when we came back to the hostel, I swung in the pink hammock out on the terrace, admiring the starry sky that I rarely get to see. The other men and women staying in the hostel invited us to drink wine and sing three of them played their guitars. It was a lovely, peaceful way to end the trip.

At the crack of 5, before the first rooster crowed, we woke and loaded up the car. Instead of taking a bus, Elba offered to drive us through the scenic route to Salta, where we had our flight back to BA. Man, it really was gorgeous. Unlike the mars-ish mountains, these were covered in mossy trees. Elba pointed out different animals and flowers, including their bright red national flower. We passed at least 10 cows, too. Finally, we reached our destination and bade our foster mama Elba farewell, promising to keep in touch. What a perfect time to get away from the city for a breath of fresh air! I came home feeling refreshed, energized, and most importantly, ecstatic to see Elena!! Stay tuned for my next excursion with Jordan in Mar del Plata! mooooo