Salta y Jujuy 9/23-28/09

More or less a week-long road trip (gratis, yep) exploring Salta and Jujuy, the northwest provinces of Argentina. As the photos show, much of the landscape is not dissimilar to that found in the US southwest and parts of California. This certainly did nothing to hinder my enjoyment and it seldom occurred to me at the time. Def. no shortage of extra-planetary scenes. Along the way we were stopping off in the local small towns, which were usually beset by wind and dust, for sustenance and sundry activities. Despite a consistent presence of other non-locals at these stops, we were steeped in the authentic, more or less.

This was the first time I had traveled as part of a multi-day ‘tour’, but no doubt the guide’s presence and savvy enhanced the experience. (predictable gripe: the guide’s musical taste/selection while driving, or lack thereof, did leave much to be desired, so i retreated to my headphones/discman/cdr’s for much of the trip, politely removing them during the tour-spiels.) And luckily, my travel companions consisted of a very small group of fairly like-minded individuals, and they provided a good balance and company. A novel and fine time had by all.

During the week I

ate llama twice (excellent), and probably nothing that was less fresh than a day or two, of which I’m convinced makes an essential difference.
was coerced into dancing traditional folklore (in public).
flew across an expansive river valley multiple times on a wire cable, from 50 stories up (it’s called ‘canopy‘.)
breathed it in at pre-Incan ruins.
saw and learned a hell of a lot about the geography and history of Argentina.
by request, elucidated riverside the history and significance of the MC5 to a curious, if unsuspecting, Argentine owner of one of those faux-vintage Levi’s rock shirts.

The photographic evidence of much of this (not the dancing) follows below.

Notes:

My two souvenirs consist of a glossy placard of the ‘military angels’ paintings found here, and a bag of coca leaves with which I home-brewed tea (total cost: 12 pesos.)
The dominant vibe manifested by the landscapes dovetailed beautifully with my recent immersions into Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and the Clint “Man with No Name” Westerns ( i count five of ‘em).
Memorable desert-driving discman spin: Boredoms Vision Creation Newsun