Argentina - Jujuy

Yup, already in Argentina. We´re moving along quite quickly. The trick is to take long overnight bus rides to save on hotel costs and time, though today we spent the morning and noon in the bus and were able to see the spectacular descent from the Andes into the Northern "Pampa" of Argentina, which resembles nothing more than the Sonoran desert! even the cactus look just like saguaros, just a little fuzzier. The climate is the same as when we left home: warm, humid; and the mesquite trees line the hills and willows the arroyos. We´re just here in Jujuy (pronounced "hoo-hooey." Really) for the night then off to Salta tomorrow, where I´ve been trying to make a connection with some of Helen´s family, but their Email address was mistyped so I´m going to have to call.

I´m so glad to be in Argentina, it´s always had a similar mystique as Spain had for me, now I´m here. Bolivia was really nice, but I like the warm places better. We passed by where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid met their ends (all the way into southern Bolivia!) Oh, and I got mugged finally, last night at the Potosi bus station. Really, it was quite an amusing experience. For some reason, all twenty of the buses leaving Potosi leave about the same time every afternoon, making the bus terminal a bit more than chaotic when boarding. Anyway, Scott went to the bathroom, we´d already loaded our packs, all i had was a day pack and my guitar, when a person squirted some caramel shit on my arm. I immediately knew what was going on and backed up quickly and felt someone brush my leg, so I conveniently swung my guitar around, but I couln´t tell who it was since it was so crowded. But my wallet was still there. So I decided to get on the bus and get away from the mess. There was a person charging a typical "tax" of a few cents upon boarding the bus, normal, but as I was digging for my change I felt someone brush my leg again (my left thigh is where I kept this wallet) so I grabbed the hand that led to a middle aged lady who looked at me dumbfounded as I told her "keep your hands away or we´ll be visiting the police." She disappeared, my wallet was still there. So I payed the tax, boarded, stowed my guitar and decided I´d go back out to warn Scott, who was now watching the baggage bin (as one of us usually does before we leave, to make sure no one walks off with our bags). As I was walking down the bus isle, I had to push my way through a group of people who were all upset about something, in the midst of this chaos I, once again, felt my thigh being brushed, but this time the wallet was gone, and there was only one man who it could of been. So I grabbed his jacket and told him "give it back" he played dumb and I started laughing in his face and followed him off and approached him again and told him "a shame you didn´t get anything" (all dialogues in Spanish of course) and he too disappeared. My last statement was almost entirely true, but he did get my wallet that only had some useless calling cards from Costa Rica and Guatemala because it was my dummy wallet that I never use anyway, other than occupying space in my pocket. But the bad part was he used a rapid razor to cleanly cut my poor pocket and swiftly slide out my wanted wallet (say again?), so I was lucky he didn´t try and use it again; and I had this caramel shit on my shirt which cleaned off nicely as EX-OFFICIO brand shirts claim to resist stains. I was lucky, about the stain, and the wallet I guess. It made the next eleven hours in bus a bit tense though because I suspected everyone of trying to rob me. Now I´m over that and looking for a new wallet and a tailor to fix my pocket.

So that´s the latest of adventures. To answer your question about where we stay, we stay in budget Hostels averaging two dollars a night, hot water in Peru and Bolivia was a priority and private bathrooms are optional. We lucked out today, because we have both for a mere three dollars. Argentina´s economic crisis is much to our benefit (beef here costs 13 pesos for 3 kilograms, roughly four dollars for seven pounds!) the exchange is 3.2 Argentinian pesos to a dollar, where just a year ago the peso was fixed with the dollar. The people were hit hard.

So yeah, back in warm weather, reasonable altitudes (1200 meters, 4000 feet) and the ladies are looking better and better. (I could hear the "uh-oh" from here. fret not, everything's under control, for the moment).

I´ll be in touch from Salta, hopefully I´ll be able to get a hold of Helen´s family, though I have been in contact with some others in Asuncion, Paraguay. What luck!