Purmamarca

Well in turns out that we didn’t follow the travel plan that I wrote in my last entry. From Tafí del Valle we headed straight to Cafayate. We were in Cafayate for four days. It’s a beautiful little town surrounded by dessert and bright red and orange mountains. The town in known for its wine vineyards and so we tasted some good wine and ate good cheese. We took a day trip through the Quebrada de Cafayate (which marie and I both have posted pictures of). The scenery reminded me of the desert scenes from our spring break trip to the border region. We then headed north to Salta where we stayed with a friend of Marie’s who plays the violin in the Salta Orchestra. Salta is a nice city, but is a city and so it definitely was a different feel than Cafayate. But after three days in Salta we were ready to leave the city and headed to Jujuy where we transferred buses to Purmamarca, which is where I’m writing to you from right now. The town is completely surrounded by colorful mountains - mountains with red, orange, yellow, green, purple, and so many other variations of colorful earth. I can’t even describe to you how beautiful the scenery is (I forgot my cord to download pictures, so the pictures will be in the next entry). The scenery is breath-taking. The other big difference is the temperature. It is SO cold! Marie talked about the cold, but I just couldn’t imagine it. And the biggest different is that there is no heat inside of places, so you’re cold outside and inside, you can’t escape it. I am sitting in this internet café wearing a tank-top, t-shirt, long-sleeve shirt, two sweaters, a wind breaker, long underwear, pants, two pairs of socks, a scarf, and a wool hat. And we have good sleeping bags and so we can sleep comfortably at night. And I’ve been told that it will get colder as we get closer and into Bolivia, so we’ll see how I do.
On a different note, being surrounded by such natural beauty really makes me believe in a higher being that must have created such spectacular vistas. Yet, among this natural beauty there is also intense poverty and suffering. And so I am presented with the constant conflict within my own faith of witnessing such suffering and asking why this higher being that created such amazing sceneries would allow for there to be such poverty and hunger. And this is not the first time that I am confronted with this question - from my time in El Salvador and my travels throughout Central America to the streets of Chicago I constantly ask myself this WHY? And yet, as I process my past and present experiences, it is among these people where you will find the strongest faith and hope. I will constantly be confronted with this question and so at this point the best way to deal with it is to decide what I can do with the power and privileged position that I was born into. And this will be a life-long struggle. And as I slow down my pace in life during this trip I have plenty of time to process and analyze myself, my relationships, the world, and anything that pops into my head.
Another major issue that I have had to deal with is my attachment to material possessions. No matter how hard my parents tried to instill in me the importance of detaching myself from material things, it’s hard after living in such a consumerist society for so long. And so in Salta, Marie and I emptied out backpacks and sent a box of things to Buenos Aires and then left another bag of things that we gave away to Marie’s friend Gala. And even after
Literature update: I finished Cortázar´s book and have moved onto another Argentine author Manuel Puig “El beso de la mujer anaña.” The book is about the relationship between a political activist and a queer person who are prisoners together during the Argentine dictatorship of the 70s. It’s a powerful read and is definitely interesting to read while I’m in Argentina giving me a historical perspective on the land that I’m traveling through. (Thanks to those of you who sent book recommendations, I don’t know if I will be able to find them, but ill keep my eyes open).
And so the plan from here is to leave tomorrow morning to Humahuaca (1.5 hours north of here) and then to Yavi (a town right near the Bolivian border) and then cross into Bolivia via the town of La Quiaca. But as you know this is just the idea and the plans are sure to change, we’ll see where the wind blows us…
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Y a mis amigos que hablan español, les pido mil disculpas, que no me quedo tiempo para escribirlo en español. Pero pueden mirar las fotos que agregue en “My Photos” y “More Fotos” de mi tiempo en Tafí del Valle y Cafayate. Los quiero mucho y hasta la próxima.