Ingrid and the Andes

Ingrid is a science teacher in the UK. She had a week-long vacation, and she shared it with me! We studied yoga together in India, then went camping and road-tripping in the UK, and then...

She left a teacher’s meeting on Friday at 3 (UK time) and arrived in Resistencia on Sunday morning around 8 (Argentina Time). We went to the farmer’s market to get the makings for dinner, and then shared the whole day with Lorena and Yamil.

We checked out the plaza, various sculptures (Resistencia is the sculpture capital of Argentina, (¿viste?), and then we checked out Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, an awesome movie from 1988. Ingrid brought it for me to give to Lorena and Yamil, along with Something Under the Bed is Drooling, a Calvin and Hobbes book. We dined with Susana and her daughter Luz, and they shared photos and helped us plan our trip to the Andes.

Ingrid spoke in her English accent for students at my college, San Fernando Rey, and also my high school, Escuela Normal Sarmiento, then before we left on Tuesday night, Lorena, Yamil, Ingrid and I headed to the flooded Rio Paraná.

In my querido high school, Ingrid and I traded words like, "computer," "letter," and "tomato," so the students could hear our different accents.

Ingrid and mine's trip to the Andes began that night when we headed to the terminal and missed our bus. ha!

It may seem strange that a person would spend just a week touring another country, but when the power of the pound (nearly 7 Argentine pesos to 1 English pound) is combined with the rarity and value of a good travel partner (not every friend is necessarily a good travel partner), it all adds up. So we happily boarded the next bus to Salta, the capital city that shares the name with its province.

Once in Salta, twelve hours later, we lunched with my friend and fellow-Fulbrighter Paige from Tacoma, Washington, and headed to our hostel…

On Thursday we scooted off in a rented Chevy to Jujuy, a jewel-studded province if ever there were. WooO! Millennia in the making, exposed strata’s colors shift with the sunlight. It’s holy ground like every place but it does look different! In parts its hills are like black rock crumbs under black cacti dangerously sharp and with good posture like a SWAT team, in parts it's like red clay, in parts it's seven colors, and in parts, well, it's hard to explain.

Dinner included a sincere and talented musical performance, as well as a big, fuzzy black dog that casually pranced into the restaurant. We stayed in Pumamarca (that’s where la tierra de siete colores is, the hill of seven colors), and then rolled south early on Friday for more rock admiring. We arrived at a natural amphitheater, and I sang and met a few of the musicians and artists, one of whom invited us over. I had originally asked if the nearby river was swimmable, and he said not only was it swimable, but he would take us there, and to his house. His name was Adán, or Adam.

We talked about life styles, and he mentioned auto-marginalización, or self-marginalization, and also he imparted the idea of carrying, being near, or otherwise treating like amulets metals and liquids in the forms of cell phones and televisions. As you can imagine, we had a good connection.

He’s built several structures next to the river for prayers, music, and shelter from the rain. He lives without such apparent necessities as email, cell phones, electricity, and running water.

And if you know me you know swimming holes are important, and if you think I took a dip into that river, you’d be right. It was 37 degrees Celsius, or over 98 degrees, and it felt great.

Before we knew it we were back in Salta on Friday night at the hostel, and Ingrid said that there was a party that lasted loud through 3am, but I was out like a light at 11:30.

Saturday, after hanging out with Paige and one of her students who’s bound for Florida, I headed to the bus station and right now I’m 30 kilometers from home. Lorena and Yamil and I are going to hang out today, and possibly two German travelers that I met here on the bus last night.

Here are some pictures from the journey. It was a pretty one.

Chabela just happened to be teaching on UK culture
as Ingrid was passing through town.

Before our journey began, Ingrid got to meet my high school class.

Ingrid snapped this pic just as we were packing up
to leave for the bus station.

We stopped for this photo op on the way to Humahuaca. The next few
pictures are from about 4000+ meters high, several kilometers outside
Humahuaca.

This is outside Pumamarca, beneath the hill of seven colors.

A couple of hundred kilometers south of the previous
picture, and maybe 50 kilometers north of Cafayate,
this is where the natural amphitheater is.

Can you spot me? I sang along to some local music, and
then sang an acapella "Come By Here."

On the left is Nahuel, a musician, and on the right, Adán,
the artist who invited us over to his place on the river.

We shared about important things: non-participation,
exclusion, "self-marginalization," and other such topics.
My most urgent point was to share that we have to enjoy
creating a world of social justice and peace, partly
because honey attracts more bees than vinegar.

Things outside his primary structure.

Trading contact info. His address has his name and the zip code,
no más.

Ingrid, one of Adán's places, and the river and land.

Adán is pictured here next to one of his
houses of worship.

Here we are on the way back to the car continuing the visit
after the swim.

Thank you for following the blog. I head home in just 21 days. It’s really unbelievable: 8 months. It’ll be hard to leave Seba, Lorena, Yamil, the high school, the college, the Saturday music workshop.

The urgency of a practical realization of our common humanness, or how quickly we became friends, exposes our common humanness, millenniums in the making, and verifies that regardless of imaginary national boundaries we are one people, one family with different colors, different languages, different religions, and other subtle, potentially uniting differences. Yeah, I’ll see you in three weeks, Arkansas! We can practice yoga together, and I'll cook us brown rice and vegetable burritos! Then I'll study for the LSAT. ha!