Going Home

My taxi will be here in 15 minutes. Its a crazy thought to be going home already. I've had a wonderful semester abroad, and I've really learned so much. As I've said before, I'm ready to go back - see family and friends, have a bit more privacy, and go back to Penn. On the other hand, I'm not sure if I'm ready to leave - the city, the friends, the relationships. I'm going to go say goodbye to Bocha. See many of you very soon.

Mis queridos amigos argentinos - realmente fue un placer conocerlos. Tengo tanto suerte. Cuando vengas a los Estados Unidos por favor mandame un mail!

Rebecca

The end of BA

Glacial fields

Me at the 7 colored mountains

The salt flats


I'm back in BA after a wonderful few weeks of traveling. First, I was lucky enough to have my Mom and grandparents come down to visit. After a fun time in Buenos Aires (and a lot of studying on my part), I took my LAST final exam and immediately got onto a plane. We went to Iguazu falls in the north, and to El Calafate in the south, home to beautiful glaciers. We had a great time and saw some truly beautiful sights. As Papa said, it is important to see the glaciers now, so that I can some day tell my grandchildren all about them because they are rapidly receding from global warming.

After they left, I spent a few days traveling in Northern Argentina in the provinces of Salta and Jujuy with my friend from COPA Laura. The north is different than any other part of the country - it has retained its roots much more than anything else I have seen. For the first time since arriving I truly felt like I was in Latin America - people wearing old fashioned clothes, lots of horses, and gorgeous scenery. The mountains up there aren't like anything I've seen before - due to the minerals, they are all different colors. In the north, we visited small Qechua (modern-day Inca) villages and saw gorgeous scenery. At one point we did the Paseo de 7 Colores (Walk of 7 Colors) - but, only found 5 colors!

Our real story was the Quebrada de Humahuaca (Humahuaca Gorge). The travel books talk about how gorgeous it is, but don't really get into what it is. But, one book mentioned that the best place to view it was from the village of Humahuaca. One day, we got up very early and caught a bus to go to Humahuaca. My friend immediately fell asleep, and I dozed in or out, enjoying the beautiful scenery when I was awake. Once there, we went to the tourism office to talk about seeing the Quebrada... It turns out that Quebrada de Humahuaca is the name of the region, not an actual "thing" and that the best way to see it is the busride up... which we had slept through! After that revelation, we were very careful to find out what things were before we did them!

Another incredible sight were the salinas grandes, the salt flats. Geologists believe that millions of years ago the whole region was a sea. Today, what remains are giant stretches of land covered in a layer of salt. It was very cool to see - it basically looked like everything was covered in snow, but it was 90 degrees out.

Besides seeing the gorgeous scenery, we also spent time in these small villages. I really can't imagine living there personally - they really are pueblitos (little, little towns). However, they were so interesting to see. The pace of life was so much slower, everybody knew everybody else (that part was familiar!), and people looked "Latino." A quick digression - Argentina is a country of immigrants, much like the US. In Buenos Aires, most people are white, and don't look much different than they do in the US. In fact, many of the people who look ethnically Latino are immigrants from neighboring countries. In Jujuy, Laura and I had the experience of being the only white people on a few occasions - it was a strange feeling.

Now I'm wrapping things up in Buenos Aires, seeing friends and visiting the places I still haven't been, along with packing. I can't wait to see everybody when I 'm back in the US soon!