Sunday, June 16, 2013

Salta and a very interesting side trip

It was nice to get in to Salta and have a cold beer. We splurged on a lavanderia to wash all of our dirty clothes we had accumulated. For about $6 a very nice man washed, dried and folded all of our clothes while we toured some of the interesting sites of Salta. For dinner we went to a vegetarian restaurant recommended by our former yoga instructor Kat who used to live and work there. They remembered her and insisted on providing us a free dinner. A very nice evening indeed. The previous clothes washing was done in our hotel room and it was in the high 50’s in the room that night and the clothes didn’t get very dry. Nothing quite like the feeling of wet, cold bike shorts in a cold room to start the day! From Salta it was time for our first bus (but not the last) bus trip of the journey. We needed to get to Embarcacion by 12:30 to meet our friends Agustina and Beatriz to travel to Mision Chaquena. Agustina is a family physician that has collaborated with Patricia some in the past. She and Beatriz live in Cordoba but Agustina works for UNICEF with the native American tribe Wichi at Mision Chaquena. The plan was to meet in Embarcacion after noon and then ride the 25 miles to the Mision then Patricia and Agustina would work together on Saturday. We negotiated with the bus company on prepping the bikes and we were off at 8:45 AM. The adventure was just beginning. About half way there the bus pulled off at a police checkpoint. And stayed… It turned out to have a problem with its air compressor and it wasn’t going anywhere. We waited an hour for another bus. They urged everyone to get on quickly when we found out that the bus wasn’t going where 6 of us (us plus 4) we needed to go. They said go ahead and they’d send the bikes later. Hahahahaha. Patricia said no. We waited longer and they sent another bus just for the 6 of us. We made it to Embarcacion about 2 PM. A great reunion with friends, we assembled the bikes, had a nice lunch and we were ready to head out about 3:30 PM. There are too many details to include here, but a summary is the road was 33 miles, not 25, and it was dirt with large river rock, deep gravel, and deep dust. We were half way there when it started getting dark. Fortunately a small village was there so we stopped at a small market that sold us some beer secretly (it was illegal in the village I guess). A thunderstorm was brewing and dust was everywhere. Agustina called our host and he came to pick us up – in a small car. Two bikes on top (ours) and 2 bikes ridden in the dark on that road by two of his seven children. The car had a water pump problem and needed to be stopped every 5 minutes to add water. One time they added gas to the radiator by accident because of the dark. It kept getting better. ☺ Finally we arrived to find the conditions like rural Mexico. Some electricity, you flush it toilets, a hose bib in the yard. The rain started in earnest and the fine dust turned to sticky clay everywhere. It is not unusual for the family to just have bread and mate for dinner, but we got some groceries with the beer and cooked a meal for 11 on the outside firewood stove (zucchini and tomato scramble with pasta). Good times. Had a good time talking with the family and practicing my Spanish. Actually had a very good night’s sleep. In the morning we journeyed to the family’s large garden and Patricia spent the time teaching them healthy foods they could prepare with their harvest. The weather was warm even though it’s mid winter for them. The elevation is less than 1000 ft and it is just inside the tropics. It gets to 120 F there in the summer sometimes. It would be miserable. No cooling anywhere. We fixed a nice lunch at the garden and walked back. We made bread using their outdoor oven in the afternoon. Very tasty and Patricia helped knead a different recipe not using lard – it was tastier. We had decided we weren’t riding back on the road. Doing a shuttle with the car didn’t look good. There was a bus leaving at 9 PM and we worked things out to put the bikes on and we were off dreaming of a nice warm shower to clean off two days worth of dust on us (we are so spoiled in the US!). For a last act there was a small gang fight when we arrived in Embarcacion and the bus was pelted with a few rocks. Very exciting. ☺ The bus dropped us off right at the hotel and we jumped out. A nice room with breakfast for $24. Civilization, hooray.

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