Northern Argentina.
It´s surreal — and I´m not sure I like it — to be using the internet in the middle of the Quebrada de Humahuaca in the dramatic desert landscapes of the Argentine altiplano, just a two-hours drive from the border with Bolivia.
But that´s the reality of South America in the 21st century. There are few areas that are truly untouched by technology, capitalism, and materialism, the legacies of colonialism and modernization.
Fortunately, computers and paper money don´t change the basic facts of life here in this remote corner of Argentina, cornered between Paraguay, Bolivia, and the Chilean desert. The millions of stars still shine brightly in the sky over vast plains of cacti and corn, mountains the colors of rusty coins and sunsets, and tiny pueblitos where families live under flat mud roofs in adobe houses.
This trip has taken me far away from the consumerism and syscrapers of Buenos Aires, to the indigenous and naturally stunning regions of Salta and Jujuy. In the small city of Salta I met Dana, an energetic and special Israeli girl, and we´ve been traveling together all week.
Each day we hop a new bus to a new town where we explore the markets, devour empanadas and delicious regional foods like llama steaks and Andean potatoes, climb paths to gorgeous views over the mountains or
Incan ruins, and meet other travelers from all over the world. In between all of this we practice yoga to remain energized, chew coca leaves to fight the altitude sickness, and drink tons of delicious, cheap Argentine wine to…well, have fun and laugh.
The north of Argentina…can only be fully experienced once you´ve stood in a plaza in front of a towering adobe colonial church and listened to cumbia rhythms blasting from the car radio in the street while a group of street musicians play Andean flutes and drums in
traditional ponchos made from llama furs. The rich and flavorful foods, the smiling (and adorably toothless and dirty) children who surround you and ask questions about where you are from (and then ask for coins
after you take their pictures), the colorful shawls and fruit stands of the marketplaces, the smell of frying empanadas, and the dust of the desert rocks all cover you with a desire to knew every tiny town, every mountainside, every lagoon, in this beautiful region.
