Llama-spotting

This weekend I went with the FLACSO program to Jujuy, a province in the north of Argentina. Jujuy is much poorer than the area around Buenos Aires, and has a much larger indigenous population. I probably wouldn´t have visited it on my own -- it´s a 20 hour bus ride, but we took a plane -- so I´m glad FLACSO took us there.

The landscape looks something like the American Southwest, with dry riverbeds, brushy fields, and red clay cliffs like drip-castles; the towns look much more like the stereotypical image of South America than the other places in Argentina I´ve been. All of the houses, one-story clay with flat rooves, stretch down the street in continuous, split-level rows.Since it´s the desert, everything is dry and dusty, and it drops about 30 degrees when the sun starts to go down.

FLACSO trips are great since everything is organized for us and we stay in fairly nice housing, although sometimes I feel like I´m on a school trip in second grade, complete with head counts and snacktime. (Not that I´m complaining about the snacks.)

Both of the FLACSO trips I´ve been on have involved disgusing amounts of food, which in the north means things people typically associate with South America -- tamales, empanadas, quinoa. In addition to lots of beef, since we are still in Argentina, I had a delicious pastel de quinoa with llama meat. Llama essentially tastes like cheap steak, but now I can add it to the list of "Things I have eaten in Argentina that are fundamentally gross." (The list also includes cow brain, kidneys, blood sausage and kosher cow intestines.)

The weekend also involved a few walk-y "hikes," a tour of a re-creation of some indigenous ruins, and an absurd amount of shopping. Jujuy is famous for its wool products, and I came away with two sweaters, two pairs of gloves and a pair of socks. All of them have llamas on them. (Not all of them are for me.) I also bought a scarf, a ring, and a wall-hanging. And yet despite the convulsion of acquisitiveness that came over me this weekend, I spent a total of 160 pesos, or 50 dollars.