This past Friday, we left at midnight to arrive in Talamplaya (sort of like the national park area here in Argentina...about a 7-8 hour drive) to start hiking for 2 1/2 hours at 8:30 AM. For breakfast, they gave us each a brown bag of pastries...like dulce de leche filled crossiants. First, a sugar rush is not a good idea when full energy is needed and second, all that sugar is nasty in the morning. Oh well.. but of course, knowing me my problems did not start there!ç
You will never believe what I did....on Friday night, before we left to go to school, I did a bad thing! After Ali and I ate dinner, our family´s favorite show, Justo a tiempo came on. I asked Dora if I could use her microwave (which she has NEVER used and it´s probably 10 or 15 years old) to heat up a heat pack I bought for my back (my back and left knee are wanting to kill me right now :( ). So me and her are attempting to read her Spanish manual and finally I figure out we have to set the clock time, before any heating can be done. So I set a random time (because as it turns out all of the center buttons, i.e. 8 5 2 0, were broken!) and then put my pack in to heat. I set it for 77 seconds, since that´s all I could do really. The next thing I know, the entire kitchen LOSES POWER! I blew their fuse, everything shut off. At first we thought it was the entire house, but fortunately it was the kitchen and their father´s old bedroom that no one goes in. They were scared I fried their refridgerator and TV, but fortunately for me (and my wallet!) nothing was damaged, except the momentary black out for the evening. Tita was really mad at me because she wanted to watch TV, but fortunately Dora was really sweet about it.
I later found out (after I returned and the power was fixed by an electrian) that the entire street lost power as well....ay yi yi!
Anyways, so once we were on our journey, I tried my best to sleep, but I was in the window seat so my knees felt paralyzed and i was next to a heater....basically I got second degree burns on my legs and sweated through all my clothing. Gross!!
Once we started hiking I was definitely nervous. We had a 2 hour hike UPHILL, completely up a mountain. Nothing prepares you for straight hiking. My knees were throbbing, but fortunately I brought my ice and heat pack. The view, partway (with knee brace and all!):
In the photo is my little, Lexie (left), me, and my friend Brittany, who is living with my little. This is us on top of the mountain, and here we are below it (including two other girls from Tri Delta):
The hike was definitely worth it, it was a terrfic view--lots of great photos to come! These were two from my friend Brittany´s camera.
After that hike, we ate lunch and then went on another hike-driving tour thing. We drove, then hiked for a little, drove more, hiked more, etc etc. Not as cool.
Then at night, we ate dinner at a GAS STATION. It was like a "nice" restaurant that shared space with the gas station, I did not enjoy it to say the least.
The next day, we were supposed to have a 5 1/2 hour hike. Fortunately this was mostly straight with some hills mixed in and some literal climbing up rocks. I scratched my sunglasses I bought here :( In all, we walked 8.7 miles and we were so fast it only took 4 hours 45 minutes. We hiked through a canyon or valley called "Valle de la Luna" or Valley of the Moon. It was pretty neat. Then, we ate lunch and did a forty minute hike through another canyon type place full of neat rocks. I was able to make three wishes at at "wishing rock."
And of course, for dinner we ate at the gas station again.
On Monday, we were able to sleep in until 9 and then went to a vineyard. It was an organic vineyard that only sold red wine. We tried a cabernet and a Malbec. I did not enjoy either, so sorry familia, no wine from there! We are going to one more vineyard, however, in Buenos Aires. After the vineyard, we went to a cemetary to see something really creepy. We went to the tomb of Miguel "Angelito" something... He died 60 years ago at age 5, and was dug up 15 years after his death when people noticed the toys left on his tomb were moving. When they dug him up, they saw that he was perfectly preserved and in tact. So they reburied him. Again, 15 years later, they noticed the same thing--toys moving. So they unearthed him again. And he was still preserved. So now his tomb is a shine and seen as a miracle. People come from all over the world to visit this shrine and pray to him for miracles. It was so creepy though because he was in a glass coffin, and he looked like a dirty doll. I still am unsure if it was real....
Anywho, after the cemetary we ate at....the gas station! for the third time.... :(
Then we finally started our journey back to Córdoba. On the ride, we watched the movie Australia, and then these things called "Classic Project 4" or whatever number it was whcih was snippets of music videos from a time period, like the 90s 80s 2000s, etc. Pretty entertaining. Then we watched 7 Pounds.
And now we are here!
As for yesterday, it was our first day back to classes. I also had my last riding lesson, we went on a trail ride! It was great and I was able to jump as well. :)
Today, after my class I went with Dora to a "cheap" mall to buy a suitcase for the US. I found the best duffle-esk bag, I can´t wait to show you! And I also found a great leather purse :) And it was all so cheap for us! Ahh It´s crazy the exchange rate :)
I now only have 2 more days left! We leave for Buenos Aires Sunday morning; i have to be at the airport at 7 AM.
Ciao, I have my culture class now, talk to you soon :)
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