Tilcara, Jujuy: un dia de luz!

Hello hello!
Well it´s been two weeks in the extreme north of Argentina and a rich two weeks indeed. THe farm is gorgeous, moreso even than the photos (Aldealuna.com.ar) make it seem. It´s a long bumpy bus ride up into the yunga (semi-tropical mountains) and the farm has gardens on huge terraces where we cultivate everything from chard to corn to squash to peas. It´s pretty chilly, especially when there´s no sun because even though the rainy season is over, it´s always misty moisty. Imagine the climate around Macchu Picchu. That´s the idea. Overall I´m pretty satisfied with the people, though not as wonderful as my previous sites in Chile. A family from Buenos Aires that are a little cold and critical, but we still chat about things and joke and they´ve lent me books from great Argentine short story authors. Most English speaking than I´d like becuase of the German and French volunteers, but I also get to practice my Portuguese with the Brazilian brothers, so it´s all good.
Still, two weeks of hard work, getting up at dawn, eating huge meals of rice and polenta and huge salads and homemade soy burgers, had me a little worn down and really feeling ready to be back in Missouri already, especially after reading a bunch of National Geographic articles about the Midwest.
Then came today. A golden day by all means. Yesterday I came back to the city for the first time in 2 weeks. Jujuy itself is a pretty dirty city with lots of traffic, loud cumbia, and usually damp, cloudy weather. But today I decided to take my Sunday off to venture north and get to know the province a little better. I took the hour and a half bus ride to Tilcara, a little hippy town and site of a reconstructed indigenous fortress. First off, the change of climate is amazing. 20 minutes out of Jujuy city and suddenly the clouds and thick vegetation give way to a ride open plateau of desert, brilliant blue sky, and amazing mountains with sparse vegetation but rock formations like you wouldn´t believe and minerals of a bunch of shades of purple, orange, etc. (most famous is the Cerro de los Siete Colores). Then I arrive in Tilcara and begin a golden day. First, I go through the huge sunday market looking for a charango for Zora. I finally reach the stand at the end, then one place where they´re sold and it´s closed!! I was about to pull my hair out, but I talked to a yound woman at a nearby stand who knew the woman who sold charangos. She called her and she came and opened the stand and there I found a perfect one for just 500 pesos witha case included. Then I got to talking to the woman from the other stand, a super cool hippie type from Bolivia, and told her I´d come back to hang out after seeing the ruins.
I climbed up to the ruins, which were beautiful, even if reconstructed with a bit of conjecture. Walls and houses of pure piled stones, with roofs make of cactus beams covered with dried mud. Wandering around, I ran into a pair of anthropology professors from Buenos Aires, with whom I chatted about US imperialism, and how these ruins were bs because they copied Macchu Picchu and that really the pre-Incan peoples who lived here were much more advanced and built with more adobe.
On the way down, beside a corral full of adorable llamas, I found a huge stand of untended grapes and harvested tons to take back to the Bolivian lady at the stand. We lounged and gorged ourselves on grapes and chatted until I decided to wander back toward the bus terminal, write this blog post, and now I´m headed back to Jujuy and my last week on the farm before a marathon week of travel back to the US of A. But what a golden day in the valley surrounded by sun and gorgeous carved peaks. Plus, I´ve been chewing coca leaves from the market and that adds to a sense of jittery excitement to be alive. And now I have a charango to play with for the next couple weeks.
So life is good, and hopefully the next two weeks will go smoothly as I rap up my wanderings around Sudamérica.
Hugs and looking forward to seeing everyone soon!!