The Scelsos and I took off from Barreal and drove to San Juan city, the capital of the San Juan province. The winding, peaceful drive was absolutely spectacular.
Lucio and I decided to begin some traveling, starting in San Juan. We spent two nights at a really great hostel. San Juan is a cool city, really different from a lot of other big Argentine cities. In 1944, the entire city was destroyed by a massive earthquake, so all of the buildings are more modern and the city itself is clean and peaceful. I liked it a lot. 
I walked around all day Tuesday through Parque de Mayo, the peatonal (pedestrian shopping/café zone), and went to the home of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentine president, journalist, author, "father of public education," and pretty much controversial figure all around from the 1800s. I learned somthing cool, too: Former Mass. Governor Michael Dukakis honored Sarmiento when he established Teacher's Day in 1976. Interesting!
I walked around all day Tuesday through Parque de Mayo, the peatonal (pedestrian shopping/café zone), and went to the home of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentine president, journalist, author, "father of public education," and pretty much controversial figure all around from the 1800s. I learned somthing cool, too: Former Mass. Governor Michael Dukakis honored Sarmiento when he established Teacher's Day in 1976. Interesting!
Then Lucio and I went to Mendoza where we met up with our friend Caleb from Utah and some of his friends from the states. It was good to reunite with Caleb after almost a month of not seeing him! We pretty much just hung out, talked, drank, and played a lot of old school card games like Bullsh**, Egyptian Ratscrew and a new one I learned--Shoogie Boogie. (The spelling on that, I have no clue.)
Lucio and Caleb
After two nights in Mendoza, Lucio cruised back to Córdoba and I decided I wasn't quite done yet, so I went up north to Tucumán. In these whole 5 months I didn't get a chance to see Salta and Jujuy, the more northern and apparently beautiful provinces, but Tucumán was great. It's a cool, growing city with beautiful architecture and a lovely main plaza. On Saturday I went to Tafí de Valle, a tiny pueblo 2,000 m above sea level. The drive to get there was breathtakingly scary, winding up through the tropical forest and then after climbing for a while, we hit dry highlands. It was cool. We also saw some Jesuit ruins (of course), a huge reservoir, and a giant statue honoring the Quilmes Indians. On that tour I chatted with two girls from Rosario, Argentina who, like me, were eager to share cultures.
On Sunday I spent the day walking around Tucumán, and even caught the Tucumán Symphonic Orchestra playing! It was neat.
government building in Tucumán city
In Tucumán I also met two cool girls from Virginia, two guys from Scotland and two others from England. Gotta love traveling!
Ay, I feel like my posts are getting longer and longer. ¡Disculpenme!
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