the journalist in me is calling

since wednesday, without pause, the front page of every single newspaper has featured one story. since wednesday, conversations about that one story have not stopped. and somehow, despite the fact that every. single. person. in buenos aires has heard about what happened on wednesday afternoon, for the life of me i cannot find even ONE article about the tragedy in any of the american publications i read online, no matter how many pages i click through. huffington post?? nope. new york times?? nope. cnn?? nope. global post?? nope. 

so, coming at you from my cozy apartment in buenos aires, here's that story.....

last wednesday afternoon, a clash between political activists from the worker party and unionists from one of the largest railroad companies in the province ended in the tragic death of twenty-three year old mariano ferreyra, a history student and long-time militante (political activist) of social and labor causes.

along with the support of leftist activists like mariano, various ex-employees of Ferrocarril Roca, who were laid off several months ago (after already being grossly underpaid to begin with), organized a protest of  Ferrocarril Roca in the hopes of reclaiming their old positions in the company. originally, they had planned to cut off the train service at one of the railroad stations, but were confronted by union workers from the company, who blocked their way and threw stones to prevent any further advances, and eventually fled the scene. they continued onward through the barracas neighborhood, looking for another place to carry out their protest, when they were ambushed in the street by a group of men (initially identified in the newspapers as union workers) who opened fire, killing mariano and severely wounding a 56 year old female activist.

i first found out about the deadly confrontation in the middle of class wednesday night, a couple hours after everything had happened. several students came into my literature lecture to speak about the tragedy and urge students to come out the next night to remember mariano. thursday evening, nearly 80,000 individuals participated in a huge commemoration and protest march down avenida corrientes, where i walk practically every day of the week, towards la plaza de mayo, where the argentine equivalent of the white house is located. along with the commemoration of mariano's  life, protestors gathered for a myriad of other valid reasons: to demand action in the search for the truth regarding his death and an end to corruption in the worker unions, particularly violence between unionists and other activists. 

after morning class, i grabbed a newspaper and found a café next to the march's starting point so i could watch the various groups gathering. our study abroad coordinators had strongly discouraged us from going anywhere near the march, in fear that violence might break out (which made little sense to me, all the groups involved were on the same page). but whatever. i meandered through the streets anyway. i then had my tutoring session in the FLACSO offices that line the same street where the march was located. for two hours, drumbeats and chants formed the background noise for dense anthropology theory. that was new. 

i then walked home for the night alongside the thousands of marchers, from unemployed workers, to students, to entire families with young children and all. the whole grand shebang. for me, the most interesting thing was learning about the role of union groups here in buenos aires. the one chant i remember clearly was "se va a acabar la burocracia sindical, se va a acabar la burocracia sindical!!" (basically, "union bureaucracy will come to an end"). at home, im used to thinking about labor unions as the underdogs fighting for better lives for themselves and their family, for more justice in the workplace and more voice in their daily realities. and yet here in argentina, the unions are now being represented, whether truthfully or subjectively, as the culprit, as the political bodies abusing power. the unions are already given so much power and support by the kirchner government that even they turn a little corrupt every now and then. it's the type of problem that i would never even imagine to happen under the watch of a union. same applies to the main phrase of the week which i've been hearing over and over: terror sindical (union terror).  once again, fascinating and different and stumping. 

but anyway. from my perspective, the whole march scene was pretty moving: in a mere 24 hours, a whopping 80,000 individuals (maybe more, maybe less, but that was the statistic i heard on television) took time out of their day to remember a lost comrade (man, don't i sound like an UBA communist!!) and seek justice, in a unified demonstration of solidarity and collective strength. i was impressed. here in buenos aires, protests and political activism are national pastimes, and marches like this happen all the time, to the point where i hardly even notice them anymore. but this particular one was something special, and i admired the thousands of argentines who participated and cared so much. they were absolutely incensed by what had happened. in america, i would guess that most people (most) probably wouldn't even bat an eye. 

the group of masked students and activists who eventually attacked la casa rosada with their wooden poles 

various political groups lining up on avenida corrientes for the march to plaza de mayo

underpaid railroad workers marching in protest and commemoration 

in the aftermath of the mariano's assassination, buenos aires was buzzing with accusations thrown from every imaginable angle. for a solid four hours, i watched various newscasts from my computer trying to piece the whole drama together and understand the situation. the whole drama involves much much more than just the tragic death of a young man, but rather involves a ton of different actors and forces. it's complicated and hard to explain in a mere blog post. but anyway, the police were accused, union members were accused, barrabravas were accused (organized groups of soccer fans that turn violent), the presidency was accused, political supporters of the ex-presidency were accused, and the leader of the railroad union was accused of corruption and a mysterious union mafia that seeks to silence challengers. everyone placed the blame on someone different, to the point where i was totally and completely confused. 

this weekend however, they finally pinpointed a suspect. a barrabrava of a local soccer team, the man has been accused of firing the shot that killed mariano and faces trials in the upcoming week. how does soccer have anything to do with anything here?? yeah, i asked myself the same thing. basically, from what i'm reading and hearing, the barras are organized groups of hard-core hinchas (fans) that are sometimes recruited to carry out violent acts. in this case, one of the head union leaders and administrators for the roca railroad company has been charged with contracting the barrabrava group that reportedly ambushed mariano's group of labor activists and ex-exployees. pretty nuts, i know. the whole barrabrava phenomenon is also totally new to me, but apparently barrabravas are a common issue throughout latin america. 

facebook is pretty ridiculous. i was actually able to find the profile page of the man who is being accused with mariano's death. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1773647064&ref=ts#!/profile.php?id=1773647064&v=wall his recent status updates claim his innocence, but who knows. hopefully the upcoming trials will shed light on his guilt or innocence, and let this case rest once and for all.

for anyone that speaks spanish, here's a good argentine newspaper. http://www.clarin.com/ right now, they have an entire tab dedicated to news about the mariano case and the ongoing union conflict. maybe not in the rest of the world, but here in buenos aires it's a pretty big deal. as it well should be. sarah henningsen, over and out!!

an experience at "esma"

i thought i had a pretty good understanding about argentina's past before arriving here in buenos aires. i knew there had been a coup d'etat following the perón era. i knew about the argentine military dictatorship and the horrors that took place in the 70s and early 80s. i knew about the desaparecidos and the "death flights".  i thought i had a rather decent knowledge about the country's chaotic timeline. 

little did i know that what i knew was sooooo little. (can you say that ten times fast??) i can learn about anything on wikipedia or through a textbook, but truly knowing about something takes a whole lot more than just a simple read-through of presented facts. reading informs, yet detaches. until this past friday, i had done a lot of the reading but not a moment of the experiencing. 

precisely why i was completely stoked when my argentine mom included me in a one-of-a-kind experience, one that would truly show me argentina's past in a way that no textbook possibly could. friday morning, we took the long drive out to the pricey neighborhood of nuñez to visit ESMA, the largest and most infamous secret detention center used during argentina's "dirty war". originally a legitimate military teaching institution, during the dictatorship the large complex was converted into a hellhole that would eventually hold over 5,000 individuals, a pit stop of torture that preluded their eventual executions by government-ordered task forces. in 2004, ESMA was turned into a museum, dubbed a "space of memory" and the "promotion and defense of human rights" by president nestor kirchner. although tours are offered, completely free access to the military complex is limited and visits must be made by scheduled appointment.

my host mom patricia, a painter and photographer, had visited ESMA the week before to participate in an ongoing art project that aims to remember the desaparecidos that were taken away and to celebrate their children that were rediscovered thanks to the relentless efforts of las abuelas de plaza de mayo. she had come home with hundreds of pictures to show me of the building and of the exposition. 

good timing. that same day, i had come home from class reeling with questions, sadness, and shock. my mandatory spanish class in our study abroad headquarters, which i begrudgingly drag myself to every thursday, is usually a huge waste of time, but that particular day i could've stayed in class forever listening and thinking. the theme of the class revolved around the military dictatorship, the implementation of state terrorism as a means of social control, and the three decade search for the lost remains of victims and their illegally appropriated children (something i had somehow never even heard a word about). in class, i also learned about ESMA for the first time, completely repulsed that such a thing ever existed to begin with. when patricia told me about her day at ESMA, she immediately recognized my interest and then managed to get permission for me to attend the following week, for the second painting get-together. 

here's the basic premise behind the project: in honor of the thirty-third anniversary of the founding the las abuelas de plaza de mayo and the día de identidad this coming monday, internationally reknowned writer alejandro jodorowsky commissioned for a special "poetic act for peace" that would fuse original artwork with a symbolic ceremony to promote remembrance and peace. the huge composition is pretty innovative and impressive: an array of individually-painted cement blocks come together to form a singular image, the hopeless face of one of the mind-boggling 30,000 argentines who disappeared during the dictatorship. there are 102 cement cubes in all, one for each of the nietos recuperados (recovered grandchildren) who were illegally appropriated to new families after the executions of their parents, but who later discovered their true identities with the help of the abuelas. at the culminating event on monday (which i unfortunately won't be able to attend because of literature class), the piece will be revealed to the public and families of the desaparecidos will be in attendance, along with many of the 102 recovered children, who are now full-grown adults. 

the ESMA campus struck me as totally paradoxical, probably one of the main reasons why no one truly knew what was going on inside the gates thirty years ago: the campus features beautiful trees and lawns, whitewashed military buildings that gleam in the sunlight, and sits in the middle of a pretty upscale residential neighborhood, far far away from the government district. inside, however, was a totally different story. broken glass everywhere, dirt-covered floors, dim lighting, and a palpable eeriness that simply screams "concentration camp". the building where we were working seemed untouched, frozen in time as though it still functioned as the same secret detention center from thirty years ago. when i stepped in for the first time, i couldn't help but imagine the innocent prisoners sitting there in dehumanizing conditions, praying for a release that would probably never come. 

some images of one of the many ESMA buildings. 

the inside of an ESMA building 

one of the many broken glass windows. almost nothing has
been changed or renovated from when the building
was in use three decades ago. 

another view of the interior. the ESMA campus has various buildings, and although this particular one was not a main prisoner hold, it was still probably used for torture and administrative tasks related to the government's extermination project.

my original plan had been to observe the creative process, meander through the building, and snap some photos. then jorge perrín, the respected argentine artist in charge of the endeavor and a close friend of my host mom patricia (she's kinda a big deal), asked if i felt like painting. considering my absolute lack of artistic talent and my absolute excess of clumsiness, i tried to convince him that i was NOT equipped for the job and could not risk ruining this important work. but he and patricia refused to let up and soon i was popping a squat on the dirty floor, paintbrush in hand, adding my own little touch and contribution to the piece.

because the main facade had already been completed, we were doing the finishing touches on the sides of each block, basically just painting the outsides until there was no more evidence of ugly and dirty cement. easy work that anyone could do, though i was still nervous i was gonna somehow splatter a bunch of paint by accident. contrary to what normally WOULD happen to me, i managed to complete my cement cubes without making any disastrous mistakes. thank god.

for me, the fact that there were almost fifteen of us painting the various cubes was very symbolic and meaningful. true, the sheer hugeness of the project requires a lot of manpower and would take forever to complete alone, thus having a large group of painters is both logical and necessary. but on a more symbolic level, the teamwork of the project, for me at least, reflected the collective fight of all argentines to bring justice to their country, remember their lost ones, and ensure that no one ever forgets the atrocities committed so many years ago, and that no one ever lets something similar happen again in the future. also, their collective fight to continue searching for the 400 children of desaparecidos who are still unaware of their true origins and identities. i felt lucky and moved to be a part of that experience. i may not be argentine, i may not have been directly affected by what happened, but i still grieve for those whose lives were cut short in such an inhumane and deplorable way. you don't have to be argentine or porteña for that; just human.

photo props to patricia!!

the project!!! 

trying not to be a total jimmmmmyyyy

the team of painters

focused artist planning her next move 

FILTHY AND PAINT-COVERED AND LOVING IT!!!! 

playing with my hair and slouching.....shocker 

another cool shot that patricia snapped of the painting team 

between the unforgettable day at ESMA and ordinary interactions with argentines, the most important thing i've learned about argentina's past is that the past is still inextricably linked to the current present, a important and formative shaper of argentine identity and culture. everything that happened between 1976-1983 wasn't buried and forgotten....even more, everything that happened isn't simply and passively remembered but rather is lived out day by day here in buenos aires. it's still something that is constantly discussed and incorporated in the daily dialogue...even just the other night, i watched a speech on television given by a high-up member of the Worker Party, who made multiple references to the military dictatorship and los desaparecidos. several movies and documentaries have come out in recent years about the issue. las abuelas continue searching for their grandchildren and urge people to get DNA tests if they doubt the veracity of their identity. as a foreigner, now that i've seen ESMA and learned more about the dictatorship and the many traces and damages it left behind, the constant protests and political activism throughout buenos aires, (which i'm so used to by this point that they practically blend into the landscape) are finally making some sense. after almost a solid decade of repression and even more decades of mourning and processing, i can understand why everyone is so politically involved and so vocal about their beliefs. after years of being denied such rights, argentines seize their democracy in full force and make up for the many years they suffered without it. more and more, the endless protests that once seemed so extreme and so hyperbolic, now seem so normal and so necessary. i finally get it. i guess that's the beauty of studying abroad long enough to be able to come to that realization.

the weighty subject of los desaparecidos has gripped me for over a week now and i still haven't stopped thinking about the whole thing. i know i've already droned on EXCESSIVELY in this blog post, but if i haven't lost you yet and you're still reading, PLEASE check out the following link!!! this has seriously got to be one of the coolest photography collection i've ever seen. something so simple, yet so powerful and so tragically beautiful. http://gustavogermano.com/

in particular, i'm intrigued by the ongoing search for their children, who were raised under false pretenses and falsified identities and still don't know the real truth. at first, i was completely confused by the issue and didn't really understand the situation....it's really depressing and really complicated. so here's another interesting link woo!! if you thought that art collection above was powerful, wait until you read the following story. i remember reading about this several years when the truths finally surfaced, but didn't completely understand and didn't continue researching the situation. the following story is incredible. http://www.newint.org/features/2005/12/01/memorials/for anyone that knows spanish, here is another article about juan, from 2004 when he first discovered his true identity. 
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-30877-2004-01-28.html

still my all-time favorite thing about buenos aires

several dog-walking groups and their leaders taking a break on the lawn. freaking sweeties were tired!!! 

update on my schooling situation: back in action!!! classes at the philosophy and letters building, where i have my literature course, finally resumed last week. i went on wednesday and the four hour stretch was pretty brutal like usual, but i'm so glad to have more of a structured routine in my life. and as of yesterday, the social sciences toma was lifted as well and i head back to class on tuesday, i thought i would never see the day!! the final week of all this toma business was pretty insane. as if the whole thing hadn't already been ridiculous enough, wait until you see what transpired this past tuesday. like, en serio!? my friends and i saw the following video footage in a pizza parlor. i was literally flabbergasted at what was happening on the screen. and then the only thing i could really think about was beauty and the beast when gaston and his crew break into the castle using a tree trunk. take a look. also, don't miss the last full minute, a ridiculous police-student clash/water war breaks out?? here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG_l8yB6FPg

almost 300 students broke into the building early tuesday morning and several were injured in the ensuing quasi riot between militant students and police forces. the students weren't necessarily trying to kidnap the minister of education, but they were definitely trying to get his attention in a really big way. from what i've heard, apparently they did and are now in discussions about to proceed with their demands and requests.

i've had more than my fair share of complaints and grievances about the whole toma situation at the university of buenos aires, but this next installment in the saga is simply OUT OF CONTROL. overwhelmingly tops all other rallies, protests, and measures that have been used so far. i will NEVER understand nor agree with the extremity of the whole thing, but i guess they finally got what they want?? so power to you, my fellow UBA students. y'all are whack but oh well!! all in all, although the inconvenient and stressful toma situation during the past five weeks really brought me down at times and slightly disillusioned me with argentina, i can without a doubt say i lived through quite an interesting and different type of cultural experience!! just hope it never happens again!

misiones, monkeys, and mosquito bites galore

consider yourself warned: the following blog entry is freakishly long!!!

this past weekend was definitely one for the books. more than two entire months after i set foot here in argentina, i finally made my way up north to visit perhaps the most magnificent and impressive waterfalls in the world, iguazú falls. a protected UNESCO heritage site, the national park boasts an astounding 275 individual cascades and spans over 1.5 miles in both argentina and brazil. i have always dreamt of visiting the waterfall dreamland, waterfalls easily being one of the my favorite things in the whole wide wide world. iguazú was the perfect weekend ever: despite vicious mosquitos, lack of sleep and food, and a bizarre expanding-feet phenomenon (more on that story later), nothing could eclipse the wonderful memories and experiences i had there!!

the epic weekend actually started on thursday evening (no class on fridays = best thing that ever happened to me) when i met up with two friends at the retiro bus station. although a quick two hours flight only costs about fifty bucks more, penniless me tries to cut corners and save money whenever possible, which meant that we were hopping onto a bus and staying there for the next fourteen hours. yup, a slightly crazy decision, but i gotta save up for those 50 pesos boliche entrance fees when i can!! college girl's gotta do what a college girl's gotta do. i plugged in my ipod, whipped out my anthropology readings, and resigned myself to the upcoming half-day journey towards the town of san ignacio, where we would be making a pit-stop to visit the jesuit missions of the 17th and 18th centuries, established to acculturate the guaraní population to Catholicism, spanish language, and other european customs. when we finally arrived, i knew that suffering through an almost fourteen-hour journey was totally and completely worth the hassle: the historical ruins at this particular mission site were beautifully maintained and eternally-curious me was completely absorbed by the scene, wondering what daily life on the grounds must have been like way back when.

as a georgetown student, where the jesuits run the show in both religious and academic realms, the san ignacio missions were really significant for me on a personal level. as an anthropology student, they were also significant for me on an academic level, having spent several days in my "ethnicity and multiculturalism of argentina" course talking about the aboriginal population's forced integration and assimilation into the new dominant society following colonization. for me, perhaps one of the most striking things about the jesuit missions is the interesting paradox they represented for the indigenous population: while on one hand the missions functioned as an inherent center of cultural degradation and enforced inferiority, they also provided an important source of economic stability for the guaraní and guaranteed their protection from relentless portuguese slave traders (known as bandeirantes or mamelucos) . i regret that my beloved jesuits were one of the primary forces in the systematic elimination of a once-thriving guaraní culture (which almost barely exists today in argentina, and concentrated in the marginalized fringes of society) but, in a sense, things could have been even worse for the guaraní without their guardianship. i guess it goes both ways.

we took a guided tour around the ruins, first strolling through the guaraní living quarters, where hundreds of families slept in close proximity to one another, and then through the classrooms and church ruins further back in the compound. as a total language nerd, the highlight of the tour for me was  reading the translations of the lord's prayer, in spanish, then in guaraní, and then the spanish literal translation of the guaraní version (if that makes any sense)....really fascinating. the missions were just as breathtaking and awe-inspiring as i was expecting, and i could've spent much longer meandering around the grounds imagining the daily activities and lessons that occurred there for almost 200 consecutive years.

living quarters of the guaraní families, many cramped together in the same space

these were once the walls of the main church unit

a reproduction of what the main church looked like in the 1600s and 1700s.

and what the church facade looks like today!! i appear so tiny!! 

our visit to the missions was followed by a $7 steak + beer lunch (something i could NEVER do back at home) in the quaint town center. since the weather was beautiful and we were in no rush getting to iguazú, paige and wendy and i rented some bikes and set off on what would be quite an adventurous bike ride, lasting a full four hours when all was well and done. we got completely lost for awhile, and were hoping to hitch a ride with someone with a truck but unfortunately there were hardly any people in sight!! we wound up at this bizarre, totally deserted hotel resort in the middle of the forest, where there was not a single guest and not an ounce of activity on the grounds. we managed to find our way back out and eventually biked (well, with the giant dirt and gravel hills we ended up walking our bikes about half the time!!) to the main campsite of the teyú cuaré national park, then embarking on another thirty minute hike to the main lookout spot. the ride had been beautiful but slightly stressful, considering our lack of direction savviness and our multiple near-wipe-outs on the unpaved roads, but the final view was absolutely worth the struggle!!

the beautiful río paraná at the end of the long and exhausting ride!! perfect place to catch the sunset!!

we started biking back into the main town center with only a couple minutes of light left, and soon wound up in the pitch dark biking through dirt roads, nowhere near any type of sidewalk. a little risky, but we survived!! along the way, we passed various guaraní families who live in the same quasi-jungle forest we had been exploring, returning from a long day outside the jesuit missions where they sell their handiwork to tourists passing by. i zoomed past one guy who was talking loudly to himself in guaraní.....so that was kinda interesting i suppose?? 




we arrived at the tourist information office with only a few minutes to spare before they closed, quickly returned our bikes, grabbed our stuff and set off again hoping to catch a bus to iguazú, ticketless and dirty and all!! actually finding our way to puerto iguazú turned into quite an adventure. since it was already late and we had already made a hostel reservation for that friday night in iguazú, we decided to forgo dinner and catch the earliest bus we could. for those that know me, they know that NEVER IN MY LIFE have i skipped dinner. so, now you know how much getting to iguazú and being able to spend a full day there from start to finish on saturday meant to me!! in the pitch black under a stunning night sky (stars!! finally!!), we trudged our way out of the town center and through the sludgy reddish mud, then encountered the highway where we were told to wait for the bus. however, the side of the road where most people were waiting was headed in the opposite direction....i asked around about catching the bus to iguazú and was told we had to wait on the little patch of dirt in the middle of the highway and hope that the conductors noticed us under the fading lamplight. apparently that's how they run things up in northern argentina!! so there i stood, with my backpack and all, in between a freeway hoping i would be able to flag down a double-decker behemoth in the middle of the night. we managed to succeed, and jumped onboard for the final four hour push to iguazú, hoping to arrive around midnight. the trip was smooth and painless, and we were even served dulce de leche-flavored liquor shots!! can you say totally random?? i politely declined after one sip, dulce de leche and alcohol was a mix never meant to be. i would totally expect that in argentina though, not a huge shocker, DDL runs through their blood!!




surprisingly, the weekend in iguazú was my first real hostel experience. even though i traveled a ton around ecuador when i was there last summer, we never actually stayed in a straight-up grunge hole,  always managing to find super cheap hotel-inn-like accommodations. the "hostel inn" was definitely your quintessential hostel, overflowing with european backpackers and costing a mere ten bucks a night for a bunk bed, pool access and breakfast buffet to boot. can't do much better than that!! when the front desk guy handed me a plastic bag, i thought "wow, fresh towels!! how nice of them!!" and then realized i was actually receiving the sheets for my bed. whoops. welcome to hostel life sarah!! our room smelled like a fishing pier for some odd reason, we caught the security guard staring at us through the window (peeping-tom to the max), and i broke the ladder leading up to my to bunk. however, in the end, the whole budget-life wasn't all that bad and we shared many good laughs throughout the experience. 

my favorite iguazú view of all!!

at "la garganta del diablo" (devil's throat), getting 

totally soaked by the sprays!! 

saturday morning, paige and wendy and i struggled out of bed, under-rested and dreaming of food but stoked beyond belief for the exciting day ahead of us. thanks to our argentine residency visas, we were able to enter the park for a mere six bucks each!! wooo, major money-saving coup.

you can hear the roar of the falls from far far away, yet nothing can possibly prepare you for the moment in which you actually see them for the first time. i think i almost started crying when i saw my first glimpse of the waterfall chain. we started on the lower circuit route, followed by the upper circuit, then the "devil's throat" (probably the most ridiculous and impressive viewpoint of them all), and finished the day with a boat ride underneath the more gentle waterfalls, getting totally and completely soaked!! honestly one of the best days ever, that was my idea of paradise.

paige and i in front of one of the smaller waterfalls

i didn't take this picture, but gives a good overall view of the park!!
the devil's throat is the waterfall mass on the far left, and the upper/lower
circuits cover the chain of waterfalls on the right side. san martín island
in the middle of everything, which we circled during our boat ride. 

an agouti crossing our path!! 

obvi i didn't take this photo....although i tried many times!!

because a second entrance into the national park costs a mere $2, we decided to head   back to iguazú sunday morning. hoping to avoid the tourist swarms, the three of us took a detour from the main waterfall trails and opted instead for the sendero macuco, slightly off the beaten path and definitely one of the highlights of my weekend.  along the way, we came across an agouti (basically a giant rodent-guinea-pig-thing, how lovely), my favorite butterfly in the entire entire world (that i first encountered in the ecuador amazon jungle last summer and relentlessly tried to capture photos of, with no suck luck), and an adorable family of MONOS (MONKEYS)!!! monkeys being my third favorite animal behind dogs and killer whales, i was over the moon with excitement. totally in heaven. in a span of about ten minutes, i snapped fifty pictures....most of which came out pretty crappy, but i'll always remember the moment when we came across them in the trail, priceless!! as much as i love living in busy action-filled cities like buenos aires and washington d.c., nothing in the world beats walking through the natural jungle and seeing wildlife in action.

mid-jump!!! 

okay scratch what i just said. nothing in the world beats swimming underneath a waterfall in the jungle. at that point, i was reallllyyy in heaven. after walking for about an hour, we arrived at the beautiful salto arrechea and jumped into the freezing cold water. there were only several other people there along with us, and the intimate environment provided a nice alternative to the overpowering iguazú falls.

paradise!!! 

we chilled in the water and sunbathed on the rocks for about an hour, then returned to the park entrance for a giant buffet lunch. random argentine superstition that i learned there: eating watermelon and drinking alcohol at the same time = recipe for disaster. my two friends had ordered beers to cool off after the long hike, while i was fine with a bottle of coke. then together we all went wild for the watermelon (quality fruit in buenos aires = nonexistent), at which point an argentine man from a nearby table approached us and explained that, according to argentine superstitions, paige and wendy were committing a major no-no!! the whole thing was pretty funny and we shared a good laugh with the man and his family. so basically, my friends wendy and paige are gonna die pretty soon while i can happily continue drinking my quilmes beers for the rest of my time here, as long as they aren't accompanied by fresh slices of watermelon. good to know!! thanks rando argentine family for filling us in!!

on monday morning, we packed up our stuff, hopped onto the public bus, and headed into the main puerto iguazú town center, with a couple hours to kill before catching our bus back home to buenos aires. i was fiddling excessively with my backpack on the bus, so much that a local, around my age, asked me if i wanted him to carry it to take the weight off my shoulders. we started chatting and he was excited to hear that i was from california, and immediately asked if i liked the red hot chili-peppers, who i pretty much forgot were a california endemic band. that little experience really highlighted for me how much my own american culture permeates throughout the rest of the world. somehow, american pop culture manages to find its way even in northern argentina, where many people speak the indigenous guaraní language and live a relatively simplistic life among the sounds of the jungle and the river. and yet, that kid knew more chili-pepper songs than i did!!

as if iguazú wasn't already enough of a surreal dreamworld, the ideal topper to the weekend was the final bus ride back to buenos aires, which was almost just as beautiful as everything iguazú falls had to offer (and that's a pretty freaking bold statement). though not an extreme, the region definitely suffered from poverty to a certain extent (the homes were tiny and haphazardly constructed with wooden boards), but the scenery was unbelievable and i literally spent a consecutive six hours simply watching the countryside drift past me. like, actually. i don't think my attention span has ever lasted for over twenty minutes, yet the stunning countryside images managed to bewitch me for hours and hours on end: women selling fresh oranges from small wooden stalls, kids splashing and people fishing in the various creeks along the side of the road, men tilling their yerba mate fields as the sunlight waned, a pair of sisters skipping home from school hand in hand. most memorable however was the endless array of colors. i felt like i was drunkenly floating through a rainbow: the clearest blue sky i've ever witnessed, bright green trees stretching as far as the eye can see, bright orange-red dirt roads connecting everything, vibrant clothing hanging along the wire lines and ruffling in the breeze. my curiosity just about killed me though!! i was absolutely itching to jump off the bus and wander through the various communities we passed along the way and meet the people that lived there. one day i will have to return to northern argentina, rent a car, and quench my curiosity once and for all. heck, maybe i'll go full-blown che guevara on y'all and explore latin america by motorcycle (but probably just by car, no worries mom)!! each time we passed a new sign, i noted the town name in my journal so that i wouldn't forget. when i later looked up the names in my argentina guidebook, not a single one was listed in the index, and moreover, i couldn't locate any of them on the various maps in my guidebook. just goes to show, sometimes you have to just explore the world yourself!! sometimes the most unsung and overlooked places are actually the brightest gems of all.

after a beautiful sunset, i finally did some homework and then tucked in for a long and restful sleep. just my luck though, i somehow got stuck with the only person on the entire bus who snored!! i then spent half the night wondering how to say "nose-plug" and "drop-kick" in spanish. for real.

i know the following info/photo will probably seem slightly gross and TMI, but the whole thing also strikes me as a little too hilarious and typical-sarah-fashion and impossible not to share. so, since i was trapped in my window seat, imprisoned by the sharapova-decibel snores of my bus buddy, i ended up not moving or walking around for a solid eleven hours. little did i know what would be the end result of that inertia.....i got CANKLES. to the fifth degree. my feet and ankles swelled so much from lack of blood flow that, after coming home and showering before going to meet my anthropology tutor, i was literally unable to get my beloved converse sneakers on. kinda nasty, but i couldn't help laughing at myself. that WOULD happen to me!! check out those fatties!!! overall, a phenomenal weekend though!!

the magic of mate

along with dulce de leche and tango, mate (pronounced mah-tay for those who don't know) was one of those quintessential argentine things i knew about before arriving here in buenos aires, but assumed that the extent to which people actually drank the stuff was a total exaggeration. as i quickly learned when i got here, mate ain't no overhyped tourist myth. mate mania is the real deal and plays a huge role in the social culture of all argentines, a symbol of friendship and amiability that emerges in millions of small encounters every day: students pass their gourds around in the middle of class, near strangers share mate on freezing cold days, professors sip to stay awake during their lectures. i too am now jumping onto the mate bandwagon. nowadays, i can't get enough of the stuff!!

my first two months here in argentina, i taste-tested mate on several different occasions but had never REALLY taken mate like a true argentine, that's to say drinking the herbal infusion incessantly throughout the day. mainly because, no matter how many artisan markets i've perused in search of the perfect gourd, i still have not found my mate match. (and you gotta have good vibes with your mate gourd, obvi). when i explained this to my argentine grandmother, whose veins practically run with mate at this point, i almost gave her a heart attack. she was NOT pleased. so, she whipped out an extra mate gourd my host family had lying around, showed me the exact amount of yerba i should pour into the cup, grabbed a metal bombilla, and voilá!! i was ready for the mate big leagues. then, in her usual excitableness and enthusiasm (i swear she's the argentine reincarnation of comedian betty white) she proceeded to drag my host brother iñaki out from his room for a photo shoot. he was a good sport and snapped some shots of me and my newly manifested argentinian-ness. my hilarious grandma, whom i call abu (short for abuela), also requested a "sexy shot" of me holding my new favorite drink. again, you gotta love home stays.

 not one of the various "sexy shots" i was forced to take....
most of those got deleted quite quickly. sorry abu!! 

for my immediate family members who are reading (what up doggs!!!) i've finally been able to pinpoint exactly what mate tastes like, just bear with me despite how bizarre this realization will sound: if the alisal ranch's smell could be turned into a taste, mate would be the result. seems crazy but soon you will all see. enlightened and addicted you shall all soon be!! just like me!! (got a tad carried away on the rhymes there, sorry). but yes, little by little i am starting to actually like the bitter taste, very woody and earthy but still quite good. something you get used to over time i suppose. and the caffeine and health benefits are just too good to pass up!! herbal infusions and minerals galore!! to the gannon fam if any of you are reading, mate is the new monavie for me jajajajaja!!!!

i used to be a germ freak to the sixth degree. for better or for worse, argentina is weeding out those childhood cooties slowly but surely. unlike us americans, argentines have zero preoccupations about germs and contagiousness. according to my anthropology professor, she has even shared mate with could-be tuberculosis-carriers in indigenous communities in northern argentina. everyone shares mate together and never prefaces a slurp with a suspicious "estás enfermo??" like i normally would back in the states. which is funny to me sometimes, since argentines absolutely FREAK OUT on my behalf when i walk into a café and dump my belongings on the floor. to argentines, potentially getting a little dirt on my leather purse is  practically a death sentence. but passing spit around in a social circle of multiple different people?? no big deal!! argentines are funny like that. culturally, i'm not sure if this openness means that argentines are less paranoid about getting sick in general or that they simply place a higher trust in other individuals. either way, i would wonder why that might be and where the difference might come from. it's a cultural and social difference that might be interesting to explore and continue thinking about.

but enough with my anthro-infested tangents. the main point is, i now love mate!! i am still on the prowl for the perfect gourd but one day soon i'll find my soul mate (ooooo clever clever me dropping bilingual puns). then i'll be able to share the drink with others and truly embody the argentine obsession with mate. right now, i desperately gotta go back and refill my cup!! and i thought i was addicted to dulce de leche?? psshhh!!!

last weekend i pretty much forgot that i was still in argentina....along with another whopping 60 foreign exchange students, i spent the weekend in the argentina's northernmost province of jujuy, where probably the last thing one will find is dulce de leche churros or fashionable women in fur coats. nope, the andean region of jujuy was far from the buenos aires snippet of argentina that i've become used to. the break from bustling urban life was sure welcome though!!

whereas here in buenos aires my favorite views include charming balconies, cobblestone streets in san telmo, and the stubble-faced argentine men, the main attraction in tilcara blew all of them away: mountains. mountains everywhere for miles and miles like nothing i've ever seen....stark and barren, yet colorful and majestic. probably about half of my pictures from the weekend were just of the mountains, i never got bored of them!!

on friday morning, after having settled into the hotel and exploring the charming town center the night before, we bussed over to an awesome pre-incan archaeological site up in the hills. the burial sites were really cool, even though it was slightly creepy to learn that they often buried up to twenty people side by side in the same pit. ick. and that families often kept the skeletons of their deceased family members in their homes for years and years. very creepy, and totally fascinating.

after our tour of the ruins, we headed to a small town nearby called humahuaca, where i tried coca leaves for the first time!! the coca plant is native to northern south america and plays an important role in many andean cultures and religious practices, as well as being the best medicine around for altitude sickness and nausea. my friends and i bought a bag for several pesos and then got to work chewing the bitter little leaves. you basically just take a handful  and chew them on one side of your mouth, kind of like tobacco. when i first walked through the town center, i noticed many men with huge bulges in their cheeks and i thought it was some common deformity that everyone just happened to have. my badddd.....not a weird deformity, people just like chewing, and chewing a lot of these bitter little leaves!! the leaves are totally legal and normal, but i did feel slightly sketchy to a certain extent: coca leaves are refined and purified to make cocaine.....eeeesh. and the leaves themselves do drug you up a little bit, i felt completely woozy and numb all over after chewing a few. whoops!! the social, political, and economic issues surrounding this leaf are  extremely complicated and, in my nerdy anthropology spirit, i find the intersections really fascinating. like i said, the leaf plays a central role in the day-to-day lives of millions of indigenous people as well as providing an important stronghold for their economic stability. and then on the other hand, like i said, the coca leaf serves as the raw material used to manufacture cocaine and excessive production is the seed for huge ramifications across the world. what interests me is how the different governments approach the situation. you restrict the cultivation of the crop, you restrict the proliferation of the cocaine industry, but potentially at the social, cultural, and economic expense of the communities that have been producing and consuming it for centuries, even millennia in some cases. you can see some big tensions between the historical and the modern, all through the microcosm of one seemingly harmless leaf. who knew such a tiny little leaf could cause so much freaking drama!!  another fascinating thing i somehow never knew: extractions from the coca leaf are an ingredient in coca cola, my favorite drink of all time. should be a no-brainer, and yet somehow i never knew!!

i kinda look like i'm on drugs in this picture, and in a way i guess i sort of was. oh well, the leaves helped a ton with the chest pains i was feeling from being so high up in the mountains!! i'll be bringing bags and bags with me when i hike the inca trail to macchu piccu!! i swear they cure everything. we strolled through the town market and the various other shops (where i purchased an oh-so-cozzzyy traditional wool sweater like you can't even imagine) before heading back to the hotel. that evening, i went out for dinner with a group of friends to a traditional peña restaurant, where we enjoyed live folkloric music and also dug into some llama meat!! my friend hannah offered me a few bites of her milanesa de llama, basically a thinly breaded and fried cutlet of llama meat, tasted pretty good to my pleasant surprise!! sort of a cross between chicken and beef, but way tougher to chew through. mmmmmm.

will and nina and wine!! some of my favorites!! 

live music duo, great guitar and other cool instruments!! 

 we left the restaurant around midnight and briefly wandered around the town center looking for other things to do, but tilcara definitely ain't a hopping nightlife city like buenos aires!! so instead, we befriended (well okay fine, iiiii befriended) the cutest stray dog ever, whom we named betty. she was super spunky and had an excess of personality, soooo pressshhh as my family would say!! after playing in the street together with our new canine friend, a couple friends and i went and sat by the river to enjoy the full moon and the clear night sky, great to breathe in some fresh air for once. on the walk back, hannah and i stopped into a grocery store to buy some snacks, where we encountered none other than BETTY!!! just chilling on the floor with some hombres and taking in the scene calmly, and no one was freaking out that there was some mangy and probably flea-infested dog (but reallllly cute) inside the store. that DEFINITELY would not be the case in america. i love this dog-friendly country!! dogs should always be welcome everywhere!! betty then followed us all the way back to the hotel and pretty much refused to leave. what a sweetie.

day two in tilcara. after our typical argentine breakfast of coffee and medialunas (mini croissants), we set off for a long and beautiful bus ride through the mountains, passing several tiny communities along the way and getting higher and higher up with each bend. small clay brick homes were nestled into the steep mountainside, some almost completely isolated and alone and barely hanging onto the landscape, or so it appeared. i was dying to get off the bus and meet the people who lived there, miles and miles removed from other people and communities, and not necessarily in a crop-friendly or tourist-heavy environment to boot. i have no idea how they manage to make their livelihoods, but somehow they keep on getting by despite the struggles and the isolation. major props. we drove for about two hours through the andean peaks, then stopped at the highest point of them all, almost 14,000 feet above sea level and higher than the city of la paz in bolivia!! once again, the change in altitude was affecting me but those coca leaves worked their magic immediately. the program coordinators had also brought along thermoses of coca leaf tea to help us with the altitude sickness and shortness of breath, which was equally helpful and quite tasty!! the wind up there was insane, as you can see from one of my photos below!! 

after enjoying the views and freezing our butts off, we hopped back onto the bus for a short ride to las salinas, a freaking HUGEEEEE desert composed entirely of salt, basically. the whole salt deposit formation thing stretched on for miles and miles and was pretty cool overall. many of the people who live in the mountains nearby rely on salt extractions to be able to feed their goats, and thus be able to make a solid living. others carve little trinkets out of salt (my friend bought a pure-salt llama!!) and sell them to the tourists who come to take in the vastness of the area. after having spent almost three hours on the bus and drinking cup after cup of coca tea, i was just about dying for a bathroom.....and naturally there was only one toilet for a line of about forty people. sooo instead, some friends and i walked far out into the salt nothingness and took care of things there!! a little TMI i know, but who else can honestly say they've done that?? peeing in a giant salt flat wasn't necessarily on my argentina to-do list but, hey, turned out to be a pretty memorable experience. overall, a really great weekend!! enough writing for now!!

the scene of the crime