Another three places: Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Jujuy. We'll be back to single instalments again soon, I promise!
It feels like ages since my last post about the places I've visited but when I looked, it's only been a week. I guess that's because it's been a fairly difficult week. Travelling wise, it's been pretty uneventful, but emotionally it has been a hard one. As I mentioned previously, this trip has been somewhat challenging because of the news I've received throughout it and as a result a seed got planted in my head that I wanted to go home. I tried to get rid of it but to no avail, it stuck. Anyway, this week it blossomed and so I decided there was no point staying here if I really wasn't happy as the last thing I want is to be miserable for the remainder of my time here and have that ruin my trip so far, which has been awesome. So to cut a long story short, which involves missing out the challenges of changing a reward flight ticket (no longer flying home with BA!) I'm now heading home 12 days early. It's not a huge amount of time and for a long while I've thought I could just suck it up and stay here but I finally decided that I couldn't. So I'm heading home on the 3rd June, arriving back in the UK on the 4th. Between now and then I will be in Salta, Iguazu falls and Rio, all really cool places that I don't want to miss and which should be amazing. I feel lke a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and for the first time in quite some time I really enjoyed exploring Jujuy today, rather than just wandering aimlessly which is what I feel I've been doing in the other places I've visited recently.
Since my last post, I've been to Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and now Jujuy. I just did a couple of nights in SDE, the guidebooks hadn't been hugely complimentary, but I really should learn that I mostly disagree with them because it was actually a really nice place! It had an amazing atmosphere, particularly in the main square, where at night everyone congregated
and was a fun place to spend a day or so. The weekend I was there it was the National Monument weekend which seems to be a bit like our Open House weekend in the UK. However, the buildings I went into I would guess are open anyway, as one was the Cathedral
And the other the Franciscan Basilica.
At the Basilica, the guide could only speak Spanish and we started off really well as she spoke slowly and I managed to understand a big chunk of what she was saying. However, two Argentinian people joined us and my understanding went out the window because she suddenly started speaking much faster! Hey ho!
There is a fab cultural centre in SDE which despite all info about it saying it opens at 9am, opens at 10am (can you tell I was there before 10am?). It was only 10 pesos to get in (currently around 30p) and included a fine art gallery, a natural history section, and an anthropological collection.
I also discovered more sculpture at the FORUM!
These two were my favourite pieces.
This was previously the train station apparently but has changed into a convention centre. They had a Neuroscience Symposium on whilst I was there but I didn't see any of my neuroscience friends there!
One thing I did find amusing was the number of references to things familiar in SDE. I nearly stayed in Hotel Coventry
There was a restaurant called Stoke CIty
And the Savoy Hotel!
That pretty much covers my time in SDE. One thing I did find odd about the place is that there were virtually no restaurants! It made eating out very tricky! This was necessary for me as I was in a hotel that only served breakfast so wasn't like I could make my own meals. Had some of the worst tacos I've ever eaten and just generally really dodgy food. So whilst it was a nice place to visit, don't expect any culinary delights...
From Santiago del Estero, I made my way to Tucumán. I had three nights here and sadly this is where my desire to return home really kicked in. The main reason behind this was the mosquitos. I got bitten to death in Tucumán and this is despite being absolutely covered in high strength insect repellent. I was virtually bathing in the stuff but over the course of the time I was there, was in double digits again with the bites. The really irritating thing is that they were mostly on my feet and so because I can't tolerate walking around in my flip flops for long, I have to put shoes on and that just made them itch unbelievably badly. So it was pretty grim and as such, I only did one day of exploring.
I started off at the Paseo de Los Libertadores de America.
Tucumán is the place where the Declaration of Independence was signed and so there are a lot of references to this around the city.
From here, I went to the Casa Independencia
where the history of the signing is displayed - being here really reminded of being in Philadelphia! They had the room set up how it would have been when it was signed
and outside, there was a large bronze fresco depicting the signing.
I then decided that as it was such a beautiful day, I would spend the afternoon in the park.
Well sadly that idea didn't last long. I've mentioned before how much litter there is in Argentina, but I have never seen anywhere quite like Tucumán. It was truly awful there.
On the drive into the city, I was horrified by how awful it was and the city itself suffered badly from a litter problem. The park looked just like the pictures of the British beaches that I saw after the long weekend. And it's such a shame because the city and the park were beautiful. There were amazing buildings such as these in the city
And this is a wide view of the park...
but all around, rubbish.
Anyway, this did leave me feeling pretty rubbish myself (get it?) and there was nowhere vaguely litter free where I could sit and so I just ended up heading back to the hostel. The next day I have little to share as I spent the day reading! I downloaded a sewing magazine and have started reading a series of books called the Supernatural Prison which are absolutely gripping and so I had a lovely day of literature! That evening I did go to the bead shop that was along the road from my hostel and now have a few more things to carry... !!
Yesterday, I made my way from Tucumán to Jujuy, or San Salvador de Jujuy to give it its full name. Last night I just headed into town for dinner and then today, after chatting with friends and family and booking my new flight home, I went into town to explore. And I genuinely enjoyed doing it.
Jujuy seems a really nice place, with quite a chilled vibe. Again, some beautiful architecture
but for me its best feature is its Parque Botanico! It was beautiful. It was about £1 to go in and was more of a forest than a botanical park to me. On the walk there I had to cross a river, and the rocks lining it were a similar colour to those I saw in Aconcagua,
which makes sense given I'm near the Andes again. There was a walk that you could do up to a lookout point and it really reminded me to the walk that I did with Haden, Amelia and Cecelia when I was in Pucón.
Along the walk there were rubbish bins that had information on the birds in the park
and just in case you were tempted, there were the cutest signs telling you not to take the plants.
The view from the lookout was incredible!
It's just a shame that it was quite cloudy today so it wasn't a clear view of the hills. However, I had great fun playing with my camera and trying to take some arty shots of nature. My favourite is this close up of some fungi that was growing on a tree.
From here I headed to Havanna, the South American equivalent of Starbucks and treated myself to a white chocolate alfajore (the amazing dulce de leche filled biscuits that are traditional out here) and then I came back to the hostel, which is where you find me now.
Tomorrow I head to Salta and I hope to do some day trips from there. I now only have 17 days left and I really feel like I'm going to have a fab last couple of weeks and will totally end the trip on a massive high. It feels really good to be feeling so positive again 😊
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