The Adventures of Daphne and Leo.......... in Salta and Jujuy.


Salta, in the northwest of Argentina is a long way from Mar del Plata where we live. By road, it is a good two full days drive, while a coach takes about 30 hours. So we went as far as Buenos Aires by coach some 5 ½ hours where we spent a night. That journey is boring as it goes through flat empty countryside with nothing to break up the monotony, and the day we left was overcast anyway ............ that is until 6 p.m. when the sun peaked through the clouds just as it was setting, and we could then watch the golden ball sink sink below the flat horizon... at that moment I felt we had angels watching over the rest of our journey!!

The 30th July dawned sunny in B.A. We had a good flight, clear weather all the way and arrived in Salta city mid afternoon and 24°C. The family house is under heavy modernization but they were waiting for us with a typical soup, several members of husband’s family turned up in the rest of the day.

On the 31st we were due to leave for Iruya

in the mountains “after midday” (that began to be an expression that ment anything from 2 p.m. to midnight – it would NOT be morning!!! In fact there was some doubt if we would even leave that day at all) As it was, we left well gone 5 p.m. no chance at all we’d reach ouir destination in daylight. I don’t know how many people anyone else usually packs into a Ford pick-up but we were 18, fourteen in the back with the boxes of food, blankets, personall luggage, and four in the front, me, Leo the driver and a small boy. Leo was afraid we’d get stopped by the police... I was just afraid! As it was, we DID get stopped by the police.. twice... The driver, the official driver for the council of Iruya, nephew to the Mayor of Iruya who is also Leo’s brother, just produced his documents and said “we are all Lundas” and we got waved through with a tolerant smile from the police.

I don’t know how those in the back fared, but we were pretty cramped in the front. In Humahuaca, ( Province of Jujuy), we stopped for refreshments, and to get comfortable, then a tarpauline was produced to protect those in the back, since from there the road is a lot more “natural” Its those last 57 kilometres which really take us into the mountains, reaching a height of 4.000 metres above sea level along the twisting winding track, sheer rocks on one side precipice on the other, no ilumination. We reached Iruya 2.700 m.a.s.l. at 1 in the morning, bitterly cold, and every one dispersed to go to bed, Leo and I being housed in brother mayor’s house. Then it hit me!! Dizzy, headache, stomach upset. I spent the rest of that night suffering the drunkeness of the journey and next morning I felt terrible so much so that Leo took me to see a doctor who gave me some tablets for height sickness.

Well, I missed the Pacha-Mama (Mother Earth)festivities, but Leo told me all about it, how they have a ceremony to ask permission to open up the earth, and then “feed the earth” with what ever food the family is eating and drinking. The night before we had seen several bonfire on the way up which is to symbolically smoke out evil spirits from the houses and surrounds. That afternoon, feeling a little better but still squeezy, I didnt want to go with Leo who went up to a higher place with some of his brothers, where they had ceremony for the adoption of new born lambs. Leo said he was “godfather” to two lambs, and had to clip their ears and tails. I was looked after and accompanied by a succession of neices and nephews and was taken up to a panoramic spot where you can see the whole village and surrounds.

Back in the village, and feeling on top of the world I was “volunteered” to help with next days birthday party arrangements, birthday souvenirs, decorations, posters etc. Our room was used as the workshop were all this was being done. Next day the day of party, the entire family, was busy preparing food, differnt bbq’d meats, salads and hundreds of pasties. I was helping with the pasties when someone asked if I could make a balloon pinata. Leo inmediately searched the village for suitable materials and came back with a large cable ring and a ball of cord, two girls helped me, and the boys, installed it in the roof of the party hall. All the younger kids, then had fun basketballing the balloons into the net!! It really was a great example of teamwork, the whole party!

In the afternoon, the birthday girl took part in a school football competion.. the football field being stoney, not a blade of grass.

The girl Pamela, was beautiful at the party, a long lavanda coloured dress, her hair cleverly plaited.

There were 130 guests who started arriving about 10 p.m. but hundreds of others installed themselves in the party hall. The girl got loads of presents, a double bed piled high! After the meal, fingers, no knives and forks or plates, the dancing started. It seemed to me the rythm was always the same, the hall was packed, and because I had a bad night, I left “early”at 3 a.m. Leo said he was going to stay on and film the cutting of the cake which was eight high. The party ended at 6 in the morning, and by the time we got up the hall was being cleared. Later there was a simple ceremony where the girl opened all her presents... seven bedside lamps, several sweaters, ornaments, soft toys, blankets, and a TV from her parents.

Unfortunately I wasn’t lucky with the two rolls of film I had taken for the occasion and we used up any we had started in the football match. During the party, I was asked to lend my camera as the persons had jammed. Snap snap snap, and my camera was given back, without the batteries, as that had “jammed too” ( the roll was finished) but without the batteries, I couldn’t rewind. On our last day in the village the Mayor needed a camera with film. Mine was the only camera available and Leo used the batteries from his shaver. The last film was put in and the mayor used it to take half a dozen pics of the area where he wanted to install the villages new waste dump, then offered to buy it off me, leaving me with no film for the spectacular mountain views on the return journey... again in a loaded truck, This time, basically going down, the journey didnt make me sick..

Leo and I decided to spend a night in Humahuaca to get to know it a little better. Iruya recieves two bus loads of tourists almost daily these days, but is not prepared for them, the people just want to get on with their lives, and not be looked on as strange bugs.... it IS a different life –style, I see more being with family than if I had gone as another tourist. In fact I couldnt leave the house with someone asking me “where are you going, Auntie?” (I have no idea how many have the legitimate right to call me “auntie – tía”) Humahuaca on the other hand, lives off tourism, many shops selling regional produce and even more people in parks and streets selling their wares. Restaurants too, are dedicated to the tourist, regional dishes-pasties, tamales, humitas, goat or llama meat hotpots or bbq’s, typical desserts, all accompanied by local music groups. The place is surrounded by giant cactus, the wood of which is used in decorative construction. There is a church there, that has cactus wood doors and windows, and at midday a saint comes out and blesses the crowds in the surrounding park ( pics to be added later) The weather had been warm and dry by day, very cold at night, a dry dust laden wind.

Back in Salta city,

Leo installed a new water heater he had had sent from Mar del Plata, repaired all the leaky taps and toilet. We were visited by other family members, and attended an open air concert We spent two days in Rosario de la Frontera, a flat, rural area where there are thermal baths and not much else, staying in a lovely apartment lent to us by another family member. Two days were enough, the Tv didnt work, we could find a video hire shop, the few Internet centers were always full of young people, and we’d walked everywhere there was to walk to. Back in Salta city to try and fit all we had adquired into the two bags we had taken!!!. That done, our last afternoon we spent walking in an idealic area a few km out of Salta city, a bubbling stream surrounded by loads of greenery, a lovely way to end a lovely holiday.

Again the return flight was in clear weather all the way and we were met at home by my s.i.l. about the only member of the family who hadn’t gone for the birthday.

Daphne