Argentina

The border crossing into Argentina from Bolivia was rough, we got ripped off (for the first and only time, as far as we know) on bus tickets, spent a LONG time waiting for things to open (the border, buses) and it all happened between 4:30 and 11am.  We didn't sleep for a long time, it was unpleasant.  But then we made it to pretty Salta, essentially the promised land after rustic Bolivia.  They gave us towels AND breakfast at the hostel!  Salta is a gorgeous town in Northern Argentina where we unknowingly witnessed a changing of the guard (gaucho horse tricks are pretty cool to see), did a lot of walking around (as usual) and enjoyed the return to potable water.

 

 After a little self convincing (not hard), we decided that we needed to see the Foz de Iguazú on the way to Buenos Aires, where we were to go our separate ways for the month of February.  The Foz is basically an enormous waterfall in the jungle on the border between Argentina and Brazil (wiki it).  So after 23 hours on a bus we had gone from the high desert of Salta to the jungle of Puerto Iguazú.  For all the tourism the town gets, it wasn't too bad and we ate some really excellent and cheap ice cream every day we were there.  The waterfall itself was absolutely stunning, it was a great park and another amazing thing we saw this summer.  I can't believe how lucky we are!  Did some hiking through the jungle, were almost eaten by the most terrifying spiders I'd ever seen and enjoyed the last few days of our road wandering before settling down (sort of) for a month in Buenos. 

After saying goodbye to Jac (until we would meet again in Valdivia) I took a train two hours east of Buenos Aires to a little town called General Rodriguez.  There I spent the next three weeks working on an organic farm and living with a Twelve Tribes community.  Twelve Tribes is a religious group (cult) that was started in the 1970s in Tennessee...it's basically a hippies for Jesus thing but they live outside of society and try to live sustainably.  I loved getting to know their community and working with people from around the world on the farm (not to mention free room and board, and the food was EXCELLENT), what I did not love so much was the religious zealotry and fundamentalism.  They believe the apocalypse is definitely happening in the next 70 years or so and take the Bible absolutely literally, for example.  However, I did love the people, the food, the lifestyle, the dancing.  It's a very peaceful and pure way of life, even if it isn't for me.  I love coffee, chocolate, movies and outside society way to much to feel at home in a community like that.  Not to mention my family and friends.  But they have a bunch of communities in the US so if I ever need a place to kick it for free and take a break from society, I know where to go.  Anyway, wiki the religion if you have five minutes, it was a nutty three weeks.  The other workers and non-community members were great though, something about being the outsiders at a cult in a foreign country is a major bonding experience, and bond we did.  I learned how to sing 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider' in Danish!

 

Circle dancing to Hebrew folk music on the farm, check out those clothes.

 

 The band, the music was great too.

 Next stop, Valdivia!