Excursion #1

Today (Wednesday June 17th) was my first full day in Salta. Today was a holiday too, so my first day at the work site was delayed, giving me to time to get the lay of the land. I heard a parade would be held to honor the hero of Salta (for whom the holiday was held for), some man who helped Salta gain its independence from some power…I’m really not sure if that’s completely right, as my contact here didn’t even know the whole story, and I didn’t catch all of the speeches that were announced on loudspeakers during the parade. But the speaker’s tone of voice definitely sent the feelings of pride and honor.

My first excursion took about 4 hours. The main square, the shopping mall, and the site where the parade was held are all quite a bit further than expected from my house, and are in slightly different directions than one another. However, I did successfully make it to each site. The parade took the longest, as I stood there for 2.5 hours and it still wasn’t over! After getting bored of one too many men on horseback, I found the main square, called Plaza 9 de Julio, don’t ask me why. I think scoped out what I was told are the two most popular streets for stores, restaurants, etc. Now please excuse my constant reference to similarities in Salamanca, Spain, but it’s the only other city that I’ve spent enough time in to see how things works. Living in a city, being a student in a city, working in a city, and being a tourist are all completely different things!

But seriously, I felt like Salta was a slightly different version of Salamanca. It is bigger, but the types of stores, the food, and the fact you need to have your fruit weighed AT the fruit section of the grocery store before bringing it to the cashier is the same.

However, the biggest difference is the concern with transportation—there isn’t less transportation here…its just a little more dangerous. Unless you are in the main streets near the main square, there are NO stoplights, NO stop signs, NO yield signs, NO crosswalk signs, NO signs of any sort. It is literally every man, motorcycle, car, bicycle and horse for himself. There are also no lines to divide lanes, people just drive where they want at whatever speed they want (no speed limits). I’m surprised I haven’t seen any crashes yet, as cars speed down the streets and only briefly brake to see if they are about to clip a car or innocent bystander, before speeding off again.

Despite my adventurous day, my main goal was to find an Internet café with Wi-Fi. Maybe it was the sun blinding my eyes while walking, the fact it was a holiday and most places were closed, or my own stupidity, but I could not find a single one. The two Internet places I did find had Internet, but not Wi-Fi. I feel completely removed from the outside world, and I can’t say I like the feeling. Some people may find this refreshing. That removing oneself from the technology that ties us down and controls our lives too often is a good thing. While I do agree that the increasing dependency on technology is sometimes disgusting, it is also a wonderful invention that let’s us keep in touch with those people important to us. From seeing someone every day to having to struggle to find a way to tell him or her you arrived safely is a little disconcerting.