One evening, after biking out to the lake at Cadillal, we found ourselves further from home at the hour of darkness than we wanted. We stuck our thumbs out, and a pickup with six people in the back (and a cooler) stopped to give us a ride back into the city.
All in all we made nine people, three bicycles, and one cooler.
Trevor and I did get to take on a couple of painting projects at Grandma's house, this one with the help of our friend Jorge.
Summer is the rainy season in Tucuman. It doesn't rain often, but when it does, there's no messing around. This street (yes street, not river) had water flowing down it almost a meter deep.
Our friend Gabby and one of her kittens.
New Years is a holiday thoroughly celebrated with fireworks and friends.
Trevor and I got to bicycle out to this river with some friends. The river isn't deep, nor is it particularly cold, but any place that offers respite from the heat gets packed. This is a crowded spot on the river, but there were people enjoying it for miles.
Our biking buddies, Pablo to my left, and his friend who's name I can't remember.
A fiesta in the park featuring our favorite family's family, and two friends from Seattle, Shimi and Aleena (I probably misspelled her name).
Mabel, mother to our favorite family, threw a dance party for us at her mother's house, it was great fun.
Dancing, friends, pizza, and empanadas.
On our three month anniversary, Jan. 10th, we decided to get our beards shaved.
There's wonderful variety in our group.
We were all a little shocked to see our bare faces.
Once we shaved, some of our Tucuman friends decided to invite us to a wedding.
So we got all spiffied up.
Dancing with the bride.
Our friends David and Yohanna modeling the funny hats that come out after...3am
They also bring cans of foam to blow into the dance floor
Trevor was honored to participate in an interesting Argentine custom.
He removed a garter from the bride, and put it on one of her friends. This is repeated several times with different guys and different friends. Something tells me this tradition won't be moving to the states any time soon.
Trevor poses with the bride and the rest of the men who participated in the garter exchange.
Sometime after the wedding, Trevor and I decided to take a 3-4 day bicycle trip up into the nearby mountains while waiting for Fernando to get some things taken care of. We were headed to a beautiful little town called Tafi del Valle. Here, we're resting in the plaza of a little town. Plazas, by the way, are wonderful things. In any town we roll into we can ask where the plaza is and know we're headed to center of town with a place we can relax. A great thing for travelers.
Trevor and I actually decided to sit in this river for some 20 minutes. We had to climb a lot to get into those mountains.
We had great plans for this meat. Then, the rain started dumping. The road to the camping area in which we stayed became a river, and the next morning there was a three foot deep trench dug by the river. And for any curious people, if all you have is a pot, sausage, beef, and beer, fear not, it's a decently tasty combination.
It's got to rain to keep things green.
Trevor and I decided we wanted to go visit another mountain town called Cafayate, and our 3-4 day trip started getting a little longer.
In beautiful Tafi del Valle, we stayed two nights. The first night was at a campground where we left our tarp behind.
There you can see a picture of the tarp in the spot we left it.
We climbed a 3,000 meter pass to get over into a desert valley.
The next night Eddy invited us to stay at his family's house, which was wonderful. He and his family were incredibly generous to us, and they hadn't even invited us to go on vacation with them yet.
Cafayate is known for it's wine production...
So Trevor and I went on a tour, tasted some wines, and bought a couple of bottles to do our own taste tests. The wine, goat cheese, and bread made a wonderful lunch.
Finally, Trevor and I decided to head back home and not continue north to Bolivia. The first town we stopped in, we met Arturo and his wife, a wonderful couple who invited us to stay with them for the night.
As Trevor and I biked back into Tafi del Valle, we called Eddy to see if we might spend the night again with them.
Instead of inviting us to their home, they invited us to go on vacation with them up north to the province of Salta. We thought and prayed about it for a while, and decided to go for it. We had a great time with them, though the car ride was definitely a little less comfortable with two large gringos crammed into the truck with them. And gratitous cactus posing.
Here we are at the ruins of Quilmes, one of the many interesting stops on our journey to Salta.
The toad, a natural(?) formation.
This place is called the Amphitheatre because it has incredible acoustics. The man in the background is playing the flute.
William ponders rock and listens to enchanting music.
This is called the Devils Throat, another very cool natural formation
hehehe
Trevor and the kids enjoy the fresh water snails.
Their family doesn't go out to eat much, but since it was raining and their hot plate wasn't working, we left the campground at which we were staying and went for empanadas.
The church of San Francisco in Salta.
Salta from the nearby mountains
There were five people in the front of the cab and four in the back. Amazingly, not once did we hear the kids complaining.
Of course, we stopped to play in the dunes.
Eddy's family loves to bicycle.
Trevor and I said thank you and goodbye to Eddy's family, and prepared to head back to Tucuman. First, however, we spent a night with two travelers in this really cool abandoned building
Back over the pass we go.
And down
And down (by the statue known as 'El Indio,' which, for those of you who don't know, is spanish for, 'The Indio')
Finally, it was time to say goodbye to friends in Tucuman.
Adios Amigos! Hasta Luego.
