Salta: Tommy Dooley Junio 23

 On Thursday's excursion we headed north from the capital of Salta, to an area approximately 3 hours driving from Bolivia. We made a few stops visiting areas on the way to our final destination. At one of the stops our tour guide explained to us the cultural rituals that many of the Argentinians   continue to this day. As we were climbing up one of the mountains which was approximately 3,500 meters in altitude, all of us felt a lot more out of breath then we normally should have. During this hike we went into a small village, which was populated by all native Argentinians, who looked very different from the population in Buenos Aires. Many of the mountains we visited had multiple colors due to the different rocks, shown in the picture below. 

  In the afternoon we visited a village which at one point was occupied by 3,000 Argentinians. The village was placed in an ideal location for fighting with other tribes as at the time of the creation of the village many different tribes were at war with each other. It was strategically placed on the side of a mountain facing a vast flat area, while towards the back of the village their stood mountains that would be nearly impossible to bring an army across to attack. During the time that these villages were built, safety was the people's largest priority, because of this the houses built were extremely close to each other, with the idea that it is safest to be proximate large numbers of people.  Our guide explained to us the daily lives of these people as well as many of their cultural normalities. Shown below is the view from the abandoned village. 

Sent from my iPhone

Buenos Aires: Grant Gravellese Junio 29

On the 29th of June, we went into the city for another sight seeing tour. We had breakfast in a beautiful cafe from the 1920's before continuing on our way. On the walk to the subway, we passed both the old and new national congress buildings. We made our way to the area around the 9th of July, the widest avenue in the world with 16 lanes, named after the independence day of Argentina. In the avenue, there are many things to see, such as a giant mural on a building of Eva Peron singing into a microphone, and a small representation of the Iguacú falls. We continued to the road where the old congress building is, and walked down that. We saw many statues, including a sculpture near identical to the thinker in New York. The old congress building looks very beautiful from that angle, and it was quite a sight. We went back to our host brother's homes when we got back to the school, but later that night we took a tour of an office building inspired by the works of Dante. The bottom floor was made to be like hell, the middle of the building as purgatory, and the top; which was a tower including a lighthouse, modeled as heaven. The building was originally the tallest building in Argentina, a gargantuan 23 stories high. The building was also intended to be the final resting place of Dante by the architect, who was worried that Dante's remains would be lost in WWI. When we got to the top of the tower, the view of the city was great. Though the view was great and the observation balconies were very cool, I was put off a bit by the height of the tower, and couldn't fully enjoy it. After that, we went down to the offices of the tour, where there was a toast and we watched two dancers perform traditional dances. Mrs. Gourlis even got a nice picture with them afterwards! Though the day wasn't totally unique, given that we had been around the city before; the tour of the building was very interesting. We all were very tired at the end of the day, but had gained a new perspective on the city of Argentina, making it worth the while.