Featured Columnist - Katie Arancio

After 55 hours of travel I was pretty settled on the fact that Dee, Mansfield, Maya and I would never meet up. I had arrived at the airport nearly 36 hours earlier and, due to some flight confusion, was met by a very friendly and “comfortable” man named Daniel. He was to be my chaperone on the trip across Bolivia and halfway through Argentina to a small town called Cafayete. Throughout the 24 hour bus ride I had prepared myself for the two person vacation that seemed inevitable but, to my surprise, Daniel and I were greeted at the bus station with a hearty slap on the back by none other than Mansfield. We spent most of our Cafayete nights much like the first; acquainting ourselves with other hostel residents at local watering holes.

We were lucky enough to go on some crazy Cafayete excursions during our days there. The first day we took 4 wheelers out through “rivers, forests and sand dunes.” While the rivers were dried up streams and the forests consisted of dead leafless trees, the sand dunes were legit. Dee and I doubled up on the “cautious 4 wheeler” while poor Maya was thrown around endlessly thanks to Mansfield’s lack of driving inhibitions. Either way, the jumps still landed me on the handlebars and Dee on my back one too many times. All of us also drove down a ridiculously steep sand dune that was probably no less than 150 feet high. As Mansfield so perfectly proclaimed, “we rode.”

During the remainder of our stay we hiked some absurd rocks shaped like everything from trains to amphitheaters and went on a tour of their wine country. On the day we went to the vineyards we had rented bikes from our hostel and, unfortunately did not think to test drive the bikes before setting off on our 8 mile bike ride. Soon after we started we realized that Maya’s handlebars were wholly separate from her bike and Dee’s seat was nowhere near sit-able. The first vineyard was literally at the base of the Andes Mountains and the ability to do a wine tasting at a vineyard that gorgeous was well worth dealing with broken bikes.

After Cafayete we set off to Salta, Argentina, a larger city located on our way back to Bolivia. Here we met our friends Pheonix from Austin, TX and Camille from Switzlerland. The High Altitude Museum of Archeology, located in Salta, has three mummies found in March of 1999 (by Americans!) that were perfectly preserved because of the altitude and temperatures at which they died. The museum only displays one mummy at a time for a six month periods because of the deterioration that results from the lights. The one we saw, named “Lightning Girl”, was crazy. She literally looked like a 6 year old child with soot on her face (and a bit of a face indentation due to being struck by lightning). Personally, I’m thinking of coming back in 6 and 12 months to see the other two mummies because they really are unbelievable.

Finally, we set back for Montero. Tuesday was my birthday and, as such, we spent the day learning how to make homemade empanadas and peel yuka (a vegetable comparable to potatoes) with Daniel’s parents. We also made an enormous cake that slowly oozed out of their oven onto the kitchen floor, coated it with dulce de leche, and have been eating it for two days straight. For my last night here we went to a futbol game in Santa Cruz between two rival teams. It was insane; stands were on fire, police had swat shields and Rotties foaming at the mouth, and full bottles of Fanta were thrown when the underdog won. Afterwards we relaxed at a local karaoke/piano bar with some good tunes, company and booty dancing.

All in all I have to say this was probably my most enjoyable vacation. I definitely experienced things I wouldn’t have otherwise between the culture, the sights and the company we kept - well worth the uncertain travel that started it all.

Written by Katie Arancio (see if you come visit us, we'll let you write on our blog!)