The Beauty of Jujuy (And The Best Study Abroad Apps!)
By Grace Carballo ‘17
It’s important that you know, both for accuracy of pronunciation and the sake of the rhyme scheme that Jujuy is pronounced “Hoo-hooey”. And our road-trip through the northern part of this province in Argentina was nothing short of breathtaking.
Four fellow exchange students and I (two of them fellow Trojans) decided to take a little road trip before our parciales (midterms) to Northwestern Argentina, particularly the provinces of Salta and Jujuy. Unfortunately for our French traveling companion, none of us “Yanquis” have ever learned how to drive manual cars so the roadtrip responsibilities were pretty one-sided in that she literally did all of the driving and we Gringas took turns navigating and setting the mood of the car by selecting the tunes, a responsibility I took very seriously.
(SALINAS GRANDES)
Our journey was unstructured and pretty low tech for the most part given our very limited wifi and often lacking or nonexistent cell service but we turned out to be quite the adaptable group of gals.
Of course we had a few mishaps along the way, but if you don’t make mistakes how would you ever learn? At Salinas Grandes, beautiful salt flats, we attempted to save money by being our own guides which was bold and impractical. Unfortunately, my dear friend, Katy, took the path less traveled, which ended up being untraveled for a reason- the reason being it was dangerous and essentially quick sand.
(SALINAS GRANDES)
We lost one Ked in the mud but rose like phoenixes and paid for a guide like everyone else. He explained the salt flats to us and took this iconic group shot (above) and helped us maneuver the flats without further accidents or loss of shoes.
(MURAL IN IRUYA)
Our route and agenda was determined largely by what time we woke up and what we had heard was really cool by hostel mates and friends who had traveled there in the earlier months of the program. A boy in our Spanish class told us about an amazing little town far North in the mountains, called Iruya.
It was only accessible by a 3-hour bus ride from the nearest town and the roads were too windy and treacherous for our rental car to attempt the task, given our insurance definitely wouldn’t cover the damage.
We only had the afternoon to spend in Iruya but it was worth the bumpy and surprisingly exhausting voyage.
Though our wifi/cell service may have been limited to when we were in the hostels each night, I think it is important to mention three apps that made our lives significantly easier during our week of travel that would be great for any roadtrips or adventures abroad.
1) The Shared Album
Rather than having everyone message the photos to each other you can create a shared album between one another’s iphones or icloud accounts. Best of all, you can even send a link to this shared album via e-mail so those without these apple products can still view and download the pictures. I tend to send the link to my mom so she can stay in the loop and I’m sure many of my friends’ moms were following our trip just as closely.
2) TriCount
This app is amazing and the modern-day equivalent of “just put it on the friend tab”. At various points we all took turns paying for some pretty big expenditures- full tanks of gas, the tab at a restaurant, entrance fees to a park, etc. and instead of having to divide these up by 5 each time we had to pay for something, we just added it to the Tricount. In the end, it told us exactly how many pesos each person should pay one another which made life unrealistically fair for all of us. Also as a necessary addendum, I want to point out that the expenditures above are in Argentine pesos NOT dollars and right now the exchange rate is about 14.2 pesos to every dollar. We are not made of money and probably never will be.
Each hostel’s wifi was just strong enough to allow us to book our next one on Booking. I like it a lot because you can see reviews right on it, filter by price, and read about the amenities it offers (swipe right for wifi and breakfast). Don’t forget to add 20% for IVA or whatever it is depending on your region because that isn’t included in the price.
We all had a lot more peace of mind arriving in each new city when we knew we had our hostel reservation already taken care of. Nothing like knowing you have a bed in reach when darkness falls!
(IRUYA)
(CATORCE CALORES, JUJUY)
None of us had ever seen mountains quite like the ones we saw in Jujuy. With pastels, bright reds, greens, and purples they truly looked as though they were from another world. The views literally took my breath away, although this could be because we were at one of the highest points in the range, I forgot to take my inhaler, and I hadn’t been hydrating.
(FEMINIST MURAL IN HUMAMARCA)
It was a beautiful voyage with great company and unforgettable nature. We were really fortunate to have sunshine and great weather and kind souls helping us along the way. I’ll leave you with this mural we saw in Humamarca that reminded me so much of all the strong, amazing women I had the chance to learn from last semester in Nicaragua. I had an unsettling experience with a man working the entrance to one of the viewpoints, which I plan to debrief in a subsequent post about Women Traveling Abroad and what that means to me, and this mural comforts me a lot because it takes a strong stance against the prevailing injustice women around the world continue to face.
(OUR FIRST BATHROOM BREAK, SALTA TO JUJUY)
There are some creeps in Jujuy, just like there are “bad apples” in Los Angeles or wherever you may be. But the good people and the natural beauty definitely outweighed the negative for me, and I hope to contribute to the positive side of that ratio in the lives of those around me.
Jujuy 4evr,
Grace ‘17
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