After Salta we headed to this quiet town called Jujuy about 300km south of the Bolivian border. It's a beautiful place and historically important to Argentina so we thought we'd make a quick stop on our way to Bolivia. The day we left Salta Nate woke up with a really sore throat and felt generally crappy, and once we arrived in Jujuy (it was only a three hour bus ride) he went straight to bed and slept for the rest of the day, got up to eat a little dinner, and then went back to bed and slept for seventeen hours straight.
We're in a very quiet hostel which is good, since now Nate is quite sick. He's been sleeping a lot for three days and has an ongoing bad headache. This is the first time I've seen him sick, the guy has a great immune system. We went to emergency today to get looked at, the both of us. Nate was rather reluctant but after I checked out his throat with a headlamp I was rather bossy about it cause it looked like an infection...and sure enough he's been put on a round of amoxicillin.
I continue to cough and cough and cough, it's especially bad at night, and she prescribed diphenhydramine, which surprised me. While the quick exams in this very ghetto ancient hospital inspired less confidence than the one I went to in El Bolson we picked up our medicine and we're giving it a shot. She seems sure I don't have an infection in my lungs, but rather some congestion and inflammation.
Morale isn't awesome, I'm not going to lie. We're both looking forward to Bolivia and want to get better. The weather is really grey and bland and we've got cabin fever. I'm just burning through books to pass time mostly. We're bored. None of the WWOOF farms up here worked out, either full for volunteers or we got no reply, so we're ready to move on to Bolivia. Regardless of how we're doing tomorrow we're going to move on in the morning. It's a five hour bus, and then we walk over the border and get another bus to a town about three hours further.
I'm sorry it sounds whiny...oh boo hoo, poor Jess and Nate are having a tough week traveling in a foreign country and not working the winter in Canada...but it's not fun to be sick when you're not at home. It's still beautiful, we still feel so fortunate to be able to be away for so long, but we want to get back at'er. It feels like we're stuck in a rut.
There are only three WWOOF farms in Bolivia but we found something else we'd like to do. It's a paid volunteer situation (I understand that's a paradox, but there's lots of volunteer stuff out there that costs money) but it's really not very much money, and the rewards are high. We're quite excited. It's the rainy season in Bolivia and apparently they're DESPERATE for volunteers at this time of year. We don't need to apply, we can just show up.
I haven't mentioned the national pastime of daily naps here. People take siestas every day, and the majority of business close from 2-5pm. You can't find anything much of anything that's not an official office or essential service open in that time slot. The occasional ice cream shop or fast food joint, but they're far and few between. It's actually quite surreal, anywhere other than Buenos Aires becomes a ghost town. Yesterday afternoon I wanted to pick up some bread and I had to walk fifteen blocks to find some. I could have been doing naked cartwheels down the middle of the street and no one would have noticed. It's kind of annoying cause we're not accustomed to it. Sundays are also closed, there is no one on the streets.
People are really pumped for Christmas but it feels so weird to not be a part of it. I admit to having pangs of longing for home and seeing everyone. It happened last year too.
I've read a streak since leaving home.
The Help (loved it)
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter (sad, dark story, but worth the time)
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See (reminded me a little of Joy Luck Club)
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (so good)
Bossypants (fun, light read, by Tina Fey formerly of SNL)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (amazing)
The Cookbook Collector (meh)
Little Bee (very good also)
and I'm about halfway through Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and loving it.
We have crossed into the land of beautiful wools..there are lots of shops selling exquisite alpaca and llama wools and I want to pick up some needles and make some scarves. Good way to pass the long bus rides. It's pretty expensive here, like what it costs back home, so I'll wait and get some alpaca stuff in Bolivia.
That's all folks! I'm going to pick up some empanadas and humitas and head back to the hostel to see how my sick boyfriend is doing.
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