La Rioja

things have been intense since leaving cafayate. the next day i had a really tough climb with maybe 35 mph headwinds. at some point i realized i was not going to make it to a town before nightfall and started looking for a place to camp. since i was climbing up a mountain, flat ground was sparce. i ended up seeing what i thought was a house, and i knocked on the door to see if i could camp in their yard. no one answered. i figured the place was abandoned, and opened the door. inside was some kind of shrine to san antonio, and a perfect place to spend the night. i hope san antonio didn't mind!
the next day i biked into Tucuman and this guy invited me to spend the night at his and his mom's house. i think if i'd have known how poor they were, i might have said "no". it was a little crazy. also, the guy (alvaro) gave me his bed, so he, his mom, and his younger brother and sister all slept in one bed! the roads weren't paved in alvaro's neighborhood. i think he lived in the argentinian version of the ghetto part of town. lot's of people just hanging out in the street. their house was made out of cinderblocks with a corregated steel roof. the bathroom was shared with another family and was in their yard. at night they locked their gate, so alvaro's mom said if i had to pee at night i had to pee in a bucket. i made sure i didn't drink too much water that night. i showed his little brother and sister my camp stove and made them soup. they thought it was the coolest thing they had ever seen. alvaro was a janitor in the local hospital and went to work at 6:00am. they said i should definately leave in the morning with alvaro because if i walked around the neighborhood by byself someone would rob me. it doesn't get light until 7:00 so i ended up hanging out in this gas station for a while. know what's crazy? all the gas stations in argentina have expresso machines and serve really good pastries. it's pretty awesome.
about 50 miles south of tucumán, this jeep full of people stop and a guy jumps out of the car and asks me if i'd like to come to his family bbq. i say sure and end up at this families house eating insane, insane amounts of meat. it was so crazy because the whole family was
there, aunts, uncles, grandma's kids... everybody. and eveyone was talking to me at once and drinking all this wine and then some would would yell at everyone to be quiet and let me eat and then in a few seconds they'd all start up again. the grandma was the best. at one point she told everyone to be quiet, and made really intense eye contact with me and said, "tell me jessie, in 10 months of biking you haven't found anyone to share that tent of yours?" my face turned bright red and i was like, "no, no way!"

this is a photo of one of the aunts named mercedes with a bunch of the kids. i ended up spending the night at mercede´s house. it was pretty intense. we shared a bed, and she was really into astrology. apearently i am a "monkey" in chinese astrology. she had this whole book on the subject and read me all about the monkey. while this was going on, she was giving me some kind of moisterizing hand treatment that involved a special lotion and then i had to wear these plastic gloves over the lotion for like a half hour. i have very little interest in astrology in english, and then in spanish there are a lot of words i don't understand. at one point after reading about the monkey for like a half hour, mercedes went to get the dictionary. i was thinking, "good god, how much longer is this chapter about the monkey?" and so i tried to turn the pages of the book to find out, but i couldn't do anything with those plastic gloves on! i felt so trapped. i was really exhausted and was trying to figure out what to do, and i was thinking, "ok, if you were in this situation communicating in english, what would you say?" but i just started laughing because there's no way i would ever end up hanging out in my underwear, with plastic gloves on, sharing a bed with a middle aged lady who was into chinese astrology. anyways, when mercedes came back i just told her i was going to take the gloves off, wash my hands and go to sleep, and that i was sorry i was so tired.
the next day i was planning to stay in this town la merced, but they didn't have a hotel and i really needed a good night of sleep at this point. so, i headed into catamarca making it a 90 mile day. i stopped at this bike shop to see if they sold shimano 9 speed chains, and the woman working behind the counter invited me to spend the night at her house. Vilma said she had a big yard where i could put up my tent. i told her i liked her shirt, which said I (heart) AR, and was a take off on the I (heart) NY shirts. and so she gave me one. isn't that nice! Vilma and her family were so nice! i couldn't believe it. it was really great hanging out with them.
argentinians have a really different schedule then we do. they get up in the morning and go to work, but then after lunch they go home and spend the whole afternoon sleeping. then around 4 or 5 they go back to work, and then come home again at around 9:30 at night and eat dinner at like 10:00 or 11:00. by the time i got to bed at Vilma's it was midnight. i was so tired i crawled into the tent and passed out in all my clothes with out bothering to get into the sleeping bag.
last night i didn't make it to a town and ended up camping on some abandoned railroad tracks. i was feeling really tired and fell asleep in the tent even before the sun set. i still felt really exhausted this morning so i only biked like 30 miles to this town la rioja. i just need some chill time to relax i think. i really love meeting all these people, but it's also draining to hang out at the end of the day instead of sleeping. argentinians are definately the nicest friendliest people of my whole trip. it's really amazing. anyhows... i hope eveyone is good! love,
-jessie