Hey there everybody! Pati asked me to make a guest appearance on her blog and I’m more than happy to share some photos of a trip that I made while traveling in Argentina for a year.

When I was studying abroad in Buenos Aires, a small group of Argentine friends invited me to go backpacking with them on a ‘recorrido’ or tour of the northeastern part of the country. The region is quite mountainous because of the Andes Range for which Chile and Peru are also known. I took the photo above after our bus had climbed that twisting road that you see stretched across the landscape; I think it was several thousand feet that we climbed after which I must say my stomach was not feeling its greatest.

When I agreed to come along, I had no idea it would end up being one of the most authentically argentine experiences of my time there. Not only because I was forced to speak Spanish for two entire weeks but also because I was able to truly immerse myself in the culture of the small towns that we passed through. At town squares, or plaza centrals, we saw a culture very different from the noisy streets of Buenos Aires, we would see people, that would get together to play instruments, weave baskets, create jewelry and just hang out in the street.

I snapped this photo through the bus window as we were getting closer to the salt flats, which can be seen in the next photo.  These salt plates are the result of water evaporating over thousands of years in this dry environment. I saw so many guys carving figures and statues out of the solid rock salt, making salt sculptures!

I would highly recommend visiting this area of the world you can, not just for the natural beauty but also to see the people and the amazing culture.  That’s where I’ll have to leave you for now, but you can find  more travel and nature posts here. – Tyler

*all photos by Tyler Schappe