One step closer to something or other

I first heard about San Salvador de Jujuy when I was lying on the Ipanema beach. The Argentinean guy I met there, Flaco, lives in Jujuy. As we were parting ways he told me I should come to Jujuy when I´m in Argentina and get a hold of him.

Well after a 12 hour bus ride from Cordoba I did make it to Jujuy. Unfortunately I had long since lost the little piece of paper that had Flaco´s e-mail address and phone number. That wasn´t too suprising seeing as I have lost my fair share of things while I´ve been travelling. My wallet, my ATM card, my camera (I bet you were wondering why you haven´t seen any pictures lately, huh?) and most recently my comb.

I also ran out of shaving creme and have kinda just decided to let that be. I won´t worry about shaving or combing my hair for a while. I think it gives me a crazed look that I kinda like. Plus I´m hoping my new beard keeps me warm as I meander through the unforgiving mountain ranges passing autumn by.

After spending 25 hours in busses of one form or another and another 15 hours hiking in the last 3 days my body was letting me know it was not a fan of this itinerary. So when I got to Jujuy and heard about the thermal springs only an hour away I was sold. The one-hour turned to almost 2 when factoring in how long it took to figure out directions and waiting for the collectivo to come.

But I´ve been promising myself to not press and just let things happen in their own good time. And soon enough I was at the Termas de Reyes overlooking a beautiful valley. The termas turned out to be water piped from a thermal spring high up in the mountains into a couple of swimming pools by the city. But it was amazingly relaxing nonetheless.

My body had began complaining a few days ago and I could pinpoint every sore spot to a root cause. The side of my knee where I bit it on my mountain bike a couple years ago. My right shoulder from where I wiped out swimming on the Ipanema. My back where I hurt myself playing basketball countless ages past.

But as I soaked in those mineral waters everything started feeling like new again. I even got a chance to swim again for the first time in since I was in Brazil. It was nice to know that I hadn´t forgotten everything I´d learned, and giving it all a couple months to sink in seemed to work fairly well.

Tomorrow I was planning on figuring out how to get to Bolivia and what to do once I got there. There was this poster in the common area of the hostel I was staying at that caught my attention too, La Quebrada de Pucamarca and I was going to work on checking that out. I keep finding myself awe struck at the scenery I pass. The world we inhabit it truly a remarkable place, there´s no place I´d rather live.