Recently in my life there have been a number of little things that have given me a serious thrill every time I do them. I imagine soon they will just be normal life things, but for now they’re super exciting and fun. Here they are…

Numero uno: Donning my resting glasses. Recently I bought some blue light filter glasses. I have always been super sensitive to screens and screen brightness and because most of my days are filled with being on my computer, I was getting terrible headaches and feeling very heady most days. Nolz & I went to the opticians and it was confirmed that my eyesight is fab (*smug face*) so I didn’t need to get any other type of glasses so he then gave us what I assume is the glasses equivalent of a prescription to go get some glasses ordered. I literally use them all the time and I still get excited about putting them on. They were quite a big expense for me at this point in my life but I figure that it’s worth investing in my eyes!
They also happen to be nearly exactly the same as Noly’s although they’re slightly bigger. I confess that I did not do this on purpose (as my sister suggested), but rather I think I got used to seeing myself in Noly’s glasses and so liked how they looked.

Numero dos: Buying cleaning products. I think I may have mentioned this one before but I feel such a sense of growed-up-ness, satisfaction and pleasure when I buy stuff for cleaning. I feel like this is partly smugness that I actually remembered to buy said cleaning products, since I’ve never had to buy my own before. At home if I did cleaning then because mum was the one who went to the supermarket, mum was the one who had to remember to get the cleaning bits. But here, Nads has her big girl pants on and has to buy her own cleaning products!

Numero tres: Similarly, buying any form of alcohol. It blows my mind that when I can go to the supermarket I could buy a bottle of wine or whatever I so fancy. I always feel slightly mischievous when I’ve been on the vino which makes no sense as I am 24 so have been legally allowed to drink alcohol for ages but there you are!

Numero cuatro: Having friends round. To be fair, I feel like this is on a slightly different level than the aforementioned thrilling events and this one genuinely is more exciting. I had my second housey host thing on Thursday of this week just gone which was really fun! My pals Ale & Vale came round and we were gonna start a knitting project because we’re all granny’s before our time, but alas, the shops were closed so we couldn’t even buy the wool. Next time next time, maybe next week if we’re still allowed to have gatherings! Anyways, it was a really nice afternoon and so good to catch up! Ale & Vale I know from last year when I was at Camelot and I hadn’t seen them since December. We were talking about meeting up when I returned in Feb but literally two seconds later quarantine started and then only recently have we been able to meet up. Anyways, here’s a photo of their faces so you can picture them.

Something which I thought would be the pinnacle of excitingness was when people came round and asked me for the wifi password. I gave this out on Thursday but actually, didn’t feel all that excited which I was surprised by but heyho.

Well there we are! Those are my exciting lil thrilling things that are happening in my life recently. Hope all is well with you whomever you are reading this and wherever you are in the world. Ta ra!

p.s. if you haven’t already heard, I recently wrote a guidebook for Salta! In fact it’s more than a guidebook (if I do say so myself), as well as having suggestions of places to go and food to eat whilst in Salta, there’s also tips on the culture here. I find cultural differences endlessly fascinating! So even if you’re not intending to come to Salta any time soon, you might still find it interesting. Anyhows, if you’re interested you can buy it through amazon. Unfortunately I don’t get royalties from it but I do get a percentage of sales if you click on the following links to buy it so I shall put them here in case anyone is interested.

Kindle version

Paperback version

Often in this blog I talk about the things I find a challenge with being a foreigner (a gringa) in Argentina, but recently I’ve been thinking about the advantages. There are actually quite a few!

[Disclaimer: number one will make me seem a little antisocial, but please reserve your judgement until the end of this point!]

1. I can hide behind the language barrier. There are times, when I’m just super super tired and dont have the energy to talk. I’m not just talking normal tired, I’m talking tired of tryina adapt to a culture which is foreign to me, trying to do the right thing, trying to keep up with the conversation and understand, tired of trying. It’s at these times, when I feel I can legitimately hide behind this barrier.

That being said, since my Spanish has improved so much I don’t really need to do this! I used to feel exhausted after an hour or two of social gatherings but on the whole now I can understand and follow group conversations, sometimes pitching in. It’s in the evening that I struggle, if it’s been a whole day of socialness, and my pronunciation well and truly goes out the window. In fact I think I even slur my words but I can assure you this is tiredness rather than me being on the vino!

The funny thing is that I sometimes don’t understand the specific details of what someone’s saying. Recently Javier asked me to show his mum how to use the exercise bike and I understood the gist but was unsure on the specific detail and he thought I was playing when I said I didn’t understand 😂 I did understand but I also didn’t fully haha.

2. I forever have the “I’m British” excuse.

A few weeks ago on the bank holiday I hosted merienda (the snack meal of the day) in my place for a few friends from church. When I was preparing for this, I actually felt quite nervous! Not only was it one of the first times I’ve ever hosted something on my own in general, it was the first time of hosting merienda. Part of me felt like it was a test, to see how much of the culture I’d soaked in and to see if I could host it well. But it’s weird! Hosting something which you haven’t inherently grown up with, so not always knowing the merienda etiquette. It’s not that the girls would have said anything, or even thought it, but I wanted to do it well!

When I mentioned this in the Glover galz WhatsApp group (with my mum and my sister) they were like, but it’s chill! If it’s not like a normal merienda, it’s fine! Ya British! Ya can use the I’m British card 😂

Anyhow, I needn’t have worried because it was a really really lovely afternoon and I loved it!! The funny thing was that I don’t have a huge amount of cutlery yet (although I have about a billion teaspoons), so cutting cakes and bits was interesting with only two knives available! And then in the end Vale walked off with one of my knives by mistake leaving me with just one 😂 I really must buy some more one of these days

3. For this point, I shall tell you a little story about my recent crumble making adventure.

Last Saturday, I attempted to make a crumble. This was only the second time in my life that I’ve made a crumble and the first was also in a foreign country! I’ve never actually made a crumble in England would you believe!

Well anyways, on Saturday I set to chopping up my apples, making the topping etc. Meanwhile I was having a rather delicious chat with my granny and Auntie over Skype. At intervals crumble tips were suggested. “Make sure you put the chopped up apples in lemon juice”, “are you steaming the apples?”. Neither of which were things I had or were doing. Oh dear. But how badly can a crumble go, right?

So I dutifully de-cored, peeled and chopped up 6 apples, which took a surprisingly long amount of time, but probably was not helped by the fact I do not own a peeler, nor do I own a small knife. I just have a great big whopper of a knife. Must invest in a smaller one too. Anyways, my point here is that I chopped up six apples. Six! The recipe only asked me for three but I wasn’t believing that for a second. The end result of my crumble was that the topping to apple ratio was a little bit off. In fact, it was more than a little bit off, my “crumble” was more like crumble topping with a side of apple.

However!

The upshot of all of this, was when I took it to lunch with a fair few people from church, most people in the room had never had crumble before. Therefore, they did not know this and I could claim that I’d done it how it’s always done.

Everyone was telling me it was really delicious and lovely and I wasn’t quite sure whether to believe them or not. Y’know, perhaps they were just being polite. But I knew it genuinely had gone down a treat when I was asked for seconds. Hurrah!

Next time I reckon I need to do at least 9 apples and less topping but it went down well nonetheless. It’s funny, the three things I’ve baked whilst in my flat have all been with cinnamon. I think it’s because I didn’t have it for so long and then finally I came across it in the shop and I’ve been excited ever since haha. Plus I love cinnamon!

Well, I shall finish there for now because I’ve been rambling on (as per) and don’t wanna bore you! Much love to all at home, over and out x

So in my last blog post I said I’d update you all on the sitch in Arg with coronavirus. Even since I started writing this post yesterday, things have now changed. It feels a bit like we’ve taken a step backwards. Things were freeing up a bit more but on Sunday evening it was announced by the governor of Salta that we’re going back to restricting the people who are out and about. This means that if your ID document ends in an odd number, you can go out on certain days, and if it ends in an even number, you can go out on the other days. Annoyingly, my passport number ends in an even and Noly’s is an uneven so technically we can’t go out at the same time. It’s a good thing we did my supermarket shop this weekend just gone, otherwise I could be a bit stuck! I mean, I could walk to the supermarket from my house but it’s just so much easier going in car, rather than lugging my food back on foot. Supposedly, this restriction is only for this week, to see if people follow this rule or not but I can’t see how it’s gonna end up being just this week..

Anyways!

Even with the above change, things are now more chill than they were a month or so ago. It’s interesting for me seeing the difference in approach between England and Argentina. There are some differences! The most significant one is that it’s obligatory to wear a mask wherever you go, whether to church or the supermarket. One of the weirdest things in life at the moment is going to church and seeing the congregation singing, all with masks on and those in the band who aren’t singing, also with masks. Since the rule about the odd/even number has been reinstated, I’m not sure what the situation with church will be…

Which leads me to my next point, at least for three weeks, churches were open for services on Sunday. This has been very new and obviously there have been precautions put in place. Masks on, chairs apart, limited spaces etc. Sadly, it was announced on Sunday that the youth group will be returning this Saturday to have meetings in person but it seems like that won’t be the case now.

Another quite big thing for here, is greetings. As mentioned before in previous posts, the people here are big on greetings. It’d be considered a bit rude if you entered a room and didn’t immediately set to greeting people, even people you don’t know. In pre-coronavirus times, greetings here were with a kiss on the cheek or a hug. Obviously now we can’t do that so the solution to that? Clonk elbows! It’s quite funny, going around, clonking elbows with people to say hi and then clonking again to say bye 😂 and maybe throwing in a few more clonks every now n then for good measure.

For people here, this is quite a big and hard change, as the greeting with a kiss is such a big part of the culture. Even though we’ve been clonking elbows since March, people still sometimes go to give a kiss. It makes me chuckle, thinking about the difference here with this point, between England and Argentina. I feel like, generally speaking for England, having an excuse not to physically greet someone is a huge plus and a bit of a sigh of relief!

In terms of stuff being open, most things like shops, businesses etc are now open again. The things that aren’t open are schools and universities. In theory, classes are going back at the end of July, after the winter holidays though I don’t know if that will be everyone. I think I heard it would be two specific years and I’m not sure about other years.

For social meetups, the last I heard was that we’re allowed to have up to 10 people around at the weekends and on bank holidays and all the time to social distance, until midnight. Restaurants are also open until midnight and restaurants seem pretty normal, you’re just plied with hand sanitizer as you enter which is fairly standard on all sides, when you enter shops as well etc.

In terms of the amount of cases, it seems we’re still rising, though our numbers currently aren’t so high as other countries. Currently the numbers are: 40,000 active cases (63,000 in total), 1,280 deceased and 21,000 recovered. For Argentina, it seems that we’re having a longer period getting to the peak but the numbers are lower. But it’s going on for an eternity! Or that’s what it feels like anyways.

For me, it all feels a bit weird. Since I’m back at my place and no longer have access to a TV, I don’t feel so connected with what’s going on and I feel fairly relaxed about things. It is a bit strange though, as when I was at the Matus’ I’d see the news every day and be fairly well informed. Now I rely on people keeping me updated.

In case you’re wondering, I’m loving being back at my flat! I think when living abroad it’s important to have a safe place, where you can totally relax and stop being on the go all the time. Though my place can be a little cold at times, it’s cosy and I love it. The teething problems of moving in (dodgy ceiling, interesting loo situation, scolding hot/freezing cold showers, oven not working), for now, all seem to be sorted with and I’m enjoying having my own space. Something that’s really great about where I live is my neighbours. Even today, I was talking to my neighbour and she said to let her know if I ever need to go to the supermarket or anything like that and she’ll take me there. She then helped me open my tin of sweetcorn which is near impossible to open with the tin opener I have and said she’d buy me over of she came across one! Little things like that make a difference when you’re not in your home culture.

Anyways, I feel like I’ve been chatting away for a while and I could keep going for a while longer too! (Maybe the result of not having blogged much lately) but I shall stop for the moment and leave you with my face. Love to all!

p.s. if you fancy one day coming to see me in Salta (yes please!), then I have a book for you! In fact, it was written by yours truly (*smug face*). If you fancy getting yoself a copy, click this link here for the paperback version or here for the kindle version. Unfortunately I don’t get royalties from the book but if you buy it through the links I’ve put in this blog post then I’ll get a portion of the sale. If you order a copy please do let me know! It’s fun knowing that people have ordered it!

First things first, hello dear reader! I’m sorry I’ve been somewhat on the quiet side lately, life has been crazy busy recently and I’ve had absolutely no free time, but I haven’t forgotten about updating you on my Arg shenanigans and will still be writing posts when I can.

So anyways, on with the show!

The observant among you may have noticed from the title that it seems like I have recently reached the one year mark of being abroad! This is not without some comings and goings, the largest of which being when I returned home for a month and a bit in January just gone, but I first arrived just over a year ago. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year! It seems like a lifetime ago now that I first arrived.

It’s also the most bizarre but satisfying thing looking back on where I was a year ago and where I am now. A year ago I could understand a fair amount of Spanish but by no means everything and I would be really stuck when there was group conversation, I couldn’t follow it and I would feel completely tired out by the effort of trying to understand. I wouldn’t go out of my way to talk to people because I was embarrassed and lacking confidence with Spanish. I would try and take up as little space as possible so that attention wouldn’t turn to me so I wouldn’t have to try and cobble together a coupla words in Spanish. Now, I can follow group conversations, I have way more confidence to try and speak to people, even if my grammar is horrendous and I don’t mind being called upon with no prior warning. In fact, recently I was suddenly called upon to pray at the end of the youth group to close the meeting. As it was sudden I didn’t have a chance to think through my Spanish in my head beforehand. Afterwards I asked nolz if it had been okay and he said I said it with abso no errors at all, hurrah!! Praying in another language is very difficult 😂 and a lot of the times when I do I make a lot of mistakes but this time I didn’t haha.

I think for me, being able to communicate has helped me enormously to feel part of life here. I remember talking to my brother about it and he was asking me, so how do you actually learn? Does it work, just being there and picking it up? And then proceeded to test me on a few bits from a book he had and I could immediately translate them (much to his surprise!). It’s funny thinking about this way of learning. I am acquiring language in the same way that a baby learns to talk and to speak- it’s so funny thinking of it like that! I’m quite focused on trying to use certain slang phrases and informal things at the moment because that’s fun hehe.

But yeah, isn’t that completely nuts that I’ve been here for such a long time! Currently I’m not sure when I’ll be able to come home because of the whole covid sitch. I literally can’t leave the country as the borders are closed still. I have a feeling they’re not at home but it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on everywhere. Anyways, I shan’t go into covid in detail now as I’m probably gonna write a post on it one of these days when I get the chance. I hope all you lovely people are doing well. Much love as always xxxxx

p.s. I mentioned in my last blog post about my book that’s recently been published. It’s a series called “Greater than a tourist”. If you fancy having a little look or buying a copy, click here.

Hey y’all. As you may, or may not remember, something which I have done recently is write a book!!! (What is life??!) That still thrills me when I get to say it and I will no doubt henceforth make sure to mention it in every single blog post approximately every five words.

If you fancy having a little nose or are daydreaming about traveling and fancy getting your hand on my first ever book, the links are below.

Paperback version- click here!

Kindle version – click here!

I have done a number of things recently that have made me feel inexplicably adult. My sense of achievement at doing or having these things is perhaps greater than is warranted, but I’m still feeling somewhat proud of myself.

I should first let you know, that as of yesterday (Tuesday 19th May), I am back to my flat, fending for myself. For the last two months, during this quarantine, I have been staying with the Matus’ at their house. I am incredibly grateful that I was with them for this time, as I think it would have been somewhat scary and intimidating to be on my own whilst everything started, what with trying to navigate supermarkets and staying safe.

As you may imagine, after two months of always having people around, returning to my flat yesterday felt a little strange! I was rather glad that I was laden with bits to put away, food and drink that had been lovingly planted into my hands by Monica, as it gave me something to do straight away. Saying goodbye to Noly was the strangest thing. We haven’t had to say goodbye for the past two months at all (which has been lush), so going back to texting and not seeing each other 24/7 is a bit of a change.

However, although it has been a little strange, I’m excited to be back in my flat and fending for myself.

For me, this is the first time I have lived alone and fully independently. I never went to uni and the closest I did to leaving the nest was coming to Arg at various points but also my internship in Poole (big up SML church!). Therefore, I have arrived at this point of life later than rather a lot of people my age have, so I’m finding things quite exciting and I am, to be honest, quite impressed at my own grownupness.

Thing number one about my new adult self. I own, in my possession, a fridge freezer! Never have I owned such a thing before. I also own various pots and pans which is (surprisingly) incredibly exciting. I have a few bits to my name!

Thing number two. I have my own WiFi! I think the peak of my excitement about this will come when someone comes round and they ask me for the password. I am abso buzzing for this day.

Thing number three and, arguably, the greatest of all. For the first time in my life today, I made porridge on the hob! I’ve only recently got into this whole porridge schebazzle and it has only ever been with a sachet of porridge that I just add milk to and whack into the microwave. I do not currently have a microwave so this is not an option for me. This has been the greatest thrill for me thus far if you can believe it 😂 I was also rather impressed with myself for thinking of this ingenious plan of having porridge for breakfast, as it’s starting to get cold here and my flat is a bit chilly in the mornings and I believe that porridge is the solution.

Well, I think that’ll do for now! Enough adulthood. And such, I will leave you on the following picture, of when things were really getting interesting in quarantine….

So some exciting news from me…. I’ve written a book!

Not quite something I ever thought I’d end up doing in my life, but I’m excited to (nearly) officially be an author!

Basically, ma gal Chloe told me about this website called Upwork. She told me that on this website, lots of people outsource admin jobs to people overseas for them to do work for them. (If you find yourself unemployed because of this whole coronavirus shebazzle going on at the moment, it might be worth having a lil look at this website). I was pondering about trying to find something online to top up my pennies and I came across the chance to write a book.

The book is about Salta, Argentina. The series is called “Greater Than A Tourist”, and the idea is that if you have lived somewhere for 3 months or over, you could apply to write a book for your location, giving 50 tips and tricks for how to go on holiday to that place and be more like a local than a tourist. When I was doing the application to apply for this, I, very naively, said I would probably be able to complete it within a week. How long should it take right? Just need to bosh 9000 words out about a place I know fairly well, easy peasy right?! Thankfully, I was given a more reasonable deadline of four months to complete it. And complete it I did! It took me about three months but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve always loved writing and this was a perfect project for me, as it involved my love of chatty, informal writing and Argentina, a very important part of my life.

The only bummer about it is that I didn’t really get paid for it and I don’t get royalties from the book, but, I’ve been told I could set up an Amazon associates page by which I might receive some money from it, though I’m not quite sure how this works 😂 if anyone knows, please hit me up!

Even though I haven’t really gained from it in terms of money, it’s been super fun and exciting writing it! I reckon it’ll be a great extra random thing to have on my CV and also a great random fact about myself to whack out from time to time.

So there ya have it! Ya gal Nadz is officially an author !! Once it’s all finished and available to buy I shall put the link in a future blog post if you fancy a little sneak!

Well, I kind of don’t really know where to start with this blog post. So much has happened in such a short amount of time. I guess I should start by saying, I am still here, in Salta Argentina and I am doing a-okay. I’m staying with Noly and fam, as they’ve kindly welcomed me into their house! For that I am very grateful because I’d truly be going nuts and be very stressed if I was on my own.

As I’m writing this, we’re on day 5 of official quarantine, but the craziness started on Sunday 15th. Before this, there had been a couple of cases in Argentina, but it all felt very remote, distant and far off. I cannot describe how truly bizarre it was, talking to my family and hearing all the stories of their trips to the shops and how toilet roll was disappearing from the shelves like hotcakes and the panic that seemed to be kicking off back home, whilst here things felt relatively chill. On Sunday 15th, the last church service I’ve been to, it was weird. Greetings with elbows, nothing more. Then, afterwards, the church emptied suuuper quickly, as people weren’t able to go around mwah mwah-ing and greeting each other. Later that day, it started kicking off with the supermarkets and things started seeming more real and serious. That night, there was an announcement that all educational classes were to be cancelled until the 31st March, people were to work from home where possible and it was advised to avoid contact with people. Two days later, it stepped up again and some jobs where people were still having to go in, were told they had to work from home. Then on Thursday of last week, the announcement was made that all of Argentina is to be in quarantine until the 31st March.

For me, the fact that the decision was made for us to be in quarantine, was a really helpful thing. There was one day when I was in my place when all of this was kicking off, and I felt really anxious and a bit stressed all the time. Now, thankfully, I feel a lot more relaxed. This definitely, in part, comes down to not being on my own, but is also that things aren’t changing so quickly as they were. The rate of cases is still going up (as of today it’s about 300 cases in Argentina and 8 who have died) but not as much as in other countries. I hope this is some comfort to all of you at home in England, who have recently gone into quarantine, that it’s actually okay. I absolutely hate with a passion not leaving the house all day, so I really thought I’d have gone crazy by now, but I think the gratefulness at having a roof over my head and food on my plate is enough to keep me sane. I went for a walk yesterday (this is allowed if it’s just one person) and it was bizarre, walking through the neighbourhood. Barely a trace of anyone, just the odd person sitting in their garden or a family playing tennis on their property.

What I also find bizarre, is thinking back to life before coronavirus. What did we talk about all the time?! (I mentioned this to my Nanna and she responded with, well. Brexit. Very true!). It’s weird though, trying to think of other things to talk about, it alllll just ends up going back to the topic of coronavirus and what’s going on in the world and different countries etc.

Well, I think that’s all for now my loves. I shall leave you with a picture of my first ever quarantine date as set up by my favourite human

Goodness me. Asides from the whole madness of coronavirus, what a time of it I’ve been having lately! Life has been incredibly hectic & not in an entirely good way..! Well no, I joke, it’s good but chaotic and at times somewhat overwhelming. Since getting back to Argentina three weeks ago, there have been two very big changes (and now everything with coronavirus that I will talk about in another blog post) that have both happened right on top of each other. One of them I can’t really go into yet (I’m such a tease I know, I’m sorry) so will fill you in on it when I can but….

…the other, is that I have a place to live! (Not that I’m living there right now though because we’re all in quarantine lol). A space, all of my own, where I can just chill out and be. Living in a foreign country is hard. You’re on the go all the time and no-one else can ever quite understand the things that could be a challenge for you as they don’t know your home culture and your lifestyle back home. For that reason, I am so so happy to have a comfortable, safe bubble where I can just chill, be and have a break from the world.

I really love my apartment! It’s perfect for me, not too big, not too small and is a really good location. The people that I’m renting it from are really really lovely and also live at the same address. They’ve been so great with getting the place up and running and sorting out the few problems that I had. The few times I’ve seen the mum lately (before we got to full on quarantine) she asked me every time, how are you doing? How do you feel with coronavirus, are you okay? Are your family at home okay?? Which has been really sweet. It’s really nice because they’re always around! Plus they have a large number of dogs that seem to be attached to them (honestly, the number of dogs they have seem to multiply every time I see them!) which is a definite win.

Kitting it out has also been super fun!! I am so so sooo greatful for Noly’s family who have bought me/leant me basically everything that I have in the apartment to make it homely and to get me started. And I’m also very greatful for various members of my fam and friends back home who sent me off with some money to put towards flat things too, I can assure you it’s being well spent and I’m really thinking about what I need to get with it, not just buying any old thing!

I now have most of my basic necessities and over the coming months will hopefully be able to gradually get other bits to finish it all off. It’s funny, I never really used to get people who got excited about buying bits for their house. Now, if I go to a supermarket or a shop, I can’t resist having a little peek down the home aisle. You will probably find me there, deliberating, umming and ahhing over whether to buy a teatowel or which cleaning detergent to get.. In fact, I went food shopping last week and was so excited to buy said cleaning detergent..! I’m actually quite excited to clean… it just feels so grown up and adult. I’m sure being excited about cleaning won’t last () but I’m finding so much joy in little things, it’s super fun! I also have a serious “nesting” urge- at 1am a few weeks ago I found myself online shopping, looking at things like toasters and sofas which have never excited me before, but now positively thrill me! The very last incredibly mundane thing which I am absolutely buzzing about, is that I should (theoretically) be getting wifi at some point in the future when the world calms down. That’s surely got to be the peak of adulthood right? I think the most exciting thing about that, will be when I have people round and they ask me for the wifi password. I absolutely cannot wait for that hahaha.

So there you have it! That’s 1/2 of my big pieces of news 🙂 I’m just genuinely so amazed at how everything’s turned out. Though there are some things in life that are overwhelming and scary (change is always terrifying), both getting my apartment and the other thing are huuuuuge answers to prayer. For that reason I’ve named this post after a Bible verse in Jeremiah. Many times for me, I’ve been unclear of the way forward. In fact, over my whole life I’ve never really had a plan or an idea of what’s next, but things have always worked out and God’s always shown me the next little step at the point when I needed it. Getting an apartment in a good area in a good price genuinely seemed like such an impossible feat and literally, within just over a week of returning to Arg we had found it and a week later I finished moving in! For me, this just points completely and utterly to God’s perfect timing and perfect plan. It also amazes me, because if I’d have had to be doing all this flat stuff last year, in May when I got here, I would have really struggled with it, particularly with Spanish at expressing what I wanted and what I thought. Being with Noly’s Granny last year was a good introduction into living semi-independently in Argentina, as I wasn’t thrown completely into the deep end and didn’t have to do everything myself i.e. cleaning, washing etc. Similar with being at Camelot last year- a very good and fitting first step into everything here.

The other thing that is really a bit nuts is all this with the coronavirus. If I had booked my flight for a couple of weeks later, I wouldn’t have been allowed back into the country for who knows how long. Whilst maybe it doesn’t sound like it would be a big thing if I had had to have stayed at home for a while, it would have been because my life is between the two places. And I wouldnt have had a job at home or anything in the meanwhile and life would have just been all a bit complicated!

Before coronavirus stuff stepped up here it was just so weird weird hearing things from my family and friends back home about the virus and what was going on at home, all the panic buying and conversations about it etc, as it hadn’t really got v serious in Arg up until lately. To begin with it hadn’t really been on my mind at all which is crazy considering how things are now! Anyways, enough of coronavirus for the moment! I honestly don’t lnow what we used to talk about before coronavirus struck haha. Will do a quick post about what’s happening here one of these days, but I’m well, safe and not on my own so no need to be worrying about me!

Anyways, everyone stay safe and sensible. Big love to you all at home xx

So if you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that I’m back in Salta. However, when I got back there was no rest for me! Twas time to pack my bags again and get ready to be on the road the following day, as a bunch of us from church were going on a trip to Cachi.

Cachi is south west of Salta and the drive took roughly four hours. Part of the joy of going to Cachi is the journey there, it’s so beautiful! With stunning countryside, mountains, cactus’ etc. The rock goes from being orange to purple to green within a few seconds which is not something I’ve seen in England. Part of the route involved driving up a mountain and for a bit we were at the same height as the clouds, before eventually being higher than the clouds! Felt surprisingly okay for being at 3600m above sea level, though did get a headache both times on the journey that we got that high and it was so weird walking. My body felt so heavy and I couldn’t walk very fast.

When we arrived there we hung around for a bit and then I eventually succumbed to my bed since I was feeling super tired and jetlaggy whilst they all had dinner and went out to see the stars etc.

The following day (Monday) we got up early to go to a place called “Los Pumos”. In Los Pumos there’s a cave with a river going through it and the plan had been to walk in the river and go through the cave but unfortunately the water was a bit too crazy! So what followed was a scramble on the banks of the river, which was a slight challenge, in search of a calmer bit in the river to chill out. The water was so cold it literally hurt to put your feet in it to begin with! After a while this lessened and we all hung out in the water and on the rocks.

After a 2 hour drive back, we finally got back to where we were staying. We killed some time by going and sitting by the river for a bit, then went to this place where some crazy man used to live (!) who thought he had been told by aliens to make all these weird symbols on the ground with rocks (lol, I can’t really explain), and also went to a place overlooking Cachi which was pretty lush. When we got back into the town, some of the shops had finally opened and we set about buying supplies for dinner. Dinner was an asado (Arg BBQ) done by the boys and salad and accompanying bits by the gals, and was very tasty indeed. Post-dinner, moi, Nolz, Cami & Martin went to what appeared to be a deserted airport runway (?) to see the stars. It was so lush! You could literally see the milky way. In the time that I was there, lying on the ground, I saw about 4/5 shooting stars. This was probably one of my highlights of the trip to Cachi, seeing the stars. The only other time I’ve seen them so clearly and seen the milky way was when I went backpacking on my gap yar and went to Bolivia to the salt flats. Definitely a sight to see!

The following day we wandered around the town for a bit before I brought the big guns out. A while ago, Cristian (Noly’s brother), asked me what Terry’s Chocolate oranges are like. I clocked this at the time and decided I’d bring one back for people here to try. After lunch we decided it was time to crack open that bad boy. This was another of my highlights funnily enough! It was hilarious. I got Cristian to do the honours with opening it and everyone crowded round, peering at it, wondering what it would be like. Sofi took some photos of the grand reveal. This was hilarious for me, because a terry’s chocolate orange is such a normal thing to me! But I can see why it’s a cool thing if you havent ever seen one before haha. Anyways, the verdict was a good one and they liked it – good way to end our trip to Cachi on a high!

So there we have it! That was the trip 🙂 It’s crazy to think that was 2 weeks ago now…! So much has happened since then, I’ve barely had time to sit down and have a cuppa tea, let alone blog about it! More of that next time then, over and out!