Day 97: November 19, 2007 In Salta
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
97
202
Trip End
Mar 01, 2008
Salta,
Argentina
Monday, November 19, 2007
The day dawned overcast and cool but with clearing in the east. Throughout the morning the skies above Salta and the valley to the south cleared while the sky in the north remained overcast. After finishing my morning writing, I went to the office and went upstairs to tell Tuity what I had discovered in Río Metán. He agreed that it was the only conclusion that explained my observations and the problems with the 1991 results. We had sampled in the wrong stream! We quickly agreed on a program for the next time I am in Salta. We will resample and measure the entire section at a 15 or 20 m interval with two drill teams leapfrogging behind the person doing the measuring. This is what Brian Horton, his students, and I did in Bolivia in 2001. It worked extremely well. We will also sample every bentonite we find and find some that have zircons for either fission track or U/Pb dating. Because everything was well measured in our 1989 program, we should be able to integrate the new program with the good 1989 data.
The location problems we had in 1989 and 1991 were mainly due to a lack of good maps. Argentina still does not have a decent topographic map base. The government is incapable of getting something like this going. Tuity and I also talked about setting up a topographic division of XR. He liked the idea. Once a map lab is up and running, the potential for work is boundless. This problem is endemic throughout South America. Most of Central America, however, has an excellent base done by the US Army in the 1950's and 1960's. I used these maps extensively for my work in Guatemala in the 1970's.
The internet was back up but my email connection was extremely slow. I spent the remainder of the morning and the early afternoon uploading blogs and fotos before getting back to work on the proposal.
Magnificent thunderclouds rose to the east of the Sierra de Mojotoro and throughout the midafternoon they moved in, riding an east wind. At about 5:30, the sky opened up in a torrential storm that lasted more than an hour. Every time the rain slowed to a drizzle, it was soon followed by another downpour. Elena was supposed to come home right after school but everyone was stranded at the school by the deluge. We wanted to try another restaurant on Balcarce but she didn't know how to get there from the 6A bus stop. She was finally able to get to a bus to Grand Bourg at around 8:00. Taxis were out of the question. Everyone in the city was trying to get a cab. By fone, she told me her bus had broken down in one of the western neighborhoods of Grand Bourg. She called again after she transferred to another bus and got me down to the bus stop by the office at 9:15. I hopped on her bus and sat with her just as the sky opened again. It was still pouring when we got off on 20 de Febrero. We walked three blocks in the torrent with beautiful lightning and moderate thunder crashing on the mountains to the east. Soaked by the time we got to the corner of Balcarce and Alsina we entered the restaurant there, La Leñita, a parillada.
We immediately determined that it must be written up in Lonely Planet because almost everyone in there was a foreign tourist. After ordering the parillada for two, we were entertained by a singing waiter with a guitar. He was really good. Elena bought a copy of his CD for 10 pesos. He sang great harmony with another waiter a while later.
The parilla was excellent. I ate everything: chorizos, morcilla, diaphragm, intestines, thyroid, ovary, kidney, tongue, rib steak, bife de chorizo, pork, and chicken. It's amazing how one's tastes adjust to the culture. Some of those spare parts are actually starting to taste good to me. It will be awhile before Elena makes that adaptation, although she did try a couple of parts.
Through the open door of the restaurant, we watched the pouring rain splashing on the patterned cobblestone street. It was still coming down hard when it was time to leave. Our waiter said there would be a long delay in getting a taxi so we walked the block down Balcarce to Entre Ríos, staying under awnings most of the way. All of the taxis heading west, coming out of the city center, were occupied but most of those returning, going east, were free. We crossed the four-lane avenue and caught an eastbound cab and had him take us to Grand Bourg on the west side of the city. It didn't matter to him. I offered to row as we crossed a particularly deep and wide puddle.
It was just after midnight when we got back to the apartment. We awoke Jorge, who was asleep on the sofa. Toyo was still down in the office. The rain continued to come down hard as we drifted off to sleep.
