She'll be comin around the mounain when she comes

So about two weeks have gone by since my last blog post and a few big things have happened!
On Friday I went to the house of my mom's parents, and on the way there we stopped at this nature park place about 10 minutes from their house. It was really pretty and normally there is a zip-line but it was out of order when we were there, so I didn't get to try it.

So Saturday, I went on the famous Tren a las Nubes, or Train to the Clouds, with my friends Lydia (USA), Alejandro (Salta), Alicia (Germany), and Alicia's sister from Germany, not her host sister. "The train to the clouds or Tren a las nubes is known famously to be the most amazing train in the world, the one that takes you to the clouds reaching a height of 4,220 meters (13845.144 feet) about sea level on the 217 km (135 mile) trip. The train departs from the city of Salta, passes though the Valle de Lerma, enters the Quebrada del Toro, and finally reaches La Puna." (Stolen from Lydia's blog)

 

This is the end of the train ride 4,220 meters above sea level, La Puna. This is when the train stops and prepares to turn around for the ride back to Salta.

On the way up to the top of the tour as we passed interesting sites, a tv would come on and give us a short history about the places we were passing, as well as information about the engineer who designed the track. "The number of spirals, viaducts, tunnels and other twists and turns that the train passes through arises from a decision made by the designer of the project, the US engineer Richard Maury. Maury was given a small budget and an almost impossible task, but he took into account the principle of adhesion of train wheels to the railways and the laws of physics, ruling out the funicular system commonly used, so that the train may safely reach the expected heights. The train has no cogwheels, not even for the steepest slopes, since the railways are peculiarly arranged, running though a system of zigzags and spirals it allows the train to slowly make its climb to the clouds. The Train to the Clouds is one of the leading tourist attractions in Salta" (Again from Lydia's blog)

 

On the train we had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of interesting people. The people in the picture above are exchange students from Germany to another province Cordoba, where my friend Avery from Maine is currently living. We also met a women who had two children go on AFS. 

On the way down, because of high altitude, a lot of people were suffering from lack of oxygen, and that's how we met another two AFS exchange students. One girl was helping and older women from Germany, deprived of oxygen, by translating from German to Spanish. Once that crisis was averted we got to talking and found out she went to Germany and her friend went to Illinois in 2000 with AFS. Small world.

Here are some pictures from out the window and from the highest point of our tour.

Sunday was Easter and I went back to my grandparents house for a big lunch with the family. They have a really awesome sick nasty nice house. Its freaking huge, has a pool house, a HUGE yard, and lots of other big stuff. We had a lunch of steak, mashed potatoes (which I might add, are not as Farmor's), salad, and a variety of cheeses.

The Fam at the table.
After eating we went on an Easter egg hunt. The only difference between the ones here and in the US are that instead of the brightly colored plastic egg cases, they find little chocolate eggs that are hidden in the shadows.

School the next week was pretty chill, I got out of chem test because the students just kept asking the teacher question for and hour and a half so now I have to take it tomorrow. On Thursday, I gave a presentation for my Project class on the influence of virtual websites on the loss of privacy and insecurities of the adolescents of Salta, all in Spanish, so I was really proud of myself because I got a 10 out of 10.
Friday we had a field trip type thing to this camp about 10 minutes from the Salta airport. The idea of the camp was to get the people who don't normally talk to the other kids in class, to talk with people. We played soccer, had a BBQ where you had to start the fire with your team and then prepare everything for the meal yourself, and we played volleyball. Lets just say that the weather forecast said it would be cloudy, so I didn't wear sunscreen, and then spent the next 3 days apply a generous amount of aloe vera to my face, neck, and arms, but I'm tan now so it's all good. 
That night I went out for Chinese food and bowling with a bunch of AFS people. I can not tell you how many times I've passed the bowling ally and wanted to enter but haven't.
Tomorrow marks the half way point. Once it's tomorrow I only have 3 months left in Argentina, and that's three months that are going to go bye to quickly.
Oh by the way I found Jesus again! This time he was wearing parachute pants. I know it was him because he was on the Train to the Clouds.