03.08.18:

Gen and I took a spur of the moment, one-night trip to Tafí del Valle last week, because sometimes getting lost and putting yourself out of your comfort zone can lead to incredible experiences you would not have had otherwise.

Why Tafí?

The first full day we were in Tucumán our waitress gave us the recommendation of going to Tafí. The next day, we went to the plaza and saw signs of Tafí. Then our Professor, Roberto told us that we have to visit Tafí before we leave and one of the exchange students going to NAU, from UNT did as well. It was ummm…clearly on our to-do list from day one.

The night before Gen and I bought our tickets to Tafí we had a merienda with one of the exchange students from UNT who is going to NAU this semester, Ana. She explained to us that we needed a bus card to get around the city…little did we know that the journey to obtain a city bus card (Ciudadana), would lead to us getting on a bus to Tafí.

Bus Cards to Tickets

The next day Gen and I set out to find the bus cards and googled the central bus station because we figured that the central bus station in the city would sell bus cards for the city…. nope we were oh so incredibly wrong.

On the walk to the station Gen asked if we should wait until we can get help by a student, me being me and always thinking we can figure things out ourselves responded with the minimal thought over response of, “No we will be okay! They definitely will sell the cards there and if not we can just leave and check somewhere else”! Piece of advice; don’t let me give directions/make final decisions because we ended up in the station for 3 hours going around to different ticket windows asking where the heck to buy a bus card and every vendor sent us from one place to another.

But, if it weren’t for this 3-hour glorious, frustrating experience of mistranslating responses and directions, we wouldn’t have ended up in the central for economic travel. The station may not sell bus cards (don’t worry we found the bus cards in the middle of the city on a random street :)), but it has tickets to literally every single city, corner, and providence in South America for, I kid you not, less than $30. Therefore, while we were searching for the infamous bus cards, we stumbled upon the ticket window that sells bus tickets to Tafí del Valle, and thus Gen and I paid $8 each and we were off on our first trip alone in South America! Yep, after only 3 days of being in South America! We are some crazy, optimistic, and ambitious little girls let me tell ya! 

Tafí del Valle- Location, Significance, and To-Dos

Tafí del Valle, which means “Town with a splendid entrance”, is a small city in the northwestern part of Tucumán. It is a very popular tourist destination among Argentinian tourists, usually from Buenos Aires, but is not well-known by people from outside of South America. This is crazy because Tafí del Valle stands at an outstanding 6,607 feet and sits in the center of a valley that is surrounded by the green mountain ranges of Sierra del Aconquija to the south and the Cumbres Calchaquíes to the north.

It is an important destination to look at indigenous artifacts and ruins from the Diaguitas and Calchaquí tribes. Plus, it has numerous hiking trails that are accessible to pro-hikers and novice-hikers alike that lead to stunning views. To-Dos I absolutely recommend, are tasting the mouth-watering beer, salami and cheese, and visiting the wallet-emptying worthy local art and shops.

We chose to hike Cerro de la Cruz after our bus ride in and after we checked into Nomade, our hostel for the night.

The hike was short but sweet. It felt nice to be outside and hike mountains after being contained in airplanes and cities for days. Our view was incredible and alleviated so much post-travel stress.

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Our hostel at night was cozy and inviting. We shared a room with 3 other boys and the entire hostel with more than 10 people, all either from Buenos Aires or Tafí itself. Of the three boys in our shared room, one was a 20-year old exchange student from Colombia studying Architecture in Buenos Aires, and the two other boys were 24 and 25-year-old interior design exchange students from Germany also studying in Buenos Aries. Everyone chatted, ate, drank wine, and shared experiences, political views, and music preferences. It was very overwhelming at the same time though because it was my first time spending the night with a bunch of strangers, plus we weren’t communicating in my first language which definitely made it even more difficult haha. Yet, it was such an incredible experience and I know I will remember the openness and kindness felt in that hostel for the rest of my life.

Getting Lost Leads to Finding What’s Right

As frustrating as it may have been at the time, if it weren’t for getting lost, Gen and I wouldn’t have navigated through Tucumán by ourselves, practiced our Spanish skills by communicating for 3 hours over directions, and taken a trip by ourselves within 3 days of being in Argentina. Sometimes getting lost and putting yourself out of your comfort zone can lead to beautiful experiences and captured instances you would not have gotten to experience otherwise.