Two Stories from Salta

while in salta, we had a couple screwy experiences. the first happened on the first day that we were in town and decided to hike up to the top of the lookout over the town. early on we saw a stray dog (and there are always stray dogs in argentina) and she began to follow us. she was an extremely mangy looking dog and nothing we could do convinced her to leave us. in the hour and a half it took for us to make it up to the top, she would stay with us. normally having a dog companion deciding to join us would be cause for celebration but it was frustration only that accompanied. while walking up the slippery steps to the top (it had been drizzly all day), the dog would often cut in front of us almost causing us to step on her or trip. i definitely didn't want to touch her though because i was almost convinced she had fleas. when we made it to the top, at one point she brushed across my leg and about two seconds later i saw something jump off of my leg - a legit flea. it was gross. and if that wasn't enough, another male stray dog we found at the top of the lookout took an interest in the female and tried to hump her every time she stood still for longer than six seconds. when we decided to head back down the hill, we ended up having two dogs following us for this reason. we were only able to ditch them when we were back in town and went inside the bus station and out an opposite door since they seemed to know enough not to come inside.

story two: while walking around town one day it had become extremely hot after some rain and we decided to buy ice cream (which is never a poor decision in argentina). after having one lick of my cone after departing the store my ice cream slipped off and hit the ground. distraught, i did what any reasonable person who really wanted ice cream would do - i reached my hand into the mush on the street and salvaged as much ice cream as i could in which i knew it wouldn't have interacted with the street and shoved it into my mouth. i'm still convinced this was a good idea.