Salta - Finally! (part 1)

I would love to describe how the landscape changed as the bus got closer to Salta but as luck would have it, my fellow passengers all decided to close the curtains to shield out the sun. I could tell, however, through the slits where they couldn't secure, that everything was getting greener.
At the stop before Salta, the guy that sat next to me left. Wow. Everything was GREEN. The hills and mountains didn't seem like they stopped. Starting from the edge of the dirt road to as far as I was able to see was this lush and dense vegetation. As we descended into the city, you could see the vast rows of red tiled rooftops nestled between the mountains. It's quite a contrast: brick red and green. So I get there and wait for Alex and Beatriz to arrive.
Once we were all assembled, we grabbed a cab to Beatriz's mom's house. Beatriz's mom's house, which I will refer to now as the House, is in a neighbourhood I would normally avoid. Their neighbours aren't exactly living in shanty houses but, the one-storey buildings are falling apart. Some had makeshift items to replace something that had broken, like a door. So, the House, is the best on that street. Probably because the front doubles as a mini-mart and the family has been able to run a good profit over the years.
I'm just speculating as it would be too rude to ask your hosts how they came about $ in such a suppressing social situation. Apparently the mom is illiterate and I think the brother, Raphael, has a basic education. Beatriz, on the other hand, is smart and was able to go to university. Computer programming, I believe.
The House
Front Left: Gates guarding a path. Middle: Window and garden. Front Right: Store entrance.You walk in the store and head to the back and turn left. That's the kitchen. This is the first spatially functional kitchen I've seen in South America. Ample granite counter-tops and cupboard space. AND a doublesink. In the middle of the kitchen is the dining table. To the left of the kitchen is the main, and hardly used, entrance where they have a couple of sofas and a big plastic flashing Christmas tree. To the right of the kitchen is the formal dining room, hardly used as well. From the dining room, you can go out to the pathway that leads both to the front gate, and if you turn to the opposite direction, to the back courtyard. Once you open the door, you will be greeted by a big, hairy, shedding, stinky, dirty, overweight lush of a German Shepherd named Ringo. Once you get over the stench of the dog, you will notice the green grapevines above you. The back courtyard is a concrete pad with some dog shit for flavour. It's also where the bedroom windows open into.
Things that happened
As Beatriz's family are rather conservative Catholic folk, Beatriz shared a bed with her mom and Alex shared a room (separate beds) with Raphael. This leaves a big queen-sized bed all to me in my own room. Suited me fine.
After lunch, a shower and a nap, Alex and I were recruited to marinate the meat for New Year's Eve's dinner. I did a parsley butter chicken. Alex made some sort of pepper thing with the beef and Beatrizs mom did this vinegar salt marinade for the pork chops. After all the food was ready, we left everything to sit on the counter for a couple hours.
Raphael, still tending the store to last minute shoppers, wasn't ready to eat yet. When it came time to eat, we began serving the various dishes and pouring the various drinks of choice. On each plate was 3 pieces of meat, cut fist-sized, potato salad andmaybe something else, I can't remember. We've all sat down and I was ready to full-on chow down, but then midnight arrived so we had to toast and exchange kisses.
This also meant that the fireworks started. Off we went outside to watch the neighbourhood sky light up. Dinner was ready at about 10:30. We started eating at about 12:30. The whole fanfare of shoveling food down lasted about 20 mins. To quote Alex, "I wish a bit more attention was given to the food."
Our original plans were to head out after dinner to the bars and what not, but after hours travelling and a heavy dinner, we all opted to just crash. Seemed to fit the theme, eh?
The next afternoon, we (5 of us) went riding in the 2.5-seater truck to go to 2 rivers and a mountain with streams. I don't know what the rivers were called. We had only just stopped for about 10 mins before we all clambered back into the truck. Apparently, it was too crowded. Next stop was San Lorenzo.
I had originally thought that the people of Salta were, for the most part, on similar economical levels. I had not seen the contrast of the really rich vs. the really poor in Salta. Well, it turns out that the rich live upon the hills. Anyways, Raphael FINALLY parks the car (I wanted to ask him if he wanted me to park it for him) and we all got out and headed uphill. Nice green trees with a few streams running downhill everywhere you look. We headed to a less crowded area and sat down to watch the water. I took some pics wherein one holds a mildly disagreeable expression of Beatriz's mom.
Things that make you go "hmmm..."
That evening, Beatriz brought Alex and me downtown. We went to this Cathedral that was pink, cream, gold and silver on the outside and most of the inside too. The ceiling on the inside had murals of various angels peeking down thru the clouds, menacingly - I thought. At the front of the church were 3 glittering statues: one of Jesus, one of Mary and one of some Saint. The Jesus statute stood the entire width of all the pews and was as tall as the vaulted ceiling. The other 2 were the width of the side aisles and only halfway to the ceiling. On one side leading up to the smaller statue, were confession boxes and actual priest talking to people. The other side had 2-3 doorways to enclosed rooms, with more glittering statues, for silent prayers.
According to the King James bible...
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or anylikeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,nor serve them.
hmmmmmmm.......