Six Degrees of Failure

I managed a nice hike here in Salta. Although I went early, it was still hot and humid, but worth it for the nice views:

In other blog entries, I noted how cheap massages were in Mexico. In the US, they cost somewhere around $2 per minute. In Mexico, they are about $1 per 2 minutes. Here in Argentina, they are a little bit cheaper. Concordantly, Ubers are even cheaper than Mexico or Romania. 

The grading system here relies on a score from 0-10. 10 is the best, and anything from 0-5 is a failing grade. 

Me to host: There are six types of failing grades?

Host: Yes. How many in the US?

Me: One. 

Grading for DUI is all failure. They have zero tolerance; if you blow a .01, you're busted. OTOH, look what they sell in stores:

Locals love yerba mate. Most of my students drank often from metal straws in metal cups filled with yerba mate and hot water. They'd fill their cup with hot water over and over, which reminded me of that yellow tea in Shanghai. You could sit at a restaurant for hours and they'd just add more hot water to your tea pitcher. No need to change the leaves because they somehow kept imparting the right amount of flavor. This still mystifies me. Not too strong, not too weak. 

Racial variety is very limited, both in people and restaurants. Montrose, CO has 20,000 people; Ridgway, CO has about 2000. Each of them has more different types of non-local food than Santa Fe, which has over 400,000 people. For example, Montrose has a Chinese restaurant, Nepalese restaurant, and Indian restaurant. Chinese and Indian restaurants are pretty popular in the US. Locals confirmed that Santa Fe has no Indian nor Chinese restaurants. I'd guess they're most prominent in India and China. 

The gyms here are the worst of anywhere I've seen. Old and cheap equipment, often broken. No air conditioner no matter how hot and humid it gets. I've broken out a sweat walking down the street shirtless at midnight. So yeah, A/C in a gym woulda been nice. 

Streets are sketchy too. I already mentioned the slidewalks and streets that are rarely flat. Intersections typically lack stop or yield signs and thus most intersections interactions rely on eye contact, posturing, and terror. Remember you can't run in or near streets since you have to watch each footstep carefully to figure out the right angle. I did tweak my right ankle fleeing a pushy driver. 

Most streets effectively have two lanes without any paint or other way to separate the two lanes. So, like with intersections, drivers kinda negotiate. Here's a view from one of those wonderfully inexpensive Ubers. I'm glad the locals can drive here, since I never could nor would.