Sorry, but I'm hijacking my travel blog for personal purposes.

Ok, most of this is old news: Facebook changed their privacy policy after the latest conference, F8. Basically, now you have to publicly "link" to other users to display information such as where you went to undergrad, current employer, etc.

But, Facebook offered the option to "opt out" of the links by removing the information from your profile. As I was not interested in sharing my personal information with third parties, I opted out early last week. So, I deleted information regarding my high school, undergrad, and post grad., amongst other information I wasn't interested in making available to Facebook's commercial partners.

However, the following screenshots (taken 5.5.10 between 10:30 and 11:00 est) demonstrate Facebook's inability to abide by its own stated privacy policy:

Exh A -- Facebook's policy @ 5/5/10 10:50 EST:

"7. Editing your profile. You may change or remove your profile information at any time by going to your profile page and clicking 'Edit My Profile.' Information will be updated immediately."

http://www.facebook.com/policy.php

(This was going to be a screenshot but I couldn't get the formatting to work ... )

Exh B -- My "Search" information, containing info I chose not to link to and indicating Facebook had RETAINED the info I deleted DAYS earlier and was using it to promote social connections on the site:

I understand that that Facebook, per its privacy policy, may retain backup copies of profile information that has been deleted. However, this is active use of info I deleted.

What say you, Facebook?

Sorry Everybody!!

So I'm not still in Salta, although part of me wishes I still were, and, in fact, I got back to the U.S. at the beginning of August and I've been really busy with getting ready to go back to school. That said I promise I'll get the last couple of weeks' worth of posts up in the next week or so, mostly because I have some fabulous pictures I want to show off.

In the meantime, you can enjoy the ad campaign jingle that was stuck in EVERYBODY's head in Argentina last month:

Quebrada de Concha, Cafayate and Quilmes

I was up before dawn this morning to catch my tour bus to Cafayate and Quilmes, located south and west of Salta.

We drove south into the Quebrada de Concha ("Shell Canyon") which is home to many cool rock formations created by water eroding the soft, sand-based rock that makes up the Quebrada:

"The Amphitheater"

"The Castles"

There´s no name for this one, just a lot of different-colored hills!

Before reaching Cafayate, we visited a bodega called Vasjia Secreta:

This is the entrance to the vineyard.

At the end of the Quebrada, we came to Cafayate, which is a small town surrounded by bodegas. There wasn´t much interesting going on in Cafayate except for the local Banco de la Nacion, which our guide pointed out had a reinforced metal roof, designed to withstand snow...which never occurs in Cafayate -- someone along the way had confused Cafayate with Calafate (in Patagonia) and sent the wrong type of pre-fabricated bank! Oops!

After Cafayate we went to Quilmes, the site of an extensive settlement created by the indigenous Quilmes people, who lived at the site from approximately 800 c.e. The Quilmes were able to resist both the Incas and also neighboring tribes, however they were defeated by the Spanish and forced to march to the suburbs of Buenos Aires, where the last descendant died by 1810. The area where they were relocated to became known as Quilmes, and and the brewery of what was to become Argentina´s national beer was first located in the Quilmes neighborhood of Buenos Aires. The ruins in Tucuman were discovered by the Army during military exercises in the 1970´s and were restored in the late 1970´s and early 1980´s:

San Salvador de Jujuy

This morning, I slept in and then took a bus to San Salvador de Jujuy, the capital of Jujuy Province, which is about three hours (by non-express bus) from Salta. I had originally planned to spend a few days here, but most of the travelers I met recommended seeing the city as part of a day trip, as there is not nearly as much to see and do in Jujuy as there is in Salta.

Which, as it turned out, was pretty much accurate. Jujuy is a nice city, but the center is also definitely smaller, and not nearly as picturesque. The only thing I took a picture of was a folclore band that was playing in the restaurant where I had lunch:

Back in Salta

After yesterday´s attempt at hiking, I decided to do some touristy stuff in town. My first stop was the cabildo on the plaza, which houses a local history museum, but I found the architecture to be much more interesting than the museum:

I ate lunch on the plaza (while a street musician played "Salta, La Linda" and then headed over to Cerro San Bernardo, a large hill on the east side of the city with a set of 1,070 steps (or a gondola) to get to the top. On the way I took some pictures of Salta´s other landmark church, Iglesia San Francisco:

At any rate, 1,070 steps is a LOT! Here´s a (slightly smoggy) view from the top:

Also, there was an Andean jam band playing at the top:

Tomorrow: Day Trip to Jujuy City

A hike to, um, nowhere

I woke up super early to catch a bus to Alemanía with Patrick for a hike in the countryside. Alemanía was founded by Germans in the 19th century (who apparently got the pronunciation of their country wrong) and became a huge party town in the early 20th century when the Argentine government decided to build a railroad from Salta to Cafayate in order to transport food and wine to Salta.

Unfortunately, the railroad took longer than expected and the construction had only reached Alemanía (which is less than halfway to Cafayate) by the beginning of WWI. After the war, the government changed its mind and built a rail link to Chile instead. After the rail construction ceased, Alemanía faded in importance, and is now pretty much a ghost town:

The red roofed building in the center was the rail station during Alemanía´s glory days.

The plan for our hike was to hike four hours to a set of waterfalls, eat lunch, and then hike back to Alemanía and catch the bus back to Salta. Unfortunately, the two people we met in Alemanía (roughly half of the population) gave us bad directions and we set off in the wrong direction, although we were never really far enough away from the main highway to be really lost. At any rate, the scenery was stunning:

And I got really familiar with the thorn bushes native to Salta and now understand why the gauchos from this area have these giant saddle guards:

Eventually we reached a roadside restaurant, where we met a family who agreed to give us a lift into Salta (the mom later told us that we looked pathetic!).

Horseback Riding in San Lorenzo

I took the bus to San Lorenzo--a suburb (north? west?) of Salta-- with Patrick to do some horseback riding.

San Lorenzo is a beautiful town, up in the hills overlooking Salta and the Valle de Lerma, however the view was somewhat obscured by a combination of smog (from Salta) and actual smoke in the air from fires which, according to our guide, are set by bored local kids.