Nearby CEDES, the research center where SIT is located, there is an outdoor restaurant called Sanchez&Sanchez. There's always people eating there and their food is pretty good, but kind of pricey. When eating, one can expect a lot of noise, a lot of movement, but they are rarely interrupted. However in Salta, where you can sit outside in the beautiful plaza and eat, interruptions are a common occurrence. Vendedores ambulantes or walking vendors, as well as people begging for money, approach your table every five minutes or so. It is both distracting and disheartening. I simultaneously wished these people would just leave me alone and thought it was important to recognize the extreme poverty in Salta. During these meals, poverty was just in your face and you couldn't really escape. That's why it was so difficult. Even in some indoor restaurants, walking vendors were allowed to come in and essentially disrupt the meal. A few times people even begged for leftovers or bread that was on our table.
Back here in Buenos Aires, you might not be disrupted by your meal, but the poverty is definitely still there.
I just thought it was important to talk about these moments where I was uncomfortable, because there were many during my trip to the North. And the pictures might not show how ugly that place could be.
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