Blogs from Alta Gracia, Córdoba, Argentina, South America

Che’s real name was Ernesto and was born to aristocratic parents. He was called Che because in Argentinian Spanish Che is a pronoun meaning ‘you’ and he didn’t want to be recognised by his aristocratic name so he adopted the name Che and was known throughout Central America and South America as Che Guevara. His mother was a feminist one of the first women to smoke, wear trousers and drive a car and his father owned a lot of land and both had a high place in society. They were on their way to Buenos Aires from Cordoba when Ernesto was due to be born and they stopped in Rosario (a town in between Cordoba and Buenos Aires) to have Che. Che was born in Rosario with a bronchial condition which later developed into asthma. The ... read more

Alta Gracia--Cultural Treasures Alta Gracia is the biggest city, 45,000 people, that I visited in the mountains surrounding beautiful Cordoba. Like the other towns, it was built along a gurgling, shady river, perfect for strolling. However, it also held several cultural treasures such as one of the region's well-restored, UNESCO-designated, former Jesuit estancias/ranches, as well as the house-museums of the adolescent Che Guevara and the elderly Spanish composer, Manuel de Falla, a clock town erected in 1938 to celebrate the city's 350 anniversary, the1903 Sierras Hotel which was Argentina's first casino, and a lovely urban park built around the former Jesuit reservoir. Moreover, it was September, spring, and the town was filled with brilliant, purple-blooming jacaranda trees. I'd come from little Mina Clavero on a local bus that wound through the mountai... read more

On Monday (7 March), Kelly (from Brazil) and I went to Alta Gracia, a little town in the Southwest of Córdoba. This is one of the places where (rich) Argentinians spend their holidays. The differences between the life style of the original habitants and the tourists is quite striking. But Alta Gracia is also known for a beautiful little church and the grotto of the virgin from Lourdes (gruta de la virgen de Lourdes) and since Monday and Tuesday were holidays because of the carnaval, many Argentinians pilgrimaged either to the virgin or the tennis court of Alta Gracia. Another highlight of this town is the Che Guevara museum (I would call it Che Guevara church...). Che used to live here as a child because of this asthma and this house is now a museum, which ... read more

We decided to spend the day outside Cordoba and visit another town. We went to a small bus station to take a bus to go to Alta Gracia. We randomly ran into one of the students from school at the bus station (Alia from France) so we ended up spending the day with her. We first had lunch at a small restaurant (one of the 2-3 restaurants of Alta Gracia) and had a really good omelette and tortilla de papas. (We should really import tortilla de papas into Canada). We then went to the Che Guevara museum. It was actually one of the houses where the Che lived when he was young. It was interesting to learn more about this south american icon who helped the Cuban revolution. We also visited another estancia (called estancia de ... read more

The last week was spent travelling west towards the border of Argentina and Chile. We stayed in two places, Cordoba and Mendoza. Cordoba was the site of possibly the dodgest hostel we stayed in. Damn you Baluch!!! For all its pitfalls, it had free b´fast and the internet was free and fastest there. Cordoba is meant to be the cultural capital of Argentina, I think. Its home to 7 universities and had heaps of awesome street performances. We went on a day trip from Cordoba to Alta Gracia, Che´s home town (where he grew up as a kid). This turned out to be a side adventure as the main purpose of the trip was to go mountain biking. When we got off the bus, we didn´t really know where to go, but managed to pick up ... read more