Córdoba and San Juán

So Córdoba is the city of colonial architecture, universities and nightlife. I stayed in a hostel called Córdoba backpackers which turned out to be a really great place, eating in tenedor libre places (eat as much as you want) and I did some shopping. What I´ve learnt about Argentina is that the country is very modern and has a high standard of living compared to other South american countries. All the hostels have hot water, there are not so many beggers, people are educated, dress nice and a lot of people seem to know things about Sweden(not happens very often), it´s possible to drink tap water in most big cities, taxis,cars and busses are very often of a newer model..well I've seen some horse-drawn carts in the center but that´s a nice sight to me. That´s what I call taking care of the environment. I had a discussion with a Chilean guy about Argentina that tought me that even if Chile is more expensive they have to pay a lot more expenses for education,hospitals etc which makes the countries almost economically equal. One thing that is really cheap here is cigarettes(4 pesos) and everyone seems to to smoke. I´ve never been to a country with so many smokers and that also includes marijuana smokers. To smell some sweeter tobacco outside a bar or street corner didn't surprise me at all after some weeks here. Some others things that I have observed is that long hair, piercing in the eyebrow are very popular here and that they seem to have a lot of time off. Something I really miss at home, well I´m compensating it with travelling. They have a two hour afternoon siesta , spending hours at cafés and close early if there are few costumers, something I had another discussion with an Argentinian. He told that is was a problem that people are enjoying there lives to much(also notable that the discussion lasted for about 1 hour and a half and I had 3 small coffees). What I can conclude from that is that I miss some more breakes in my job. But something I really miss here from Peru is the music. It's so quiet in the taxis, restaurants and cafés. Córdoba is worth visiting for the parties, studies, colonial buildnings or to have walks in parks. The main park is huge here and from the parts I've seen from it(about 10%) it contains a small amusement park, a lot of good football possibilities, boat rides, a bmx place with jumps, rollerblade rink, restaurants and cafés.

San Juán:
I spent 3 days here on my way to Mendoza hoping to also find a place to get all my dirty clothes washed. I encountered a problem. I couldn't find a "lavandería",laundry. I heard rumors of one in a supermarket so I walked around for maybe 1 hour and asking some people but I got almost the same answer all the time. "I don't know", "I think there is one in the center" and in the center "no, they are all far from here". The hostel in which I stayed at was called Zonda hostel, named by the wind "El Zonda" which is described in Lonely planet, Argentina as; The Zonda is a dry, warm wind that can raise a cold day´s temperature from freezing to nearly 20 C. It's a regular occurence, giving the region - and the sanjuaninos - severe seasonal schizophrenia, especially in winter. The wind, which varies from mild to howling, can last several days. Well the weather was already warm so I couldn't tell if it was because of El Zonda. After some relaxing days, mostly at the hostel I went off to Mendoza.

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