Cordoba

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Well it turns out that going Cama suite on the bus really is the only way to go. We could only get semi-cama for our 16 hour bus ride from Salta to Cordoba and we didn´t sleep a wink. Our plan was to arrive this morning, drop off our bags and wander about the city until 10 p.m. when we catch another(!) 10 hr overnight bus to Mendoza. Did I mention that we figure we have the swine flu as well???! Not a pleasant trip when you can´t breathe in addition to everything else.

We arrived this morning in the pouring rain. Not a great start after we´d been up all night but the rain cleared up pretty quickly only to be replaced by a freezing cold wind. We stowed our bags and headed for the nearest cafe for a hot drink and breakfast. We found a really cute cafe that didn´t seem to mind that we used their bathroom to change and hung out in the corner for two hours (we left a big tip). Once we were feeling normal again we headed out to see the sights. Cordoba really is just a university town. Tons of students. There´s some nice churches and interesting history of the Jesuits so we did enjoy touring it. We figured out too late that all the museums are closed on Monday. Despite this we did manage to fill the day and in the end it wasn´t so bad.

We wandered through their pedestrian market and bought some jewellery on our way to a Jesuit crypt ruin that was only discovered 25 years ago when they were laying telephone lines through the center of town. We wandered around the market some more. Saw several churches and cathedrals... They sure have a lot of beautiful churches here.

We then killed another two hours at lunch - we went to a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant. It´s a humongus(sp?) buffet with every possible kind of meat and fish you can think of. None of the waiters spoke English but they managed to find someone to explain the process to us. It was quite entertaining. Áll the names were in Spanish so we had no idea what we were eating most of the time. I put what i thought was marinated mushrooms on my plate only to find out that they were kidneys. Leah was brave enough to try them and regretted it shortly thereafter. In any case, it was an entertaining lunch that killed another two hours (only 7 more to go until the next bus...)

So we then headed out for more walking. We found another cathedral. Absolutely stunning architecture. We kept walking up to the top of a hill where we found a huge zoo. Again with not much to do, we decided to check it out. Not my favourite thing to do but it passed the time.

We´re finally only 1.5 hour away from the bus departure and have wiled away the rest of the time updating this blog. We´ve decided to splurge and we´re staying at a 4 star hotel in Mendoza for at least one night. Can´t wait to have a shower and sleep in a clean quiet hotel room. Leah hasn´t slept in about 5 nights and i´m on my third. I will hopefully be able to update again in the next few days.

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Comments

[Kathy]

Hi
Hi Andrea and Leah, Thanks for all the updates. It sounds like you are having a wonderful adventure. I hope the 4 star hotel in Mendoza is worth it - Andrea gets pretty sticky when she doesn't shower. Keep having fun!!! Love,K