Advertisement
Our overnight bus from Mendoza arrived in Cordoba at dawn, giving us little time to wake up and get our stuff together before we were walking half asleep through the terminal trying to find a bus or taxi to take us to our hostel. As it turns out, there are no local buses from the terminal and we had to wait in a 20 person cue for a taxi. Fortunately the taxi was chearp and we arrived promptly to the hostel. Our beds weren't ready at that hour of the morning, and as we were not going to waste any time, we set out to wakl the city soon after our arrival. Our first stop was at an underground Jesuit mission. It was only recently rediscovered in 1989, when a paving crew uncovered it while renovating the main street. We learned some interesting history behind it, such as it was used as a secret prayer area in the 18th century, when the Jesuits were expelled from South America by King Carlos III. The fact that it was a underground church was intriguing, since doesn't the Devil control the underground? Our self guided tour continued through the old historical university area and
into Plaza San Martin, whereupon we stopped at the Museo de los Desaparecidos. The street leading to the old police station that now holds the museum was lined with banners showing hundreds of photos of people who disappeared or were murdered during the 70s and 80s in Argentina's Dirty War. The police station itself was once used for torture and executions of those detained. A very h.aunting and powerful museum, we led ourselves through various rooms that displayed how and why individuals were apprehended, tortured, and disposed of inhumanly. It was unnerving to think that we were walking through a place where such incredible atrocities occurred. To lighten up the mood, we moved on to a few Museos de las Artes Bellas (art museums), one very modern and contemporary and the other displaying more classic pieces. Interestingly enough, the modern art museum was set in a classic victorian house with traditional architecture and design while the classic art museum was set in an old palace and decorated with a very modern style, such as the black cow hide stairwell lit with green neon lights. An interesting contrast to say the least.
On our way back, rain clouds had developed
and we found ourselves seeking shelter between storefronts and awnings. At one point, we stumbled into a mall with a movie theater and decided to see a movie while waiting out the storm. Safe House was a decent movie with enough action to keep us entertained through the fair acting. After the movie we saw the rain had stopped so we finally made it back to the hostel. For dinner I had spotted a good looking pizza joint across the way so I headed over there to order take out. An old spot open for 50 years or so, seemed to have the same clients as when it opened. The place was filled with old men haggling each other and the young staff while waiting for their pizza or beer. My number eventually came up and I took the pizza and empanadas across the street to eat with Chloe at the hostel. Large with the classic thick Argentine crust, the meat heavy pizza ended up lasting us the next few days.
The next morning Chloe woke up in a pretty bad mood. In the 8 bed dorm we had slept in, a large Argentinian guy had snored in a
Murder Site
Reads "We remember this is where Horacio Americo was assasinated." Freaky stuff...drunken state all night and Chloe hadn't gotten any sleep. Somehow I slept through it, probably thanks to the noise cancelling ear buds I always use when sleeping in dorms. Still, I was pretty impressed that I had slept when I learned how severly the guy had snored. The rest of the people in the dorm had been woken up, and even the owner of the hostel had heard him from the other end of the building. Since he was drunk no one could wake him, and due to his size no one wanted to hit him in case he awoke in a fury. One girl in our dorm got fed up and went to the owner at the reception down the hall around 6 am. The owner was shocked by his volume upon entering the room and had to shake him awake then told him he was snoring like a lion! Everyone went back to sleep soon there after, and I got Chloe up a few hours later around 9. Today we had the plan of checking out the town of Alta Gracia, 45 minutes outside Cordoba, where Ernesto "Che" Guevara grew up. Alta Gracias was a quaint town
Breakin down Walls
Museo de los Desaparacidos with a mix of architectural styles. On our walk to the Che Museum, we saw a group of gauchos riding their horses along the street. We found out later they were heading to some gaucho festival on the outskirts of the town. We never made it there but I bet it would have been fun!
The Che Museum was pretty cool though, located in the house he grew up in. It was surprisingly expensive; the most expensive museum we'd been to. Regardless, it was really interesting to learn about Che's childhood, see the bicycle and motorcycle he used on his expeditions to learn more about Latin America, and how be became the international revolutionary and Cuban general that he is famous for. I had seen the movies about his life but the museum gave an introspective only gained at this location. There was a room with photos when both Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez came to pay homage to the revolutionary here in 2006. So, in a way, we kinda met 2 of the US' biggest opponents. Yeah, kind of a big deal...It turns out we got lucky to walk the museum at our leisure since as we left,
a bus load of elderly Argentines were entering, crowding the exit and soon there after packing the house. We escaped the hoard of old folks and walked back to the center to eat lunch. After eating more pizza (the cheap & easy option) we went to check out an old Jesuit mission, built in the 17th century. We toured around the old mission, checking out some cool original furnishings, paintings and religious figures. My favorite piece was a wooden armoir that had this layers of wooden skin on the inside of the doors with etchings of some important religious figure. Chloe enjoyed some of the fine jewlry encased. Obviously our main interest in the plae ironically had nothing to do with the religion. By 4:30 we had gotten our fill of Alta Gracias and hopped on the next bus back to Cordoba. Upon arrival to the terminal we walked over to the Guemes barrio, where there was a weekend block party artisan market.
This wasn't your normal, mass-produced, everyone-has-the-same-sh*t market but a true artisan block party. From leatherwork, home furnishing, clothes, jewelry, pastries and chocolates, it had a lot to offer. Chloe got pretty exicted and sometimes a bit
Modern Design
At the Bellas Artes Museo lost but I helped keep her on track. We spent quite a while weaving through the plazas, streets and stalls before deciding it was time for a drink. There were quite a few cool bars in the neighborhood, so we found one with decently priced drinks, an outdoor terrace, and some live amateur music and settled in for a few drinks. I had a strong Cuba Libre and Chloe ordered her normal caipiroska but for some reason, it came out with lemons rather than limes muddled up. I asked the waitress why the lemons and she answered matter of factly that's how they are made. I wasn't going to start argueing with her over the ingredients of the drink but simply thanked her and told Chloe that while in Cordoba, not to order another caipiroska. Silly Argentines trying to twist a Brazilian drink' next time stick with wine or fernet, I doubt they could mess that up! We finished up our drinks and walked back to the hostel, where we ate dinner while I mulled over the idea of skydiving the next day. I've always been fascinated by the idea; for my 25th birthday I said I was going to
gift myself the opportunity. But after over a year it never materialized and I'd read that Cordoba was one of the cheapest places to jump out of a plane. In the end I decided it was now or never and signed up to jump at 10 am.
The next morning we were up and ready by 9:30, checked out and put our bags in storage. By 11 they still hadn't shown so I had the reception call the company to see what the deal was. I don't know what exactly happened but they said someone would come by 12. By 1pm they finally showed up, 3 hours after I was ready. If the wait wasn't annoying enough, we were stuck talking to a very strange Guatamalen-German couple in their 40s. For 3 hours I was put in the uncomfortable position of hearing about how the couple was getting divorced because the Germans were racist and he couldn't live in that enviroment. Adding to this, I heard his life story of being an addict to a plethora of drugs. When the transport finally came, I couldn't have been more relieved.
We drove for about 30 minutes before reaching a
field where the airstrip and landing zone was located. After paying to sign my life away, I was brought over to the tiny plane I was going to jump out of to receive some basic training. When Chloe saw the size of the plane and the space we would cram into she immediately reconfirmed her choice not to skydive. This was one interest we did not share. Chloe was there soley for moral support and although I was glad she was there, her questioning and nervousness did not give me much support. She was far more nervous than I, and she was staying on the ground! After the tutorial, I was led to the hanger where I met my tandem guide and the cameraman. I got set up in a harness and before I knew it I kissed Chloe goodbye and was in the plane circling higher and higher. The reality of the situation didn't hit me until we were at 4000 meters above the ground. Still we climbed, and at close to 5000 meteres the door was opened and thought holy sh*t this is really happening! It was truly a surreal experience, putting my feet on the peg of
a platform outside the door while the cameraman filmed us from the wing. With my heart beating with adrenaline and my stomach in my chest, my tandem guide counted to 3 and we were out into the air, flipping a few times and watching the plane rapidly fly out of sight before we straightened out into the freefall position. I was yelling with so much excitement and had a huge smile on my face while tears were pulled out of my eyes by the force of gravity. Freefall has always been a passion of mine, and this was the epitomy of it, with 35 seconds of blissful adrenaline. Of course, the feeling had to end but even after the rip cord was pulled and parachute opened, the adventure didn't. The guide gave me the controls and taught me how to direct us. I was unsure at first but it soon became easy and natural. Spiraling around and directing us toward the landing zone, I took in the views of the multi-colored farmland leading to the mountains in the distance before I had to hand the controls back for our landing. Our landing was smooth and easy in the grass and
Chloe was right there waiting for me back at the hanger. We hugged each other and waited for a bit while they put together a disc with the footage from my jump. Watching the short film put a smile on my face and made me wnat to get back in the plane and do it again! However we were simply shuttled back to the hostel instead.
We still had quite a bit of time until our night bus so I accompanied Chloe back to the artesan block party to find a wallet that she really like but hadn't bought the previous day. Since we arrived at the beginning and many vendors were setting up, I wasn't surprised to find that the leather vendor wasn't there. We stuck it out for a little while and sure enough, he showed up an hour later and fortunately still had the wallet that had caught her eye. She bought it and was stoked as we walked back to the hostel. Shopping, skydiving, whatever. If it gets you excited and happy that's all that matters right?! We were put in an even better mood when we got to the bus terminal and found that
El Che
Argentina/Cuba our bus served as much free booze as we wanted. I guess they wanted us to sleep. It worked, since after a few glasses of wine and a whiskey nightcap, we both slept peacefully until the early morning when we arrived to Tucuman, where we had to transfer buses to get to our next destination, Cafayate.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0397s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
