Cordoba

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We arrive in Cordoba early Sunday morning after a 20 hour bus ride that was considerably better then the previous one. We went carma again, but this time we were fed three fairly decent meals and vino. The city is a ghost town, not only because it is early Sunday morning, but also because it is Sunday, and everything is closed. It was still a bit of a shock for us, as the city is big, and we had spent the last 5 weeks in Patagonia.

We check into our hostel, Morada Hostel, which is quite funky, with cool art all over the place. It has the reputation of a party hostel, but is quiet now which suits us. This was made even more clear to us when when we were talking to the girl at reception getting some information about places to eat, drink etc in the city. She pointed out on the map where the good restaraunts and some bars where, and then pointed out on the map where the party places where (discos, etc.. ) and said this is where the 'young people' go , inferring that this was not the type of places for us. Haha. I am used to this inference, but for mojo it was a shock, and she was a bit cut up over it...

Venturing out on the Sunday to get our bearings we find a resto-bar and get some lunch and watch a bit of the davis cup between Argentina and France, which was being held in Buenos Aires. There was not too much attention on the tie for the previous two days, but Sunday was the last day of the tie and the Argentinians where in with a good chance of an upset, so there were was some atmosphere. We got chatting with one of the bartenders and he nicely pointed out some small cities/villages in the surrounding area which we should visit.

We had arranged to catch up with Mike on Monday, as he was staying with some friends about an hour out of Cordoba city. It was good to catch up with him again, and give him a bit of shit about the tennis (as the Argentinians did indeed cause an upset). At the end of the day we said goodbye again, as he is off to to Bolivia to buy a horse and travel the country on foot!

That night at the hostel we got chatting to the receptionist for the night, Argie, who was a local but had lived in Australia, and a number of other countries. Soon we were joined by Steven, a South African, who was wrapping up his South American travels. We were having a good time drinking and chatting and soon it was midnight. Argie's shift had finished, and it was decided that we would go out and drink Fernet, a liquor made from herbs that is drunk in Italy and religiously in Cordoba. It has a very strong flavour (like chinotto x 10) and is usually drunk with coke cola. We went to the one of the bars where the 'young people' go (hahaha) and continued talking shit and having a good time. Soon it was 4am and we were all quite drunk. The first time that we have gotten really drunk on this trip

Waking up the next day at 1pm it felt like i had been punched in the head, mojo was much worse... Fernet packs a punch, especially if mixed with vino and beer like we had done... Needless to say, Tuesday was a right off. Mojo slept most of it, and I bummed around on the internet doing some research for the next part of our travels. We managed to go out for a meal, for the first time in a week, as we have been cooking all our meals, getting in as many vege's as possible. There is only so much Sandwich's, hamburgers, pizza, pasta, empanda's and steak we can handle, as this is the staple diet of the locals. I had a hankering for something asian, and we tracked down a chinese place, but when we got there it was takeaway only :o( So it was steak again for me, and pasta for mojo.

On Wednesday, we got a bus to La Falda, a smallish town 85km out of the city. It is here that Mojo had possibly tracked down on the internet a long lost Uncle who had come to Argentina around 60 years ago. It was a long walk out of the town (about an hour) until we got to the address. After sucking up some courage, and with a letter translated in Spanish explaining who she was, mojo ventured in. We were taken in warmly and luckily one of the daughters spoke perfect English. We soon found out though that it was not the exact family members that mojo was seeking, but it seems that they are some form of relative as the surname, home towns in the mother country, and a few other things were a match. After chatting for around 2 hours and sharing stories, we had to walk the 2km back into town and get a bus back to Cordoba.This is where our spanglish let us down, as there was a bus direct to Cordoba, and one that went everywhere through all of the little towns. We thought we got on the right bus, but soon realised that was not the case. It made it a 2.5hr bus ride, but we got to see more of the area, which was decent enough pay-off.

The next day, we got a bus out to Alta Gracia, which is where Che Guevara grew up and there is a national museum in the house that he spent his youth. It was raining quite heavily, and thunder was reverberating off the surrounding mountains, but the town was very pretty. Che's family moved him here when he was very young as the climate and air was good, in an attempt to cure his chronic asthma. The museum gave us an interesting incite into the man, and had many cool memorabilia, including the bike that he used to traverse south america, as chronicled in the motorcycle diaries. The entrance to the museum was quite pricey, $75 pesos, but for an extra $10 pesos we could get a multi pass and get access to two other museums in the area, Manuel de Falla's (a famous spanish composer who lived out his last years in Alta Gracia), and Gabriel Dubois (a famous french sculpture). Without sounding like philistines, we both were not aware of these two prior to the visit, but enjoyed the museums and got to see how people lived in the early to mid part of the last century.

We got back into Cordoba around 4pm, and went to the hostel to kill the 6 hours until our overnight bus ride to Mendoza. We drank mate, a herbaceous Argentinian tea that packs quite a punch, and something that i have grown a taste for, and chatted more to Argie, learning about the history of Argentina, the people and the politics. It was very interesting and gave us some great insight into the country.

Got on the bus at 22.15 for the 10 hr ride to Mendoza...

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Photos

Che Guevara's Motorcycle
The one that he traversed a lot of South America on, made famous in the motorcycle diaries

The famous picture of Che
That must be printed on a billion T-Shirts...

Just like home
A lot of Eucalyptus trees in Argentina

Air plant
That grows everywhere, including on powerlines

All at once?
New meaning to sh*t, shower and shave...

One weird sculpture
Apparently in reference to part of the bible, babies suckling from a wolf. Whatever it is, it's creepy