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Published: December 15th 2007
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Cordoba
The main street for coffe and food, spent lots of time here Seeing the sights of Mendoza only took a couple of days, so on monday we took a bus to Cordoba, the second biggest city in Argentina with plans to go to Rosario after. I should mention that I´m writing this on an extraordinarily crappy keyboard, so if there are letters missing that is the reason.
The buses in Argentina are awesome. I think I forgot to mention that on the one from BA to Mendoza, they handed out bingo cards and the entire bus played for a bottle of wine. A very fun experience and a good way to practice some spanish. The one overnight to Cordoba was just as good, no bingo, but lots of space and a smooth ride. We rolled into the bus station at about 9 in the morning and walked about 20 blocks to our hostel. Due the he price of things in cordoba, we had decided to book a dorm rather than a double room, a new experience for us. Even the walk through the city trying to get from the station to ur hoel treated us to some amazing colonial architecture for which Cordoba is famous. We wandered passed a church built in
the 1500s for instance, it kind of makes nice buildings from home look pretty crap.
We only had two full days in Cordoba so we got going right away, going for a walk around the place. It was good to be back in a city again. We wandered passed some more old buildings, including the basilica in the centre of town. Following this we cruised through the antique street trying to find some trinkets. No such luck however, infact we´ve found the shopping in argentina to be fairly disappointing altogether, to expensive and not dissimilar from the stuff you can find in Melbourne. Oh well. We then wandered through to one of the main parks and played some cards, before finding he best empanada restaurant of the whole trip- just one peso each (au 0.40c) and a really friendly staff.
Following this chilled in our hostel for a while and made plans to see a show that night. Being in a dorm is fun. You obviously dont get much privacy but you do meet new people. Later that day we were able to see the spectacle of an argentinian and an englishman debate in spanish whether the royal
Cordoba Architecture
These kind o buildings are everywhere in Cordoba family was involved in Diana´s death, quite hilarious. We also met another english couple who were nice.
The show we went to that night was really good. Ealier that day we had gone to the theatre in the city to book what we thought was a brass orchestra. It turned out to be a group comprising of digeredoo, guitar, drums, interperative dance and voice. the whole thing was accompanied by a visual display on a screen above and was amazing to watch. It certainly made up for the rubish pizza we had for dinner before hand. Unfortunately, our fatigue cught up with us and we both found ouselves falling asleep in our hands by the halfway point. So we darted home (had some icecream on the way) and crashed .
The next morning we found breakfast to be rather frustrating. In argentina people seem to thing that toast should be baked in an oven and cooked hard as a rock. Its like eating bricks. Anyway we spent the rest day chilling with some coffee on the main street near our hotel, watching people walk past. We spent the rest of the day taking some photos and visiting churches,
Church
Around the corner from the main street, this church was built in the 1500s of which there are many, and ended up having dinner at a really good pasta place called La Mummas, really nice food.
Our bus to Rosario left at 7.30 in the morning. it wasn´t so bad, we were tired enough to sleep as soonas we got on and it only took about 6 hours. AFter arriving, we took a taxi to our hostel in downtwn (the first taxi we took in Argentina) and he ripped us off. We were staying in the secnd building of a two part hostel and after poitig clearly on the map that we wanted to go to the second he took us to the first, refusing to believe that there was any difference, after arguing for a bit, he rolled up the road to the second and demanded to paid for the combined trip We argued again (which is tough when you speak different languages) but we were forced to give it to him because we didn´t have change. To be honest, it was the side of trevelling that i had kind of missed in Argentina, it was, in a strange way fun.
Anyway, our hostel, La Casona De Don Jaime II was
Roast de Internacional
I found some! haven't tried it yet the highlight of our trip so far. The rom was good- psaris in an old building- but the staff were the best. Especially two women who worked there, Marina and Maria we really helpful. The help us book ickets to plasces and gave up advise on planning for our revels after iguazu. It´s amazing how a good place with a few good people can change an entire city for you, but they made Rosario our favourite destination in Argetina so far. The city is fantastic as well of course. Similar to cordoba in many ways (size, history, population), it was full of beautiful old colonial buildings. When we were not sight seeing we were sitting in small cafes reading and talking. There is a lot to do as well. Downtown there is a bunch of monuments, including the Monumento Nacional a la Bandera, which towers over the waterfront and provided us with some amazing views.
The oher great thing is the beach. It´s a fair way up the river, and you need to take he bus a fair way to get there, but it was certainlt good to some sun on our backs. Having said that the beach itself
Rosario Post office
I think this was the post office... worth putting the picture in anyway. was´t much to write home about (even though i´m doing so now), considering you can´t even get 6 feet into the water because it´s roped off for some reason. We ended up going twice, and returned quite tanned if not a litle burned.
The nigh after our first trip, our hostel through a party to celebrate the departure of a brazilian guy who had been staying there for the past year. The was one of the best experiences we had in Rosario. The food was good, aand the back pateo of the hostel was filled for much of the night with with three old men playing bongos and guitar and singing. We me a whole bunch of other tourists, many of whom gave us advice about our upcoming destinations Bolivia and Peru which was useful.
On the second last day was found ourselves beimg treated to free pasta made by our friends which was honestly some of the best pasta I´ve ever had (it tasted better of couse because it was free), which turned out to be a real moment for us in a way. Every now and hen in traveling you find yourself pausing and loving the
Rosario street signs
(this is cordoba street in Rosario, not Cordoba) All of the street signs are written like this, with an arrow or a person to say whether the road is one way or pedestrian only moment your in. As we sat with a group of six hotel staff and owners cnversing in spanish, we just listened, laughing when everyone else did, enjoying great food and wheher. Good times.
In all w spent four nights in Rosario and are even considering poping back in on our way back to BA in Jan. Next stop is the michty Iquazu lfalls in the far north east, near the border with Brazil. Hope everything is well back home,
Sam
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Dad
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Hola
Ok, that's all my spanish spent. LOVED the pics of Cordoba and Rosario, and just how long have you been saving up that 'nothing to write home about' line? It was great! Looking forward to your next update, guessing you have crossed borders from Argentina by now. Had a worrying conversation on the state of hospital/health care in Bolivia on the weekend with the Aunt of someone who had a serious bike accident - not good at all! Stay well, both of you! The self-photographed shot of you both that you posted was wonderful - keep them coming! 'Mechanical Dad' has resurfaced at Georgia's 'white noise' Peugeot had some senior moments - has not been well, but after consuming a range of parts looks like it's life has been extended again, good news. OK, if I keep typing on this conference call, someone will realise I'm not really working! Happy travels to both of you.