Cordoba - bit of a wash out in student town

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After a 9hr night bus in comfort (we paid for cama seats which are lot more comfy than the semi-cama seats for an extra £4) we arrived in Cordoba which is the 2nd largest city in Argentina. It was around 8am and we thought we would get a cab straight to the hostel, I flagged the 1st free one down, told him the address then he point blankly refused to take us I asked him why and he then went on a rant which I couldn’t understand so we let him go. We found the taxi rank and waited in the queue, we weren’t sure whether the hostel was too close or maybe too far but it was all good as the next one agreed to take us. What we did find funny was the fact there was a bloke at the front of the queue waving to the taxi drivers then opening the door for people then expecting a tip...myself and Karl thought this was a joke so we were the only ones not to tip him but I’m sure he still did quite well out of it.

We arrived at the Tango Hostel which had been recommended to me by a friend and managed to check in straight away before having a look around the city. The temperature was up in the high 20’s and it was only mid-morning, we strolled to the central area to have a look around then decided to head to the park nearby and do some sunbathing. The park was quite nice with a lake and a few people also sunbathing, after a few minutes we soon realised that without sun cream we were bound to turn beetroot in no time at all but thought it was worth the risk as we had been starved of sun for quite a while (and maybe for the next few days?). Once we left the park we went for some food and soon noticed that every person walking the streets seemed to be an attractive girl in her 20's, apparently the ratio is around 7 girls to 2 blokes with the city being a popular student town (not bad eh). After our food we went back to the hostel to find Graham checking in, there was a BBQ happening in the hostel so we all got changed and headed downstairs. We then met some other people staying in the hostel and enjoyed some lovely food before playing some drinking games and making up our own variations of some, the party then moved on in the early hours to a club called Studio Theatre, which as you might guess looked like a theatre inside. The place was really busy and full of students so we all had good fun and left the club to day light as we seem to now do quite often.

On the Saturday we all slept for a large part of the day, with the weather also playing a part as it was now cloudy and raining a bit so the options were limited. We also soon found out that no pubs or clubs would be open in the night and no alcohol served due to the election the next day, we were all a bit gutted as Thursday, Friday and Saturday are the main and busy nights in Cordoba and we had arrived on the Friday and picked a weekend where nothing is happening on the Saturday. We didn’t resign ourselves to defeat so attempted to try and find a house party or a party in another hostel, we played some more card games between us and had a good laugh, when the time did arrive to go out we couldn’t find anywhere decent so turned in hoping for a better night on the Sunday.

We all woke up and decided we would sort out our future destinations as we were leaving on the Monday. This firstly involved an attempt to find the bus station which ended up being a long walk in the wrong direction in a creepy park where there we carousels going round with no-one there and loud music pumping out...we all agreed it was all like a scene from a horror movie, also a few stray dogs chucked in for good measure, also Graham stubbing his toe was quite entertaining for me and Karl due to the wave of the arms and the girly shout to go with it. When we eventually found our way to the station we looked into buses for Mendoza and Graham looked into his for Bolivia, we got our info and walked back to decide what we wanted. Graham was happy with his (after a lot of sign language) but me and Karl checked the weather forecast out for the next few days and saw that it was supposed to rain in Mendoza for a few days so we thought we would have a look at Santiago Chile as we now know some people there and also we can access a beach a few hours away before we have to head down to the cold south. The weather looked good in Santiago so we then returned to the bus station to find out the price and times so we could book. After then forgetting our passports to book we returned for a third time to book our 16hr trip to Chile. In the evening we played some of our card games once again seeing as it was the last night me, Karl and Graham would be heading out together. We met up with some people we had met on the Friday and went to 2 bars with the second of them being a nice swanky bar called the Black Sheep with some good music although it wasn’t very busy everyone had a good time and made the most of it.

Our last day in Cordoba seemed to follow a similar theme with the weather not being very good. There was a big storm which lasted for a while and large amounts of water flowing down the streets. After we got some food we made a run for it back to the hostel which was funny seeing as every time you put your foot down the water engulfed it and started running up your leg. We made it back ok, sat and watched some films to pass the time before our buses, we said good bye to Graham for the time being as I’m sure our paths with probably cross again at some point and also said goodbye to the 2 Colombian guys who run the hostel as they were great hosts, then got our taxi to the bus station.

Now time for our big 16hr journey to Chile...

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