De Mendoza a Cordoba

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On the 17th we headed on an overnight bus trip to Cordoba, which was unfortunately a disaster trip. The tire popped and the bus was an hour late and then 2 hours outside of Cordoba at 7am the bus broke down and we were left to figure things out on our own. Meg tried to work her magic and complained explaining she wanted to be financially compensated for the last stretch of the journey or have our colectivo (city bus) bus ticket paid for to get to our final destination. Of course ¨NO¨ was their response ¨solo soy chofer¨ can´t help you. We left our new found friends, whihc we met on the journey and headed out solos to Cordoba. Finally arriving around noon we walked a few miles, bags and all in search of a good hostel, con buena onda, and possible party scene. WE NAILED IT! Aldea hostel was a great spot. We ended up staying there 3 nights. Friendly staff from all over the world, an Argentine who was born and raised in SF, as well as two other Californians, lots of Israeli travelers, Dutch girls, German girl, New Zealand mates... It was a three day party. We vetured the city streets daily, soaking in the colonial architecture and admiring some of the ferias. We managed to visit some museums and stopped and paid our respects to the Museo de la Memoria, where the have a memorial to many of the desaparecidos, Argentina´s many political prisoners.
We traveled to some places outisde of Corodba one being Villa Carlos Paz, unfortunately we were disspapointed. What was described as a beautiful town with a giant resavoir lake and rivers running through it turned out to be much more of a mini vegas styled place. Casinos, littered rivers, polluted water and dirty waterfront lawns and beaches. We did a full lap around the city, cruised along the lake, enjoyed an esspreso and laughed about our unfulfilled dream of swimming and lounging. We stopped for lunch and decided to split the cheapest thing, a deliciously sounding pizza, having not had eaten a meal since the night before we were stoked... and yet again dissapointed we took a bite each out of our 8 portion pizza, realized we couldnt make oursleves eat it, asked for a to go box and pretended to take our meal to go to the ¨beach¨, waving good bye to our kind smiling waiter we turned the corner and tossed it. Due to our budget we decided we had to wait til dinner :-( ... which was three empanaditas each at 3 pesos a piece. Enjoyed in the great company of our fellow travelers in our funky, fun and vuibrant hostel.
Aside from cruising the colonial streets of Cordoba, we did our best to party at night. Having had met many people at the hostel we were invited to a friend Dustins workplace, a bar called Macanudo, which was mind blowing. The decoartion was like something our of Salvador Dalis houses. Table settings for dinner glued in their place on the ceiling through out the halls. Bathroom walls and ceiling lined with barbed wire and ladies bras, rooms with clawfooted bath tubsfull of water with real fish swimming in them, topped with a sheet of glass to use it as a table. Another room with open antique books glued and open along the walls, dentist chairs, old type writers, poems painted along walls, rooms with cushions all along the floors, the outside patio with a 3 foot high and 15 foot long wall of olf TVs used as a perimeter. Clocks of all types scattered aimlessly around the walls and vibrant colors splattered through out the place. We went there two night in a row with friend, mind you we were on the Argentine schedule which meant we didnt leave until 1230am and came home around 430... SOOOO NOT USED TO IT, but we adjusted and enjoyed ourselves. Coroba was a blast and we had a great time with great poeple from all over the globe. Pictures will come soon, so will details on our further advnetures to Mina Clavero (3 nights) where we cliff jumped and made delicious homemade meals in our hostel. After a gruesome journey of 3 buses we ended up in San Juan where we ventured to Diqu Illum a gianbt and beautiful resavoir. After a day and night in SJ we came to Barreal, in search of nature and camping, we hit the goldmine. This town is stunning, streets lined with weeping willows, dirt roads, located between the Cordillera de los Andes on the West and the Precordillera on the East, friendly people, shady camp grounds, with a giant EMPTY pool... haha. We arrived here on the 26th and are staying until we meet up with mom, saving our money (which goes easily here) and cooking off our butane run mini stove, we are hiking, cruising and chilling like villans after intense travles this past month. We will write in moe detail about our adventures in Mina Clavero, SJ, and Barreal. Until then friends......

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