Argentina: From East to West

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Buenos Aires

Tuesday morning (January 31st), after arriving extremely late the night before from Ushuaia, we were exhausted and slept in a bit, but not enough. We needed to get up early and deal with our previously-booked flight home. So we headed to the LAN office in Buenos Aires and changed our flight path and future plans for returning home. From Santiago to Venezuala to Curacao and finally to Canada... our return back to Toronto is now firmly scheduled for March 3, 2012. Nailing down a finite end to our trip was both a very happy and sad moment! The rest of the day we relaxed, napped and planned our next couple days in the city.

On Wednesday we headed to La Boca and San Telmo. We got on the local bus #29 and got off at the last stop, right in front of the famous, colourful pedestrian street Caminito. Besides being near the city's old port, La Boca is well-known for two reasons... it is the main soccer town of BA and also it is said to be the true origin of Tango. We strolled around the town, bought some souvenirs and had a parilla lunch with live entertainment. After a number of photos we got on the bus and stoppped in San Telmo on the way back to BA centro. San Telmo is the oldest barrio of Buenos Aires and is known for its colonial buildings. This neighborhood boasts many museums, antique stores and old churches. We walked back through the centre of BA and picked up some groceries for dinner!

Thursday might have been our best day in Buenos Aires as we went to a suburb of BA called Palermo (no, not named after you Tony!). This suburb was amazing for many reasons... and Liz and I fell in love. Our first stop out of the subway was to head up to Palermo Hollywood and Palermo Viejo. We stopped at a local place for lunch and were amazed by the quality and value of the food. We got a fixed price menu for 40 pesos each (just under $20 for both)... Liz had glass of white wine, chicken brochettes with fries, flan dessert and coffee and I had pint of beer, spinach/cheese stuffed ravioli, dulce de leche stuffed crepe and coffee... we were in heaven especially at that price! After our 2.5 hour lunch we walked around to tour the town a bit more and we stopped at a special gluten-free bakery with tons of delicious baked goods for Liz to choose from, so she stocked up on GF alfajores (an Argentinian delicacy) and we headed out. Not a couple of blocks away we stumbled upon a special beer store (artesenal ceverceria) where they advertised a number of specialty beers... inlcuding GF. (It was a good day for Liz). Our day was complete after a couple final stops, one at the grocery store and another at the Japanese Gardens, which was a short one as they were closing ten minutes after we arrived. We got back to the casa and booked our bus tickest out of BA to head to Cordoba. On Friday we enjoyed a bit of a lazy day, walking around the city and doing a little shopping - strolling through the wholesale district (the neighbourhood we were staying in) was certainly interesting, with clusters of bead, bag, fabric, and even mannequin shops! (No, we did not pick up any mannequins as souvenirs!).

Córdoba

We arrived in Córdoba early Saturday morning after an overnight bus ride. Our hostel was located on a pedestrian street which, when we arrived, was completely deserted. Within an hour or so this changed drastically, and the street was suddenly bustling with activity - street vendors selling everything you could imagine (from underwear to pirated DVDs) lined the sidewalks and people were strolling about everywhere! And seemingly just as quickly, the streets emptied completely around 1 or 2 pm as if everyone had left the city. And thus, we were introduced to the true siesta. In a city like Buenos Aires with tons of tourists, nothing really closes up totally, but the closer you get to the countryside (and especially now, during summer vacation here) you can pretty much set your watch by the siesta time. However even with most shops, restaurants and attractions closed, we still managed to see many of the famous sights that Córdoba has to offer, such as the Manzana Jesuitica (another UNESCO World Heritage site), the Plaza San Martin (the main square), the Museo Superior de Bellas Artes, and La Cañada de Cordoba ("the Canada" - no, just kidding, it really means "the Glen", and is a creek that runs through the city).

One of the sights that stands out from our short time in Córdoba is Iglesia de los Capuchinos (also known as La Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón, or Sacred Heart). This is a large neo-gothic cathedral (a style similar to Notre Dame in Paris, which we also quite enjoyed a few years back) and is probably one of our favourite churches we've seen on this trip. Córdoba is known for its churches, and is actually home to the oldest church in Argentina, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (known simply as the Córdoba Cathedral). The Cathedral is a beautiful building of a completely different style (as you can tell by the photos).

We rounded out our time in Córdoba with a little shopping to escape from the rain... even during siesta time, the mall is open! And so, with our wardrobes newly updated, and after catching the second quarter of the Super Bowl and Madonna's halftime show, we said goodbye to Córdoba as we headed off to Mendoza County (on yet another overnight bus ride!), where nearly 1800 wineries producing fine Argentinian wines were waiting for us... oh how excited we were to start tasting!

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Photos

Bodega Cervecera
Amazing little beer shop in Palermo

Iglesia de los Capuchinos
Spectacular gothic church - probably our favourite church of the whole trip!