First University town of Argentina

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Geo: -31.4, -64.19

A short flight from Buenos Aires brought us to Argentina's second city, Cordoba. Then a fast and furious cab ride into town which seemed to us to be going the very long way round and a mixed language 'discussion' ensued. But it's another one of those situations where you end up arguing about the difference between £10 and £12!
Great hotel right in the middle of town, huge corner room overlooking two main avenues and enough space for a huge bed, a sofa and two armchairs! And Liz says I forgot to mention the rooftop pool!
Being so close to everything the next day we quickly covered the main highlights and were bowled over by the tour of the Un iversity, established by the Jesuits, oldest in Argentina, great library display with massively old books including a polyglot bible in 7 languages including amareic, arabic etc dated back to 1500 and something. Or was it 1600 and something? Old anyway. We also got to sit in the room where PhD candidates had to stand for three days and be questioned on their thesis, in public. Tour was led by young lady who had studied Russian in the same U niversity (it is still going strong - University is free in Argentina for Argentinians and people from other countries) and who spoke fluent English and was happy to get involved in discussions about Argentinian politics. None of the people we speak to are at all enamoured of the current president.
So having visited many of the most important places on the first day we found ourselves with a day to be laid back so we joined a tour out into the hills north of the city which, while it visited nothing of specific importance, gave us a useful idea of how Argentinians holiday. Lots of 'cabanas' to rent, lots of camp sites, a shallow river bordered by holiday places just swarming with people - not deep enough to swim so they just sat and splashed or paddled. It was a very hot day, on return to the hotel we discovered it had been too hot for one of the air-con units that had tripped out and had to be reset so the room was a bit sticky. Then in the evening as we ate on an outdoor terrace we were entertained by the lighting flashes and then the rain - fortunately we had chosen the part of the terrace with a roof, others had chosen 'en plein air' and had to run!
Today we are having a lazy morning, watched the end of the Murray Federer match before breakfast, then we may take in a couple of art galleries, then a movie, then dinner before our 10:30 pm bus to Mendoza which we reach at about 8am tomorrow. Booked in 'Suite-cama' class which means a big seat which turns into a flat bed.

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Photos

A left over from Buenos Aires
Our last day and a walk in the park/rose garden

Some protest parade
Small protest - few people, but these things are common

UFO country
There are more UFO sightings here than anywhere else