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Published: April 4th 2011
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We arrived in Cordoba last week and decided that it was time we took some Spanish lessons (which the need for is becoming more evident as we venture out of bigger cities!) we organised with a Mexican girl who worked at one of the hostels to give us lessons for 2 hours a day for 4 days...it´s not enough, but a good start.
Cordoba has a population of about 1.3 million, and apparently 200,000 of those are uni students, so there is a good feel there, even made me think of going back to uni for a while...just a while.
Cordoba is surrounded by hills with little villages spread throughout. You can take a 2 hour bus ride and be completely secluded, which I think is something Cordoba has over Buenos Aires.
So we did a couple of day trips, the first one to a place called Alta Gracia, where Che Guavaras family house is, which is turned into a museum, that was cool and educational... but that was about all there was to do in that town.
The following day after our lesson we ventured to a town called Cuesta Blanca, where there is a beach called playa de
la hippies (hippy beach), which is a river with sand (not a surf beach, which I thought!)
Now we were told that when we get off the bus, its still about a half hour walk, but just ask people how to get there and we should be fine... well the bus drops us off ont he side of the road, and apart from the other 2 foreigners that got off the bus, there was not a single person or sign in sight. Luckily the other two were going to the same place and had been there before, so we tagged along with them... and there was no way we could have found the place without them!! We walked along a dirt road, turning left and right without signs for about half an hour. Then we take a forest walk following a track for the good part, but then climbing down rocks through bushes until maybe 20mins later we see the clearing of the ¨beach¨. It was well worth the walk though, the river was so fresh and clean, and surrounded by forest and hills in every direction, there are a few people that live down there in tents, and a
few grazing cows, horses and lazy dogs, but other than that.... pure serenity!! Unfotunately we couldnt stay long because we had a tango lesson to get back for, and if there´s one thing we´ve learnt is that you should leave with plenty of time...and luckily we did.
We accidently took a different root back up the hill through the forest... much more scenic and a little more bush bashing involved, but we finally got back on track, then we were lucky with the timing of the bus, so we asked the driver if it was going to Cordoba, he nodded, so we thought, great things are working out! After the bus picked up about 40 school kids and dropped them off we notice the sign to Cordoba, the direction we were headed, and then the bus does a U turn... turns out we were supposed to get off at the last terminal...so in broken spanish we ask if we are going in the right direction...no we´re not! We got off, and caught another bus, and luckily made it back to Cordoba in time for our tango lesson!!!
We left Cordoba on saturday to come to a small town called
Mina Clovero, which is a town built around a river and also surrounded by hills...very beautiful. Yesterday we hired a couple of bikes, and took a ride up to a swimming hole along the river... Troy wasn´t so lucky with his bike, it didnt like going up hills or braking, so he had to walk up most of the hills, and speed down the hills, which nearly resulted in a head on with a car...nearly! But that particular part of the river was beautiful, the water was a little cold, but so refreshing and clean... so we explored, swam and sunbaked for a few hours but had to get our bikes back unfortunately. In the afternoon we tried to go to a small town nearby called Nono, well we went.... but it was around 5, and that is still siesta time, especially on a Sunday, so other than an icecream shop and the supermarket, there was nothing open and no one around... we sat for a while waiting for the tumbleweed but that didnt even blow by, so we left!
Now we are waiting for a bus to Capilla del Monte, which is a town about 150km from here
where a supposed UFO landed years ago, and apparently they all believe in aliens, so should be pretty interesting!! Will fill you in on that soon..
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