Córdoba

We had a four day weekend! We left on Thursday night at 11:59pm on a 10 hour bus ride to Córdoba. We arrived, walked through the town and arrived at the Córdoba Backpacker's hostel where we spent Friday night. We rested ate lunch and walked around the city center. Cordoba is much older than Buenos Aires and a lot of the buildings have been around for hundreds of years. There are beautiful cathedrals and churches on every corner it seems and a university that students have attended for centuries. Friday night, the girls and I went out to a Parilla and ate some meat, and some more meat after that, and when we thought there couldn't possibly be anymore meat... there was more meat! Sausages, steak, pork, and chicken up the wazoo. And wonderful wine from Mendoza, their wine making province. All that for about $10 USD. We then went back to our hostel, and hung out with all the other travelers. We taught a couple Argentines how to play "bullshit" (a card game) which was extremely funny trying to teach them in Spanish. We woke up Saturday morning for free breakfast at the hostel and headed off to our next adventure. Nicola, Amanda, and I went hiking at Parque Nacional Quebrada del Condorito (a national park with condors). What a day! After finally getting bus tickets and sitting through a windy bumpy road on a little tour bus, we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere. The bus driver got out of his seat and stood up to tell us that was our stop. We got off the bus and looked around; at nothing. There was a small road and some hills on either side of us. No sign that said, "Welcome to Parque Nacional, you stupid Americans, follow these signs," no nothing like that. But there were 3 backpackers that got off the same time we did and when we started walking the wrong direction, they hollered at us and led the way. Gracias a Dios. We then proceeded to hop a fence to get into the park, wondering if this was even at all legal. But the backpackers did it and we followed. Before I go on, let me tell you about our attire. haha. the backpackers each had a GIANT back pack with huge water bottles and a tent. They were wearing warm jackets and shoes suitable for hiking. I was wearing bright red pants and a tshirt and carrying a pretty floral purse. Nicola was wearing cut off sweats and flip flops and Amanda was hiking in jeans with her purse and professional camera. The backpackers kept telling us it was going to get cold and we weren't going to make it and basically told us we were crazy. The people at the info booth pretty much said the same thing but we didn't care. The hike was supposed to be 2.5 hours to this huge gorge, "Balcon Norte" and we had exactly 4 hours to hike there and back. But we didn't care. We just said, "well we won't go all the way to the top and pfff, what's cold anyways?!" So we hiked and this is what we saw...
When we got back to the hostel for that night, the Morada hostel (still in Cordoba) we went shopping for groceries and Amanda cooked a gourmet meal for us, with a little help from everyone. We had pasta with homemade vodka sauce, a HUGE salad, garlic bread, grilled vegetables, the same Mendoza wine, and some Colaciones (a yummy dulce de leche dessert from our amigo, Mark). We sat in the kitchen of the hostel and laughed and ate and ate and laughed for hours. Sunday, we had breakfast at the hostel and then went to Alta Gracia to visit Che Guevara's childhood home. Alta Gracia was a cute small town with a lake and really cute old homes. There's an ancient Jesuit chuch there and other historical museums. I didn't go inside Che's house, but there were artifacts there from his childhood and family photos all over. It was so crowded; it was really amazing to walk up to this house in the middle of no where and be in the middle of a huge crowd, all people coming to learn about and honor Che. Later, we went back to our hostel, ate our leftovers from the night before and headed back to BA. Another long bus ride, and we'd be home, or our version of home for the next 3 months.

All in all, it was an adventure in and of itself; filled with good company, great stories, and a LOT of laughs!

P.S. USPS Mail actually only takes a little over a week. UPS, FedEx, and DHL will never get to me because customs opens stuff and doesn't let much pass. My address is:
Rebecca Borough
c/o IES Buenos Aires
Carlos Pelegrini 1069, Piso 13
C1009ABU Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA