Hola Hola from Argentina
We caught our bus and this time we travelled Cama, the middle class. It didn´t seem like it!! Unfortunately we were upstairs which meant more people. I found it incredibly difficult to get to sleep as I had a father behind me snoring very loudly and in the adjacent seat across the aisle another guy. They synchronised, so as one stoped the other started. I had to hold myself back from using their open mouths as target practice. Don´t you men realise !!
We arrived in Cordoba at 7am and caught a taxi straight to our hotel. I think Argentina could halve it´s workforce. Every taxi has some guy opening the door and you have to tip him even if he doesn´t do anything. The problem is there´s hardly any small change here so you haven´t always got something to give them. You then feel guilty and sometimes they give you a dirty look. The Sussex hotel is located right on the main square. We checked in and my upper lip was wearing a bit thin with the lack of sleep. I then managed to lock myself in the bathroom. Jane had to call down to reception and promptly almost wet herself in the process as she was laughing so hard she couldn´t explain to the guy what the problem was. Jane like quite a few of my friends has a baked bean sized bladder. Although I have to say she´s been very good on this trip. It turned out there was some very bizarre way to open the door once locked so once we´d established what it was I managed to escape. At least the caper really lightened our mood. We had breakfast and then I had a sleep. Jane explored the pool area to find a disgusting mud coloured pond of water so no swimming for us.
Time to explore. Cordoba was actually South America´s city of culture for 2006. It´s a university city and Argentina´s second largest. We decided to do our own little city tour. Jane loves maps so I left her in charge and followed dutifully. Firstly we went to the crypt which lay undiscovered until 1987 when it was found whilst laying new drains. They had a very colourful art exhibition inside. We walked around the shopping area and I managed to get a bra that fits at last !! Of course now it´s so white I don´t want to put it in the local hostel laundry as it would soon change to a dirty grey colour. Time for lunch !!
We went in to a busy cafe and I ordered a parilla. This is basically a mixed grill and you can find them all over Argentina. There was actually two plates of various meats and I ate so much I felt like I´d joined the Atkins diet inadvertently. After lunch we walked along the canals although there was barely any water and admired the local architecture. As we sat in the cathedral a man came up to the altar and faced the statue of the Virgin Mary and started to sing “Ave Maria” in an incredibly loud operatic voice. He was a member of the public but he had an amazing voice and it was quite haunting (in a nice way).
Back outside, it was a bit of a shame to see that the open topped city tour bus was sponsored by McDonald´s (where´s the culture there ?). Time to do a University tour, after all that´s what helps make this place famous. It was great. One of the current students act as a volunteer to take you around the archives. Argentina makes education available to everyone although to get in to this University you have to take a very difficult exam and there´s only a 20% pass rate. Some of the books were so old and in ancient texts. One framed document was from the 4th century, it seemed to be in a mix of dialects. We went to the old exam chamber where students used to have to take a 3 day oral exam in front of their family, tutor and examiners. They had to answer questions standing up in front of the whole room. The tutor was allowed to coach as they went along. If they graduated the student would then have to ride a horse through the town. If you were an indigeneous person then you got to ride a mule !!
We walked through the square on the way to dinner. There was a robotic dancer dressed all in silver with the creepiest eyes, he´d taught his dog to bark in tune to James Brown´s “Like a sex machine” so maybe he wasn´t that creepy after all.We ended up going to a popular pizza place for dinner. We´ve overdosed a bit on red wine so have switched to Chandon. It´s an Argentinian champagne with a connection to Moet & Chandon. Mumm also has a brand here. The difference is in a restaurant it only costs UKP 8 per bottle and tastes lovely. The waiter made a comment about pizza and champagne- but so what !! A young girl came in trying to sell us stickers, being a sucker I ended up giving her one of my Cambodian bangles so she went away reasonably hapy even though she didn´t make a sale. (Eating al fresco you get accosted every 10 minutes). Our water was served via a soda syphon. I coped with it okay but Jane managed to do a Leonard Rossiter with it. At one point I made a joke and she managed to spit a whole mouthful over the table. Luckily only the two of us saw. Hence forth I will no longer call her “Lady Jane” she is now to be known as “Lady La Paz” (mainly because if someone wants to rob you in Bolivia´s capital they tend to spit on you first. I´m so looking forward to that experience !! I wonder what happens if you spit back ?). So that name has now stuck and I think she secretly quite likes it, after all it sounds quite regal !!
Day 2 and our plan was to go to Alta Gracia, a charming town outside of Cordoba. We caught the local bus as it was about to leave and an hour or so later we´re there. Alta Gracia is gorgeous, quiet and very friendly. We went first to a Jesuit Estancia (pictured above) which had some brilliant information in English and had various rooms decorated as they would have been at the time of the specific owner. This place had had a lot of owners. Cordoba itself was quite a key location for the Jesuits to reach out all over South America. It´s a Saturday and this shuts from 12-3pm. We hadn´t finished so went for a coffee before heading to the main tourist draw in town – the childhood home of Ernestito Che Guevara. Yes, Che is Argentinian and is origianlly from Rosario but his parents moved to Alta Gracia when he was young because he suffered from asthma and the climate was better for him here. Aparently although he spent 11 years here this was what he considered to be his family home. The lady running the museum was very sweet and put on an English subtitled DVD about his life just for us which included commentary from his former cook and nanny and his teachers. They also had parts of the real motorcycle diaries on which the film of the same name was based (I actually watch that in New Zealand) Overall I´d highly recommend the place and they are obviously very proud of him.
We walked back along the river. Children were swimming in it and boys were fishing with string from the dam in the town centre, yes the place just has such a great sleepy feel to it. Well the estancia he reopened so we finished off there and had a beer before catching the bus back to town.
We went to the craft market and then went for dinner in a highly recommended rooftop restaurant. My trout and zucchini souffle were amazing and I made Jane have 2 bottles of Chandon. Well it is a Saturday night !! We were definitely tipsy and after having a chat with a very nice Columbian who assured me Bogota was safe I managed to stumble up the kerb and fall on the pavement. Of course I blame it on my wedges. I am just not used to wearing anything with a heel anymore. Something that will be a significant issue when I get back obviously. I also think I´ve caught some of Jane´s habits as she keeps walking in to things and bumping her head. We then came across a broken down van being pushed down the road, and helped the locals jump start it, as you do !! Then we made our way back to the square. Now the culture is on display. Music is playing and people are tangoing around the square as you can see in the above picture. It´s so romantic – I so need a lesson, but it´s very embarrassing when you´re just starting.
The next day we´d decided that we´d done Cordoba so we´d break our journey up on our way back to Buenos Aires and stop in Argentina´s third largest city Rosario. According to the Lonely Planet this is some travellers favourite city. If anyone knows why can they let me know !! We checked in to our hostel and noted that we were directly above the kitchen and the music was blaring. They assured us that this was stopped around 11.30pm – yeah right !! We walked around town. The viewing tower was closed, the maritime museum was closed and every restaurant recommended by LP was either shut or didn´t exist any more. There are beaches that you can get to by boat here although the river is very brown and I´m not sure I really want alienate the whole of Argentina by putting on a g-string bikini as the locals do. We stopped for a coffee at a cafe that had it´s own dog who chased away any people begging. We finally managed to get some pizza and champagne (of course !!) at 8pm in a decent cafe bar near the hostel. Now they do have zebra crossings here and nobody stops for you unless there´s a traffic light at it. I watched two old people try to cross the road. It wasn´t a large street but it took a good 10 minutes – made me wonder how do old people cross the road here ? It´s been pouring with rain all day and we really didn´t feel like a late one, and it´s Christmas Eve tomorrow. The music is still blaring and at 11.30pm I asked reception if it was possible to get the music turned down. They said they would but they didn´t bother. There was a screaming banshee in the courtyard who was desperate to make herself heard over the bongo drums. Welcome to hell !! We finally must have drifted off around 1am to be woken 30 minutes later by a new group.They weren´t as noisy but the rhythmic noise of the ping pong ball was pretty loud. Let´s just say we left as early as possible. We again walked around the town but still no viewing towers were open. We went in to the cathedral and then stopped at Che´s birth place which was just a sign on a lamp post outside the building. Jane tried to convince me that the shopping was good, but I am not swayed, so far and I find it hard to say this, it is the first city in Argentina I have actually disliked. Even the panettone I bought for Christmas day was a fake.
Time to go back to Buenos Aires – yeah !! We checked back in to “Sandanzas” hostel in the San Telmo district and literally changed and went straight out. The hostel was hosting a dinner where all guests had to cook something from their own country but as we only found out at 8.15pm we struck to our original plan and headed to San Telmo´s square. We went for some champagne before heading to a restaurant where our 3 course meal came with a tango show. The square was busy and there are a whole load of guys heating drums before they start banging them in the streets later. The show had 3 different acts and at the end even the waiters joined in. At midnight the fire crackers were going off. The whole place was in a spectacular mood. We walked back through the streets with the drummers until we reached our hostel.
Christmas day we headed to the Recoletta cemetery. This is the richest area in Buenos Aires. The mausoleums on display are almost a who´s who of Argentinian history with each structure trying to out do the last. Some of the mausoleums have been rennovated whilst some have broken glass in the doors and you can see the coffins with cloths covering them. I kindly pointed that out to Jane and as she bent to look in I screamed “BOO!!” so she got a huge fright. It took her a few days and a few attempts to get me back. The main draw at the cemetery is Evita´s grave. She has been buried with her family, in a pretty modestly sized building.
We then went for a coffee and a cheese platter (Jane is addicted) in the Belie cafe before embarking on our Recoletta walking tour. Apart from tourists there were obviously quiet a few affluent people there. I have so say some of the old dears looked rather surprised !! Some of the 40+ women had boobs so pert they faced upwards. I may order the trout !! Yes, plastic surgery appears to be rife and I think a few have rather over endulged !!
It doesn´t feel very Christmassy here, possibly because it´s 30+ degrees. We walked past some more great architecture (there´s so much here) and a huge metal flower that open and shuts at night. It´s cooler than it sounds. After a stroll in the market we went to church, I said a prayer and then went to the religious artefacts museum, which was really interesting. The museum also gave you a good birds eye view of the cemetery. We went back to San Telmo for drinks. I was still full after the platter so just had champagne. Oh well, it´s a hard back packers life !!
Time to go to Iguazu……………..
Transport count:
Plane = 16, Bus = 70, Train = 2, Boat =14, Sunglasses = 5, Mosquito Repellant = 8, Books Read = 13 1/2 (couldn’t get on with Faulkner)
Take care all
Sally
