Córdoba
Day 1 (Sunday):
We arrived in Córdoba around 9am, and commenced what we call the "rolly walk of shame" to the hostel, 14 blocks away. (Neither Sydney nor I had backpacking backpacks, so we were forced to bring our rolly carry-on suitcases on the trip instead. Not as cool. When we get in a new town we have to roll our way to the hostel and we just look even more out-of-place and feel like idiots. Thus, rolly walk of shame.) They weren't quite ready for us so we played ukulele and taught one of the workers, Carlos, the cup song until they said we could shower.
My friend Maxi invited us for lunch with his family, so we went to their apartment for homemade noodles and discussed Argentina, the States, politics, and anything else you can think of. They were so welcoming and we had the most wonderful time--and we were so relieved that the Cordoban accent isn't as hard to understand as we'd heard!
We went to an artesian fair, and then to church with Maxi's family that night. Afterward we returned the meal favor, and made a chocolate chip pancake feast for Maxi and a couple other guys in the hostel (from New Zealand and Switzerland). Pancakes + peanut butter + dulce de leche + syrup = sugar COMA! They enjoyed the "panqueques americanos."
Córdoba was a lot colder than I'd anticipated... My priority was to buy gloves, and we spent a lot of time next to the heaters in the hostel. Luckily there were plenty of blankets!
Day 2 (Monday):
Monday was city tour day and goodness gracious, I am pretty positive we walked more than 100 blocks that day! (Sydney had to be bribed with Toddys cookies to continue for the last little bit...). Maxi served as an excellent tour guide of the city--we saw a ton of churches, parks, plaza, old buildings. Córdoba is such a pretty city! We ate lunch at a typical argentine restaurant, and had an afternoon snack of cotton candy (of course). We were so exhausted by the end of the day--we came home, made dinner, and crashed!
Villa General Belgrano
Day 3 (Tuesday):
About two hours outside of Córdoba is a little town called Villa General Belgrano. We hopped on a bus Tuesday morning... But when we got off we started laughing once we realized that we knew zero to nothing about this town, and only came because someone sometime mentioned it was cool. I couldn't have pointed to where we were on a map, but hey, that's how adventures work right? The town is made to look like a German village (it was founded before WWII, don't worry it's not full of Nazi descendents...), and is adorable! Unfortunately it was freezing and windy, so our activity options were limited. We went on a tour of a small beer factory, sampled some artesenal beers, and otherwise just wandered around or found a fire to drink some hot chocolate by. I met an argentine man who said he'd been to Dallas on business, and went to the Stockyards and Joe T. Garcia's while he was there. Small world! Oh, and Villa General Belgrano hosts the world's third largest Oktoberfest every October, after Berlin and a place in Brasil. Random, no?
We bused back to Córdoba, ate dinner in the bus terminal, changed clothes, and got right back on a bus for a night trip to Salta!
Salta
Day 4 (Wednesday):
After the rolly walk of shame to hostel number two, we were informed that they had no record of our reservation and had no room for us. (Despite having sent me a confirmation email for our reservation...). Also they had no power and supposedly neither did the entire city. Not good news for someone in critical need of a shower. We ate breakfast in hostel number one while the owner tried to find us somewhere else to stay, and sitting in the kitchen was a man Sydney knew from her choir back in Buenos Aires! Small world, once again. We finally transferred to our new hostel, which had heaters and warm showers--which is really all you can hope for.
We headed out for the day, wandered around Salta for a bit, and decided to hike up the thousand something steps to the top of Cerro San Bernardo. Sydney went enthusiastically, I went begrudgingly, but the view from the top was incredible. There were zero clouds in the sky and you could see the whole city--which is a lot bigger than I'd expected! Salta sits amidst the mountains, and as pretty as it is now I can only imagine how pretty it'd be come summertime!
We had merienda in a cafe on the plaza, and then finished up our pancake mix for dinner. The hostel was a lively place last night--one of my favorite parts of traveling is meeting the other travelers! By my count we had Sweden, France, Canada, Spain, Chile, and other parts of Argentina represented. We ending up going out for some drinks and a few games of pool/foosball. It was such a great crowd and a wonderful night!
Day 5 (Thursday):
Sydney and I are a good traveling pair because usually if one of us is feeling lazy the other one is rearing to go. Unfortunately that was not the case today, and our lethargy coincided. We deemed today a rest and recup day--well we kinda had to after we woke up around 11 and didn't leave the hostel till 2! Perezosas! We've had a calm day, eating outside, enjoying the pretty weather, reading, and updating our blogs :) that's another thing that's great about planning your own trip... You get to do what you want, and if that means nothing, then nothing it is!
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| Trying to get out of bed but the force is TOO STRONG. |
Tomorrow we head north toward Bolivia and begin the hazy/vague part of our trip, where plans are less clear and we'll probably have to fly by the seat of our pants for most of it. Assuming we make it there, the next time you hear from me should be from Bolivia! :) So long, Argentina!
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