Cordoba Surprise

30th – 31st January 2013

 

Feeling bloated from my time eating a hefty Argentinian Steak, it was no surprise that we ended up sleeping in and chilling out at the hostel. Despite a brief visit to the local museum in which we understood how wars were fought between the Southern American Countries.

Drinking more Mendoza wine, we finally booked our cheap tickets to Cordoba. We wanted to go to Iguazu Falls at the border of Brazil and Argentina and even Paraguay, but seeing the 34 hour journey there by bus,nee balked and decided to make a stop halfway to break up the journey. We knew Cordoba was halfway and I did hear great things about it by backpacker friends. However, I didn’t really expect much as I asked them on the spot which was better – Mendoza or Cordoba. All of them agreed on Mendoza. What is there to see? I knew it was Argentina’s 2nd largest city after Buenos Aires and that it was a university town. That’s it. Exactamundo.

Getting on the Andesmar bus later on, and after a very pleasant 14 hour bus journey overnight (why couldn’t buses in SE Asia, Australia, New Zealand and even Britain be like these?!) we pulled into Cordoba and I was pretty astounded by the beauty of the place. Buenos Aires was too big, Mendoza town surprisingly dirty but Cordoba… It was clean and very spacious. I knew I was going to like it.

Booking our bus for the next day, we headed into town to check in our hostel, Tango Hostel. Refreshed, we were pretty starving marvin and found a cute restaurant with a terrace to eat on. This is when we realised,

‘all we seem to do is eat and drink in Argentina!’

We couldn’t refute this as we had spent the last 3 days wine drinking in Mendoza! So in our sorrow, we ordered a bottle of wine and ate our gigantic meal. It was awesome.

So with our bellies filled up, we were adamant to get cultural. After all, as we said, we only eat and drink, so we signed up to the hostel’s walking tour of the city. And boy, I’m glad I did!

What was very interesting that the tour guide studied at Cordoba University in Architecture so given his background, I could revel in his enthused passion for buildings in Cordoba…mostly religious buildings, something I never thought I would be! Check out the photos!

They still haven’t brought down their Christmas tree…

Checking out some Argentinian art…

Dragging Two Bad Tourists out to become Two Good Tourists despite their bellyaching…

Builders are saving the front faces of buildings in order to update the interior inside. I rather think this is a Hollywood movie set!

Nowadays you get to see modern with history…

So much light in this religious building!

The first building in Cordoba, a Jesuit Church…

Check out the blue skies!

A lone woman checks out the religious buildings…

One of the many spacious squares…

Builders do have the right to build new materials on top of old…

The ‘I’m sorry’ fountain. Drivers get distracted by this fountain and cause many accidents!

Cordoba celebrating 400 years of university. Did you know ANYONE around the world can come to study at Cordoba for free?!

Two Bad Tourists slowly becoming good…

Beautiful streets

Even mention of the Falklands War doesn’t go escaped… More about that in a post later…

The walking tour turns historical when we are told of the rule of the Dictatorships…names are inscribed on this wall for the people who went missing. This wall is facing the church who has closed its door to it. This is the reason why many Argentinians refuse to go to church as the church supported the dictators and turned a blind eye to the missing…

 

So this walking tour was a brilliant one but a thirsty one…we treated ourselves to a nice beer,,,

And I headed on out with Dave to check out the night life …but did you know that the night life in Argentina properly starts around 2am?! We were tired and disbelieving…Argentinians are crazy!