Cordoba and further south

Wow another month has flown by and it's November already. Time really flies when you're out traipsing around the world and completely oblivious as to what's going on in the cubicle farms under the warm buzzing glow of the florescent office lighting. Anyway, I'm back from Córdoba, plus some other side trips to the towns of Villa General Belgrano (or "VGB" as I prefer to call it) and La Cumbrecita. It was a nice little one week break from Spanish classes and the big bad city of Buenos Aires.

Cordoba is Argentina's 2nd biggest city. About 1.2 - 2 million people live there, depending on who you ask and who's propaganda/literature you read. For me, it was nice to have a look around (like I said, I duped a friend-of-a-friend into being my part-time tour guide) but I definitely prefer living in BsAs. Cordoba is basically a college town, with over 120k students in all the universities, which consequently means if you want anything to eat that's not pizza or a hamburger, well... good luck.

There were two really big churches/cathedrals to tour plus a nice little "up and coming" neighborhood called Nueva Cordoba. The cathedral at the beginning of this blog dates back to around the 1700s somewhere. The dark stuff is pollution... it should be a light yellowish color. Then right nearby, you go to Nueva Cordoba and there are lots of restaurants, bars, a civic center with dancing water fountains, including music and lighting, plus a nice (big) park. So after 3 days I packed it in and found a bus down south.

And I have to say that I really enjoyed the towns that were about 1.5 - 3 hours south of Cordoba. They're all extremely German and/or Swiss looking, up in the mountains, and there are streams, cute little bunnies and birdies, plus a distinct lack of pollution. And people actually leave their doors unlocked... or so I was told. A lot of flowers too. Also we went through Che Guevarra's childhood town... I felt like fomenting a revolution or something.

The town of VGB was extremely touristy. The place is famous for it's annual Oktoberfest celebration the first half of every October. Yes, I missed it by one week. But the upside was that tourists were in short supply so everything was half the price and it was relatively cheap there (when normally it costs and arm and a leg). And when I say tourist, I mean mostly Argentines because it's off the beaten path and not a lot of foreigners know about it. Yet. But it was a little weird being in the middle of German everything and speaking Spanish.

The town also had a few hiking trails through it plus some that led to the outlying small mountains since the town is situated inside a valley. I went hiking on one of the trails that ran along an arroyo one evening and it was a really bizarre experience. At first it started out fine, a nice little path in the grass along the stream. Then halfway through, the path forked and I chose the longer one that the map showed, to get a better look around. After about 5 minutes, the trail became hard to discern and I came across a bunch of chickens and roosters along the riverbank. Then not much further, there was an old man near the water picking weeds right next to a small cow that was tied up and grazing (I assumed it was his). I then figured I needed to cross the water since the trail was almost gone but it looked fairly well worn on the other side.

I made my way down the embankment and saw a woman carrying a basket along with her kid plus an obnoxious dog. As I started up the embankment I could hear the sound of horses and then I saw one running full speed, cresting the hill I was going up. Then it stopped. It was unbridled, no bit, no rider, no nothing. I know absolutely nothing about horse behavior and that was it for me. I did a 180 and headed back to the main trail... but I DID find a good barbeque joint for dinner that night on the way back that I would have never have seen otherwise. So... happy ending.

The next day I did a day trip to a Swiss town called La Cumbrecita. It was probably my favorite place of the entire trip -- lots of "real" hiking, with waterfalls, natural springs, and other outdoor stuff. Plus horseback riding if you like that, although I already had enough horses the previous day. Lunch was at a restaurant on the top of a hill with a phenomenal view... German food, of course. Then I spent the day hiking around, it was typical mountain weather with the threat of storms or occasional sprinkles. The waterfalls were really nice... in retrospect I wish I had planned more time in that town. The entire area, actually.

Finally I had to reverse-engineer my entire trip to get back to Cordoba, then on to Buenos Aires. I was thankful the airline was only a half hour late... domestic flights in this country have really become a game of chance in the last 3-4 years. There was an article in today's paper that says Argentina's two main (only) airlines have pathetic on-time departure records. In fact, only Sudan, Nepal, and some country in Africa have worse records... IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! If the only airlines that have worse track records than you are in countries with a civil war, the poorest in the world, or somewhere with hideous weather conditions... you have serious issues. Anyway at least they land safely - sadly, that's about the only positive thing to say.