Adventures in Córdoba

Several rivalries remain constant here in Argentina. One is between the soccer teams. Another is between the provinces - mostly between Buenos Aires and Córdoba. I loved being in Buenos Aires. The big city life does not call me as much as it does here. My theory is I prefer the big cities in Argentina just because they are in Spanish. Buenos Aires is so exciting and different from my life in little ol’ Sulphur Springs. I thought I was a Porteña, a person that belongs to the Buenos Aires area, but now that I tasted Córdoba, I might be a Córdobesa. Maybe it is just because I found some fun people to tour the city with and got help from a life long local, but I really loved Córdoba – even with all my travel “adventures.” (See below)

Adventure #1: When the bus to Córdoba lacked about 20 minutes to the terminal, we stopped. My seat was in the very back, so when one of the drivers came up the stairs and announced something to everyone, I obviously didn’t quite catch the message. All of the passengers got up from their seats and took all of their bags downstairs. We all stood outside of the bus while people got their big luggage out from under the bus. Then people started getting back on the bus. I followed like a lost yet obedient sheep. We sat there for a few more minutes then the driver came back up, said something, and we all got off the bus again! This time there was another bus for us to get on. I am still not too sure why we had to change busses, but I eventually arrived in Córdoba just fine.

Agu met me at the terminal and we walked around a little bit then we took a taxi to the hostel. At first I didn’t see the hostel because it is just a front door. The concrete around the door is painted with all kinds of cool colors and the stairs inside are painted with “Welcome” in many different languages. It was very clean and my first impression was great! I got settled in my room then went to buy a lock for my locker and to grab lunch. It was nice to walk around just by myself. It has been a long while since the last time I have gone anywhere alone. (I am sure all of my “moms” prefer that I don’t do anything alone here anyway. Haha) I found a little café and got some pizza and a soda. After that I did a little sight seeing just in the center plaza of San Martín. I went back to the hostel to shower and met my two roommates – one girl from Holland and the other from Norway. We went to the store near by to buy food for breakfast the next morning. That night we had asado (BBQ) and I got to meet many of the people staying at the hostel. I made friends from Holland, Norway, Chile, Germany, Ireland, Austria, and New Zealand!

This is a memorial for the Dirty War. There were lots of people being tortured at this jail. The finger print is made up of the names of people who died.

Adventure #2: Wednesday was probably my least favorite day of the days I spent in Córdoba. I decided to go check out Córdoba some more on my own. I got directions and suggestions from one of the guys working at the hostel and I hit the town. I missed my first turn and just kept walking and walking down the shopping street. The clothes here are really inexpensive. There were some shirts for 35 pesos (about $8) that could be sold in the US for $35! The streets are really easy to navigate in Córdoba, so I always knew how to get back to the hostel. The problem was that I didn’t know where anything else was! I swear I circled around the same block three times looking for a museum that must be really well hidden. Then I tried looking for another museum or church with no luck. I did run into the Austrian guy from the hostel though. Haha. Anyway, I was beginning to think that there was nothing in Córdoba to look at and the maps were all wrong and told lies. I went back to the hostel defeated. Showered and took a siesta. When my two roommates got back that evening we decided to go find a bar to have some drinks. It was yet another rather unsuccessful hike around town. I got to be the person to ask for directions though! I felt very happy to be the elected Spanish-speaker in the group. We ended up eating at a restaurant on the same street as our hostel – literally a minute walk from where we started. It ended up being really nice and we had some good conversation.

Thursday morning things started looking brighter. I had breakfast in the hostel and made friends with the two new arrivals from Chile. I we ended up planning out a route to see a lot of Córdoba. Then two hostel-stayers from Holland joined the group. We went to an old house that has been turned into a museum that was pretty interesting. Then we walked father into town and looked at the outside of a church that we could not find the entrance into. Lunch for 10 pesos, which is about $2.30. I had a bottle of water and two nice sized empanadas. I love the prices here! Then we met with some other people and went to a museum of natural science. It was very pretty and interesting, but there weren’t any hands-on activities. Boo. Next we went to a really cool park that had 200 giant metal rings – one for each year of Argentina’s history. After a few pictures at the ring park we went to have ice cream. The same Austrian guy from our hostel I saw in town the day before was randomly walking by the ice cream shop! How weird is it that two days in a row on opposite sides of a big city I run into the same person?! He showed us where the entrance was into the beautiful church. Here are some pictures of it. I don’t know if I was allowed to take pictures there, but I did and I am not in jail. So I think it was OK.

 Some of the rings.

Me and the ring from the year I was born.

My Holland and Chile friends eating ice cream.

Outside the church. It only has one steeple because the people wanted it to have imperfections. 

Adventure #3: Friday I made plans with people to go an hour out of Córdoba to Jesus Maria to see some old buildings. I had plans at 4 o’clock to meet my local friend to hang out before I had to catch the bus back to Bell Ville at 7:45p. When we finally got everyone organized and headed to the mini-bus terminal, I had about an hour to check things out in Jesus Maria. However, the bus ride was more than an hour. It was more like and hour and 20 minutes. So that meant I didn’t have but 20 minutes in Jesus Maria, so I just bought another ticket on the mini-bus back to Córdoba.

Adventure #4: I met with my friend to go to an art museum, and it was absolutely wonderful! The museum used to be a HUGE house so it was cool to just see the house too. He really studied communications in the university as well so we were able to talk about the different texts in the paintings like I did in my college classes. I don’t think I have many friends who would want to stand in front of a painting for 15 minutes discussing what the artist was trying to convey. After the museum, we went to eat dinner at a little café on the sidewalk. The waiter was a little slow, but the conversation and food were very, very good. At about 8pm, I looked at my phone and realized that it was an hour after the time I was supposed to head over to the bus terminal. Awesome. I went back to the hostel and luckily the owner of the hostel is incredibly nice, and he said he could take me to the terminal to find another ticket to Bell Ville. I bought a ticket for 10:45p. I set an alarm on my phone to go off at 1:45a because the trip was 3 hrs and 30 mins. I woke up and then Andres calls me to find out where I was because he was going to met me at the terminal. He said I should have been in Bell Ville by then. My phone dies. I asked the driver when we were going to stop in Bell Ville, and he informed me that we stopped in Bell Ville an hour ago. The trip between Córdoba and Bell Ville is actually 2 hours and 30 mins. Oh. Cool. He makes some phone calls and finds another bus that is headed towards us going back to Córdoba. At 3am we meet the bus in the interstate, I cross the street, get on the bus, and head back to Bell Ville. One of the drivers walked with me across the street to make sure I made it ok. The new bus ended up taking me to the other terminal in Bell Ville, the one I have never used before. I asked the man working at the terminal if I could charge my phone so I could call Andres. The plug wasn’t so great so I had to hold the charger in the plug the whole time. I finally got in contact with Andres, and he told me to take a taxi to a certain location so he could come pick me up in his dad’s van. When I got to the location I found out that the van wouldn’t start back up, so we had to take the taxi back to his house. We finally arrived at his house around 5:30am. And we were leaving for the canoe trip around 9am. Whew! What a night! I am so glad the driver was able to find another bus. Otherwise it would have cost me another ticket and possibly missing the canoe trip!

The canoe trip was nice. I was extremely tired though, obviously. We got back to the house at 7:30p. I took a shower and then we had everyone come over for dinner a couple hours later. I opted to not have a glass of beer with the pizza because I am pretty sure I would have fallen asleep right then and there.

Yesterday and today have been pretty chill. I bet that it will be like this the rest of the week. So later on today I am hoping to go into town to buy index cards to I can study my Spanish textbooks like I am about to have a final. There are a few rules I don’t quite have as second nature yet and there are roughly 21,397,053 times more verbs in Spanish than there are in English. I am forever a Spanish student!

One last picture. This is me next to some fountians that everyone said I needed to visit. So I did.