CORDOBA AND THE HEART OF ARGENTINA

Walking Cordoba streets.

From Neuquen to Cordoba we got on an overnight bus. When I woke up in the morning, I could not shake off the feeling that we had traveled by plane. Later on I finally realized that it was the abrupt change in climate and vegetation that made me feel this way. Neuquen is still Patagonia with its cold nights, its rains, its woods and its lakes. In Cordoba it was 85F at 10 in the morning when we arrived, and it was dry, dusty, and very summer like.

We decided to go north through Cordoba and not through Mendoza (which I really wanted to see) because Emi had some friend there. It turned out that his friend was a soccer player for the Cordoba team, so when we got to his apartment, his wife told us that he was with the team preparing for the game the next day. It was quite strange to find myself in a house of a guy which I was going to see on TV playing soccer the next day…

The old train station at La Cumbre.

Since Martin had no time to hang out with us we marched on to explore the city of Cordoba on our own. As we found out, the city has a number of classical Spanish constructions with thick walls and colonial ceramic roofs. There are a few large beautiful cathedrals and lots of clubs, bars and restaurants. In Argentina, Cordoba (the whole province, not just he capital) is famous for its night life and its people who live to party. We did not really get to party there, but I wander if they can out party the DC crowd..

On Sunday, the day of the game, we did not get to see Martin on TV (he spent the whole 90 minutes on the bench), but I we got to see him in person. That night he made home-made pizza for everyone and told us a bunch of his soccer tales, including a story of how a number of years ago he almost had a contract in Russia.

La Cumbre overview.

From the capital of Cordoba we headed north to the little towns where Emi had family. In La Cumbre Emi spent a number of summers with his grandparent who had a wonderful house there. To Emi´s disappointment, the house, which had been sold a number of years before, was now in poor conditions. There were no flower gardens that he remembered, no green grass, and no pine tree that he planted as a little boy. Even though it was a little sad, we still enjoyed our visit to this town. We stayed at a camp site at the foot of a hill on the outskirts of the village. The owner of the place, as we learned later that night, also had a little bar on the side of the road which became a dance club until sunrise. At 2 am we stumbled from our tent into the bar and found it jam packed with town teenagers dancing like there is no tomorrow. The surprise dance party at that bar was really fun and we even splurged on having some real drinks!

"Paso del Indio" natural park.

The next day we were back on the road, now heading to Emi´s aunts house in Capilla del Monte. The town was nothing more but a road side village, but it became famous for it´s near by hill, which is apparently frequented by the aliens. Even though we did not see any aliens in the days that we were there, we did get to taste some locally made beer and a number of liquors at the UFO bar, run by a very friendly local woman, who made almost everything they sold at that bar. Visiting places like this really gives me hope for original and fun spots that are one of a kind. May be I could do something like this one day too. Wouldn´t it be nice?!

"Paso del Indio".

In Capilla del Monte we spent a few relaxing days. One day we helped aunt Ernestina clean the back yard and pick the walnuts that fall like rain from the 2 walnut trees she has in the back. The other day we made a bunch of empanadas under her direction (Cosina Valeriano Vol. 4). The third day we went to the close by mountains and explored the “Indian Pass” that Emi loved as a kid. The place reminded me of some of the national parks I have visited in Arizona and Nevada, with their huge smooth rock formations, tiny rivers and dry vegetation. “The Indian Pass” is a narrow crack in the rocks which is only visible at a certain angle. Supposedly, the Indians used this pass as an escape from the Spanish conquistadors.

No one cared that it was my birthday...

The only day which was NO FUN what so ever was my birth day. Stupid us, Emi for suggesting and I for accepting, decided to start hitch hiking that day trying to get farther north. To make a long story short, we spent the whole day on the road, we were able to move only some 40 km., and in the end, we had to return back by bus to aunt Ernestina´s house as we did not want to set up camp along a road side in the middle of nowhere. Let alone any kind of celebration, or presents, there wasn´t any kind of a festive mood either. In other words, I began the 32d year of my life on the wrong foot, but hopefully this is the only disappointment I get this year. As for the celebration…. we´ll have it in DC. Can we people?! Please?!

Trying to forget the traumatic hitch-hiking-birthday experience, and save time we left Cordoba on a bus, taking us to the next chapter of our trip – Northern Argentina.