Cordoba

So, with both sadness to leave and excitement to see what lay ahead, we finally decided to pack up and head out of Buenos Aires. We were to go North-West to Cordoba first for a couple of days and then South on to Mendoza. To get to both places though we had the daunting task of catching 10 hour night buses to each one. Usually this kind of bus travel would fill me with dread - particularly after some of the buses I travelled on through China - but bus travel in Argentina is a whole different affair. On both buses we were greeted with giant leather seats and on the bus to Mendoza we travelled in suite class so our seats reclined all the way to a bed where we were served dinner with wine and we got private TVs to watch a movie with two of my faves - Jen Aniston and Adam Sandler - could this get much better! In fact, when they chucked us off the bus at 7.30am I could have done with a few more hours kip.

Bus fun:

We arrived in Cordoba early doors and went to check in to our hostel - unfortunately on this occasion we picked a rotter - our room was more like a prison cell than the lovely private room it described and the hostel was a bit of a shambles. Joel and I had a nap though and went off to explore as the sun was shining but as we walked around, although the place was pretty, it appeared that everything was closed - we put this down to being a Sunday but we woke up the next day to the same fate. Turns out we came to Cordoba on a bank holiday weekend which means nothing open - oops! Cordoba is the second biggest city in Argentina and it's a university town with countless universities and a studenty feel - I can definitely see why people live here it's got a really nice atmosphere. 

Empty Cordoba:

On our second day we took a local bus to a little place called Alta Gracia - this is where Che Guevara used to live when he was a young boy and his house has been turned in to something of a museum. It was very interesting to see some of his personal letters and things he had and they even had a replica of the bike he used as a child in motorcycle diaries.

Che:

On our last day in Cordoba we got to meet up with my friend Bernardo who I met in Asia two years ago. He's from Cordoba so it was a great opportunity to see where the locals go and what they do. He picked us up in his car (a luxury for us travellers) and took us to a lovely place called Carlos Paz which is where all the Cordobans go in the summer for weekends and rent houses for holidays and partying. It was a lot quieter at this time of year but we got to go up the hill on a cable car and see the local cuckoo clock. We also tried some of the Argentinians special cakes called alfajores - yum! We headed back to Cordoba for a little drive around the city and to get a lomito sandwich (basically a giant steak sandwich) before we were to head off on our next bus to Mendoza!

Carlos Paz: