Rosario & Cordoba, Argentina

Oct 8-12

To say that Rosario was a disappointment would be an understatement. I had begun getting sick during my last few days in BA, but the day we set off for Rosario it became 10x worse. I was sniffling, coughing, sneezing and sporting really sexy, husky man-voice. After a five hour bus, Zee and I made it to Rosario and quickly hopped in a cab to find our hostel; another bus was too much effort when feeling this crappy. In my daze I managed to leave my phone in the cab. The driver didn't even drop us off at the hostel, we were still a few blocks away. And where was the address and directions? On my phone, of course. Miraculously we stumbled across our hostel and collapsed into the tiny, rock solid beds. Once we refuelled with cheap Peruvian food we decided to explore the town.

After a quick roam, we decided it was nothing special. Despite being the birthplace of both Messi and Che Guavero...there is nothing dedicated to either of them, other than a little sign outside Che's childhood home.

We headed down to the National Flag monument, which was lovely. We were hoping to go up to the top to get a view over the town, but we were too late..it was already closed.

Instead we strolled along the river...and headed to bed.

But Rosario still had time to disappoint us some more. Zee, Sebastian, Siamak and I caught a cab back to the bus station bright and early...only to discover that every single bus to Cordoba that day was fully booked! We were told to try the train station. In the cab we explained our dilemma to the driver and he offered to drive us the whole six hours at a fairly reasonable price. Seemed like a good idea..save us some time, and only cost us marginally more. His car only just made the journey. I'm fairly certain it wouldn't have made the journey back in one piece! But nevertheless, we were finally in Cordoba!

Of course, our poor driver had never been to Corboda, so he dropped us off in the central part of town and left us to our own devices to find the hostel. Luckily, it was within walking distance. However our terrible luck was not done yet. We arrived to a rather shabby looking joint, only to find that the booking we made was for a hostel that actually shut down six weeks ago! The new hostel had no availability and so we were now homeless. We got some recommendations and started walking around town, searching for a place to stay...but everywhere was fully booked. (What we didn't know was that it was a long weekend and there was an Oktoberfest event happening, hence all the hostels were booked) After visiting six hostels, and calling at least another ten, we finally found one with a few free beds. YAAAAAAYYYYY!!!

We ate, we slept, life was good again. The boys went out on a pub crawl while I tried to sleep my nasty flu away.

Their hangovers meant that I was off to explore Cordoba on my own the following day. I joined a free walking tour and roamed the many (many, many) churches and universities of the town. To be honest, there's not much else.

In the afternoon I roamed around a park. Nothing too fascinating.

After some very cream-cheesey sushi that night we had a quick wander through the Paseo de las Artes, a market by the canal full of wonderful crafts. Maté cups were a common feature, as per usual in Argentina.

We played pool and had an early night in preparation for our adventures the next day...

Our real Cordoba adventure began when we left Cordoba! Turns out the best thing about Cordoba is its nearby villages, three of which I managed to get to. The first was La Cumbrecita. A beautiful little Bavarian village. It turns out a bunch of Germans came over to Argentina and began setting up the town as a "holiday destination" and then after WW2 many Germans ended up settling there.

La Cumbrecita is a pedestrian town, the roads are mostly dirt and clearly not designed for cars. The little German buildings are gorgeous but perhaps a bit too touristy.

A short (but rather difficult) trek out of town landed us at some waterfalls... Nice to be away from the big cities and into 'nature'

From La Cumbrecita we went straight to Villa General Belgrano, the home to Argentina's annual Oktoberfest! We walked the very hectic streets and eventually made it inside the actual event. 

There was endless beer, which of course I couldn't drink... But I had a lot of fun regardless. We met lots of Argentinians and attempted to communicate with very broken Spanish. We were just about the only overseas tourists there.

There was a big stage that pumped out tunes and entertained us with a variety of dances. Not exactly like Oktoberfest in Germany but still a whole lotta fun!

Our last day in Cordoba was a public holiday, which I feared might ruin any plans we had..as just about everything shuts down for public holidays in Latin America. We really wanted to go to the Che Guavero museum just outside of town, but of course it was closed. We managed to find a supermarket that was open & bought ourselves supplies to cook up a stir fry! 

In the afternoon I went to Villa San Carlo and was given a map and a route to follow from the friendly people at the tourist information. I walked along the river and found a rather interesting bridge. On the top of the bridge cars drove over. Underneath the road there was an inside walkway and an outside walkway. The outside one offered views of the river, while the inside one doubled as a market! Very cool.

Walking a little further, I found a giant cuckoo clock. I was there at the half hour and a little bird quickly popped out, cuckoo-ed, and popped back in. Hopefully on the hour is a bit more exciting!

After a long walk I jumped on a chair lift and was treated to a lovely view of the area.

Back in Cordoba, we used our last evening to check out the 'light and water' show at a neaby fountain. I thoroughly enjoyed that they pumped out some Queen tunes to accompany the show.