Arriving from Rosario on the overnight bus with Andesmar, I found out that I really should have taken a bus early in the morning. Realistically, I wasn't saving myself a nights accommodation, I was just down right exhausted on arrival instead having stayed up late to catch the bus and arriving at 4am. 6hrs of a journey compared to the 8hrs I was told. Shakes fist furiously!!
The city streets of Cordoba were empty as I got a taxi to my accommodation, a hostel just on the edge of the old town. The taxi driver curious to know where I was from and what my plans were for
coming to Cordoba. Luckily there was a bed for me to hop into even though I had a reservation but not till the following night. The hostel was fine, clean, comfortable, okay location but the real reason I had come here was to P A R T Y. The aforementioned party was hard to come by. Once again, I was on my own with no other gringos for company, just more Argy students who didn't want to talk or just couldn't speak my language and or theirs, nor I. Off I went exploring the city instead. The old town has a few squares, old churches that weren't open, a street similar to Henry St. where shops like Fanny Perfumeries and Willy Bar are located but not much more, private enterprise at its best. I stayed a few nights there hoping that something would miraculously happen in terms of fun but it didn't. Not even the highly rated street market on a Saturday floated my boat. After twenty minutes, I had seen all that the crusties had to offer me, so I was off home early.
Two or three nights there, still no gringos to chat to, though the young receptionist was lovely, inviting me into her circle of college friends for dinner ar the hostel and chats en ingles, of course. I was picking a straws here, nothin else to do, wondering was I in the right hostel even though its the top rated one online, was I even in the right neighbourhood for what I really wanted? Probably not, as when I had been long gone from Cordoba I had heard of a neighbourhood called Nueva Cordoba, a place with bars and clubs, where people come for 3 days but stay for 2 weeks, it was that good. Damn. I had been too lacidasical with my research and therefore missed out tremendously.
To keep me interested for a day, I decided to go off on my own in the mountains (sierra's) to visit a place called quebrada del condorita. Taking a local bus from the terminal in downtown Cordoba, I headed south west for two hours into the high mountains past the town of Mina Clavero. I had told the driver where I wanted to go when I first got on but suddenly in the middle of nowhere, the bus stops and I hear a roar from the front "quebrada del condorita". It was my turn to get off. As the bus pulled away, eating a huge dust cloud, the cloud settles and I can take in where I am. On the side of a road, at the top of a mountain pass some 3000 odd metres above sea level. I could see
all around, yet nothing man made though. The sierras were forced from the ground by the tectonic plate beneath me giving rise to the beautiful backdrop of mountains. To enter the park, wherever it was, there was a small
entrance back down the road, which thankfully, had a sign for the national park. The park was famous for being a great location for spotting the majestic Andean Condor, hence called Quebrada Del Condorita. In I went to sign in at the rangers office, he met me with his welcoming smile, along with his young son and curious dog. I wondered what it must be like to live this remotely, raring a child, living a certain lifestyle, fair enough being paid by the state but when would their next visitor arrive? Does it get boring? When leaving his office, I had a good look around. I don't meet park rangers too often so each time I do, I try to be like Yogi Bear, a childhood favourite and try to steal his a pic'a'nic basket! Oooookay Booboo!
The park had one trail with return points that varied in length back to the rangers office. I decided on one and headed off for the six hour hike, camera primed, my head arched to the sky, mouth agape like a child under a dentists light scanning the skies for these gigantic birds. I must saw, they were hard to spot. With the landscape being so vast, the valley edges being difficult to reach where the condors nest, I had wondered if there was any here at all. As the morning got warmer, one by one, I got to see the dark wings swooping through the skies about me, for the condors live so high at altitude they use the thermal winds of the morning heating up as there fuel for flight rather than exercising their massive 2metre wingspan. Getting photos of them from such a distance was tough too, even zooming in on the shot didn't do the animals beauty any justice. I met two men also on the same
trail as me. These boys had come better prepared than I though, armed to the balls with telescopic lenses for their cameras, one longer than their arm. Most probably making up for a distinct disadvantage in the size of their penis's.
By noon, I got to a mirador point, with beautiful views over a narrow valley below me. I sat there and ate me hang sangidge, admiring the condor nests that were now literally below me. Superb to see and notice how the animals act in such close quarters.
Back at the ranges office, still no pic'a'nic basket. I checked out of the park, to basically tell them I was still alive and didn't die in the park. I then lay down by the side of a small stream until it was time to catch my bus on the side of the road later that day.
There I was, on the side of the road, 5pm and it was getting cold. The heat of the day was gone, the sun had dropped beneath the high mountains. I wasn't prepared for the cold, nor was I prepared for being alone in a Spanish speaking country without speaking much Spanish at all. The bus was already an hour late. Had I missed it? Surely not, I was there ten minutes early, but the bus could have been earlier and just zoomed passed the entrance seeing that there was no one standing there waiting. Well now there was, and I was getting worried. The amount of cars that crossed that mountain pass was few and far between. I was contemplating hitch hiking with trucks, anyone that would stop and take me, or at the very worst, asking the park ranger if "not your average bear" could spend the night. As I contemplated my options, pacing the roadside back and forth, a bus with his full beams on pulls over. It wasn't the bus I had planned for nor the one I had planned to get back, but he was going to Cordoba, I was going to Cordoba, he had seats and I wanted to sit down, so it all ended up happily ever after. The best thing about the journey back was that the bus was a public bus but it also had a school run. Ah, stop! We pulled over and on hopped the kids. The uniforms in South America are fantastic! Take note, school principals of Ireland! Down with grey pants I say, crap neutral coloured jumpers with elbows that wear easily, ties with colour combinations Picasso wouldn't have thought of, the kids here have it best! Their allowed to wear their own clothes underneath but their uniform is actually a white lab coat with a large collar and to make it seem unique per school or state where they study, they have these huge cravats, big bright blue ones around there necks on top of the lab coats! Their frickin 5 years of age, running around towns and school yards like eccentric mad scientists day in day out. Miniature Doc Brown's from Back to the Future, that's what they remind me of! Minus the white wild hair perhaps. One of these scientists sat beside me on the journey back. He had a Phd in crayons I believe, electrified by the amount of chocolate he had eaten after school, it smeared all over his face and lab coat, he oogled me playing level after level of angry birds. So much so, I had to edge more to the window as he had his head right front of mine so that I couldnt even see the screen of my phone. Ah, shtop! Characters all of them.
I had had enough with Cordoba at this stage. It was fine to chill out and get out in the open air, but it wasn't what I had expected. It wouldn't be a place that I'd recommend people to stop and visit. Fine for partying I'm told, but then you can do that anywhere. The condors were great to see but you have a better chance once farther west in Argentina or even better, in Peru.
Once again, I was back on the bus, overnight, sher I'd have it no other way. This time it was to wine country, to the low Andean desert/mountain city of Mendoza!

MENDOZA!!!!!