Hi again!

We´re still having a ball travelling around Argentina. We´ve been in a city called Cordoba for the last 5 days. It´s the 2nd largest city in Argentina. The city itself is lovely, everything is very laid back here which is great. The countryside surrounding the city is fabulous and is one of the main reasons we decided to stay here so long.

When we first arrived at our hostel we were really surprised to see all the streets closed to traffic. We were told that every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday people go on strike and protest about high taxes and pension issues. They are supposed to be peaceful but when we went to visit the main square a few hours later we came across the aftermath of a serious riot! There was rubble and debris everywhere, windows of shops and banks were smashed in and empty bullet cartridges covered the ground! Things got a bit heated apparently!! Hence the photos of riot police etc. Luckily it didn´t really effect us and we spent the day exploring the city.

On Thursday we went for a 5 hour hike in a national park about 2 hours outside the city, spotting condors along the way. We felt that this might help a tiny bit in preparation for Machu Picchu! We were seriously sore after one day of trekking so God help us in September during the Inca Trail!

Yesterday we went outside the city again to what was supposed to be "adventure mountain". It turned out to be a wash out of a day because the rain poured down and we were only able to do 10 minutes of horse riding and a zip-line (google it) that lasted about 20 seconds! We met lots of locals there who were really nice so they entertained us while we stood under the leaking thatched roof. We toasted this eventful day with our first taste of Argentinian steak and some lovely wine with a few friends from the hostel. Steak gorgeous....wine even better!

Later tonight we´re taking an overnight bus to Mendoza, a major wine producing region on the west side of Argentina. The length of time we spend there will depend on how much free wine we get! We´re also hoping to do some skiing there. We´ll let you know how it all goes in our next blog.

Lots of love, Linda and Ger xxx