Day 31 - Sun 30th Dec - Cordoba City

The weather was much better on Sunday, in fact it was really hot. I decided to go for a stroll around the city to get my bearings and head to a park that was on the other side of the city.

The very centre of the city that I was staying in was a very commercial shopping centre with lots of shops and a pedestrian area - obviously this was Sunday so everything was shut. The further away from the centre I got the nicer the city got. There were quite a few nice buildings, mainly churches and museums. The park was about a 40 min walk from the centre. When I got there I wasn't convinced I was in the right place as it didn't look that nice, but then I saw that there was another part accross the road and it started to improve!

I spent a while just walking around the outside of the lake. There were turtles in the lake, only small ones, but I have never seen them in the wild like that before. I headed back round in what I thought was a circle and would bring me back to the entrance, then realised I was completely lost! I kept heading in what I thought was the right direction and after about an hour I finally got back to the main road - the park was much bigger than I had realised!

In the evening I went out with an Irish girl that I had met at breakfast in the hostel (more Irish! very strong presence in Argentina). We went to a local market that was on every Sunday, it was quite good but the items were quite similar to the San Telmo market in BA only it was not as big. After that we went out to a nice restaurant near the market that had been recommended by the hostel.

Day 32 - Mon 1st Dec - Cordoba city

Spent all day in an internet cafe, well about 6 hours. Why do they call them 'cafes' when all they have is bank of computers an nothing to buy?

My objective for the day was to get my blog up to date (still haven't managed that yet). As it was taking about 10 mins to load each photo, I didn't get very far and still had 400 photos to go!

I stayed until my limbs went numb (not to mention my brain) and I was about to die of starvation.

In the evening I had another self cooked meal (I'm on a roll now!) and had a night in watching lots and lots of DVDs in hostel.

Day 33 - Tues 2nd Dec - Cordoba city

I had booked myself on an excursion through the hostel so that I could get out and see a bit more of Cordoba. I thought I was going on a wine, cheese and sausage tasting tour (getting warmed up for Mendoza). I knew I was the only person going from the hostel but has naively presumed that as it was a hotel booked thing there would be people from other hostels on it too.

When the minibus turned up I very quickly discovered that I was the only non-Argentinian on the bus! The guide had spoken to me in English when I got on the bus so I thought he might talk to everyone in Spanish and then a bit to me in English. There was also no more space on the minibus so I had to sit right in the front in the middle between the driver and the guide. Once the bus started moving the guide got on the microphone and started talking (in Spanish) - the entire journey, without coming up for breath, or one word in English!

The first place we stopped at was a winery - which actually happened to be the winery which made wine for the estancia so I recognised the wines I had been drinking all week. We went in (without the guide) and had a brief description of the wines (in Spanish) by the girl behind the counter, then picked on to try. That was it, no tour, no other wines.

Then back on the bus for a farily short drive to a sausage and salami place. It basically just looked like a butchers shop and they gave us a slice of salami on a piece of bread. Then another guy appeared and took us all round the corner to sit down and listen to, what I presume was, a description of what they make and how, but as it was all in Spanish I could pretty much only understand about ever 10th word. They they took us downstairs into the cellar and there were hundreds of salamis and a few legs of ham hanging from the ceiling. He then gave what I'm sure would have been a fascinating insight into how they make them had I beedn able to understand any of it.

One of the guys in the group tried to talk to me when we got back outside, and we had a half English half Spanish conversation. The driver had also taken pity on me by that point and was trying to talk to me (all in Spanish obviously). By this point I felt like my brain was about to explode as I had been concentrating so hard on trying to understand what was being said, and everyone was talking so fast and over each other that it was just impossible.

The next stop was a Jesuit estancia with a church and museum (er, where is the wine and cheese??). We spent about an hour there and luckily some of the signs were in English so I had a few minutes respite and was actually able to learn something about the Jesuits settling in Argentina and setting up estancias (farms) so they could make money for the church. Again, the driver had taken pity on me and was showing me around to make sure that I had seen everything. By this time my head was about to explode and I would have been happy to go back to no-one talking to me so that I could switch my brain off - it hadn't been used to working this hard for a while!

Then it was back on the bus for about an half an hour, down a dirt track to another Jesuit estancia. This time it looked like a small village where they actually sold the produce (er, where is the wine and cheese???). First we stopeed in a small cafe type place for lunch.

We were the only people in there and everyone was very quiet. I was definitely feeling like I was the tourist attraction of the day with everyone staring at this strange foreigner who was on there own - and a girl! Then a small conversation broke out between me, the guy who had been trying to talk to me (who I had quickly realised just liked the sound of his own voice, in any language), the driver and the guide. Between us all we managed to translate any unknown words into English or Spanish as required. They were all intrigued to know as much about me as possible. They were fascinated to hear about my trip (the rest of the group were still sitting in silence at this point and listening intently to the strangers story). Most of the questions circled around two themes (1) why was I on my own (2) how could I afford it (two questions I have often asked myself!!). This is a common thought accross South America, they find the concept of someone leaving home and work to go travelling extremely strange, and mainly from a financial perspective.

After this conversation you could physically see the rest of the group relax towards me and suddenly everyone that had been silent all had questions for me. I'm sure this did my Spanish the world of good, but it was an extremely taxing day for me.

After we left the Jesuit village we headed back along the dirt path, stopping briefly to not run over a snake, then headed back a slightly different way. I realised we were driving straight past the horse estancia (well its about 20 mins down a dirt track from there) and I really wanted them to turn off and take me back there!

It was about 7pm when I got back and I was the first person they dropped off. When I got off I got a round of applause from everyone and there were kisses all round!! Very strange turn of events from the beginning of the day. It ended up being a really good but very hard day. Where was all the wine and cheese though?!?

When I got back I just had enough time to grab something to eat, get changed and head to the bus station for my overnight bus to Mendoza.

I decided that after my great bus experience on the way to Cordoba I would again treat myself to 'cama class' (bed class) for this trip too. I booked the bus directly through the hostel rather than scouting around at the bus station as they were able to print tickets there for a specific bus company. Unfortunately this bus company was not as good as the previous one, or even some of the cheaper class ones I had got. It did have the nice big seats, but no blankets, no hot food just the obligatory ham and cheese sandwhich (in fact it was a ham and cheese roll, a thin cheese sandwhich, and a thin ham sandwhich. Seriously how much ham and cheese does one person need in one meal!). No drinks, not even a soft one, and breakfast was a bag of sugar sweets, no tea or coffee.

So lesson learnt there - don't take the easy option for the buses, scout around!