After an overnight bus from Posadas, we arrived in Cordoba Saturday morning, ready to check into a hostel and have a nice shower! We hadn´t booked anywhere to stay in advance as we had always just turned up at hostels in other places and there were always rooms available. However, what we had failed to realise was that it was a bank holiday weekend, and every single hostel we tried in Cordoba was full. We spent five hours trying to find some accomodation (that we could afford), until eventually we found a cheap hotel near the bus station. Fortunately it was very nice and not overly expensive, but they only had one night available, so we had to book another night in a hotel just down the road... a little more expensive but just within our budget! Once we had eventually checked in, showered and got ready, we headed out for some food and a drink before heading back to bed for a well deserved sleep!!

The next morning, we decided to do a city bus tour of Cordoba. It started off quite well, with some nice buildings to see and nice weather, but the tour lasted for 2 hours and by the end, we were all a bit chilly and bored and couldn´t wait for lunch! After lunch, we walked around the city and visited some of the art museums. Then that evening, we went to a crafts market which was located in a cute part of the city, with little streets full of little antique shops and quirky restaurants, and a live band playing music in the middle of the street while everyone sat around watching and drinking. The market was full of all different stalls which actually had some really nice stuff for sale, nothing too tacky! We walked around trying to refrain from buying stuff, then decided it was time for dinner! We had read about an all you can eat buffet in the guidebook, so we thought we would give it a try... so glad we did! There was unbelievable amounts of food - bread, salad, meats, fish, pasta, and the best desserts - all for 30 pesos (about £5)! Think we all left there absolutely stuffed!

Monday we were up early to check out and catch a local bus to a mountain town called Alta Gracia, which used to be an estancia operated by Jesuits. The town was very quiet, but quite pretty. We visited the jesuit ruins, walked around the shops and walked to see Che Guevara´s house where he lived for part of his life. After a morning spent in Alta Gracia, we caught the bus back to Cordoba to collect our bags and then caught another bus on to San Luis, located between Cordoba and Mendoza.

We decided to visit San Luis as Sierra de las Quijadas national park was most accessible from here. Once we arrived in San Luis, we checked into a hostel right opposite the bus station and went to bed. Tuesday, we were up very early as we thought that the treks around the national park were at set times, and we needed to be there by 9am. The park was an hour and a half bus ride away, plus there was a 6km walk you had to do to get to the point where the treks left from (everything in Brazil and Argentina seems to take ages to get to and it is never clear how you get there)! The bus dropped us in the middle of a totally deserted road with a dirt track on the opposite side which we hoped would lead us to our destination! Ten minutes up the track we reached the entrance, bought our tickets and fortunately two other French girls were just arriving, one of whom spoke Spanish, so she spoke to the park ranger who explained where we had to go and what times the treks were starting. We then luckily managed to catch a ride along the 6km track in the back of a truck to the point where the treks left from. The trek we decided to do didn´t start until 1pm, so we wandered around on our own for a while until lunchtime. The park comprises 1500sq km of canyons and dry lake beds, and is the location for many dinosaur tracks and fossil discoveries. Despite the strong wind and cloudy skies, the scenery was amazing. The area we were walking around was a brilliant viewpoint high above the red coloured canyon rock formations below. We were also very lucky to see several condors gliding above our heads and over the rocks below.

We had a quick packed lunch of bread, crisps and cake (yummy!) then set off on a 4km hike down into the canyon. Fortunately the weather had cleared up and the sun was shining for most of the hike. We walked for about 2 hours until we reached a spot to sit down for a drink and a rest, surrounded by massive rock formations and condors soaring overhead - it almost felt like we were sitting right in the middle of the Grand Canyon, not that any of us have actually been there!! We then had a 2 hour walk back to the starting point, where we luckily managed to catch another lift back along the 6km dirt track and to a tiny restaurant (also a family´s home) on the main road. We wern´t sure what time the bus back to San Luis was going to be so the plan was to just wait at the side of the road and flag it down when it came past! However, one of the guys at the restaurant offered us a lift back to San Luis for the same price as the bus ticket, so after a 20 minute wait we jumped into his virtually falling apart car (we really had to persuade Steve to get in, he almost refused!) for the hour and a half ride back to San Luis! Once back we searched and searched for a restaurant near the plaza, which proved very difficult as there appeared to be nothing other than a couple of cafes nearby, until we eventually found somewhere to eat. In hindsight, we would have chosen somewhere else to go, as the food took ages to arrive (even though we were the only people in there) and a few days later, Steve and Jess both had bad stomachs, something we all put down to the food from that restaurant!

The next day, we were up early (again!) to catch the 4 hour bus to our next stop, Mendoza.