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I arrived at my friend Pat's house (a fellow Spanish teacher w/ family in Cordoba) at 4:30am after a long day in Panama City. By 11am I was on a tour of the Jesuit church and the first university in Argentina. I saw the special room where the doctoral students used to defend their thesis - an almost impossible task - 3 days in latin! We also saw some of the old books that were saved by the Franciscans when the Jesuits were kicked out of South America in 1767. They didn't return until over 100 years later and a lot of their books etc. were lost. From there we saw the original Universidad Catolica, a mall that used to be a school, and then Palacio Herrera, a house that belonged to a rich family that was just converted into a museum. The house was beautiful as well as the paintings - Cordoba's own finest - and it was free that day!
For my birthday, August 6th, Pat & I went to a little town called Carlos Paz. We took the aerosilla (chairlift) up a small hill and had a nice view of the town. We wasted the afternoon waiting for a tour bus that never showed up then walked downtown to the "famous" coo-coo clock. It was actually cute but pretty pathetic! We consoled ourselves by walking along the river & eating a huge chocolate ice cream. Pat's friend, Javier, made me an amazing asado (BBQ) for my birthday dinner. It was the best meat I have ever had and I was so happy to finally have some of the great meat that Argentina is famous for.
Day 3 in Cordoba we drove to a little town called Alta Gracia where they have the Che museum all about Che Guevara. It was very interesting - He had great ideals but a bloody way of obtaining them. I found out that he had 2 wives, 5 kids and was killed in Bolivia while trying to start a revolution there. He was supposedly a very sweet kid. After the museum we saw a Jesuit church and colonial style living quarters. From there we went to La Cumbrecita, a cute pedestrian town. We spent the afternoon enjoying the trails and waterfalls in the town with no cars. On the way home we stopped at Villa General Belgrano for apple strudel & strawberry chocolate cake. It was a nice day in Argentina's "mini Switzerland".
The next day we drove to a little town called los Cocos to see this famous labyrinth there. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was closed so we settled for a short walk up to a mini version of Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue. Back in Cordoba I enjoyed some of Pat's mom's salty and sweet homemade empanadas for dinner.
On my last day in Cordoba I said goodbye to Pat who left before me then took a bus downtown to Plaza San Martin. I took a city tour bus that was so-so. Since it was el dia del Nino (kids' day - everyone buys toys for their kids then spends the day with them), the Sarmiento Park was packed and it took us a while to get through it. We also went inside the Carmelitas church, the newest church in the city, just being finished in the 80s. I went home and said goodbye to Pat's lovely parents before getting on my LAST night bus to Buenos Aires.
- comments
emma d. from school9 wow that was very very nice
Tiffany thats cool!~ =-)