What a whirlwind of a weekend! Hold on to your horses kiddos…five days worth of traveling and awesomeness is on its way! Grab a REALLY BIG cup of coffee, tea, water, whatever…you’re gonna need it!
So around 10:00 on Thursday night I met up with the girls at Kate’s apartment and we chilled and watched really horrible music videos. Around 10:45 we made our way toward the Retiro bus station and waited around to get on our bus. We met up with some other kids from IES that were on the same bus as us and we proceeded to get on the bus right on schedule and head off to Cordoba land!
The bus ride was downright amazing. Where Argentina lacks in the train transportation area, they more than make up for it with the bus system. We took a CocheCama which translates to Bed Bus. Yes. Every seat on the bus was a bed. I tied my black scarf around my eyes and slept a solid eight hours.
We woke up to a gorgeous sunny day in the Cordoba province and had about an hour of scenery to take in before we made it to the Capital Federal. We arrived at the bus station and thought it would be most economical to walk to our first hostle, even though we weren’t one hundred percent sure exactly where it was. Well…I’m all about the walking but I had about twenty pounds of camera luggage with me so needless to say I was huffin it! Becca and I have decided that when someone in our group says “oh its about 4 or 5 blocks away” we need to multiply that by 3. Yeah. We walked about 15 blocks to the hostel and my shoulders were killing me, but in the end it was soo worth it because the hostel was AWESOME!
I’ve never stayed in a hostel before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. All I knew was that I was costing me about $7 USD. We walked in and checked in with a really nice lady who owns the hostel and we were shown to our room. We had a really cute room with two bunk beds and a single bed that were all painted bold colors. The bathrooms were a little on the nasty side, but at least there were bathrooms! We hung out in the bar/lobby/tv room for a while and came up with our plan for the day. We went shopping, got some really delicious 1 peso empanadas, hung out in the San Martín Plaza (it was a holiday weekend for this famoso Argentine hero…horray for San Martín and thanks for the long weekend). Later on we met up with one of Bri’s friends from high school who is studying in Cordoba and he showed us around the city. Blah blah this is boring….but it was a cool city. More cathedrals and historic buildings than I’ve seen in BA.
Back at the hostel we took a nice long nap, woke up, some of us shaved (oh wait that was me, and don’t worry, the bathrooms were all taken so I had to do a really creative lotion-shave on my bunk…whatever it was weird.) and we headed to dinner…which Bri said was about 4 blocks away. Remember that little formula I told you about? It was absolutely CORRECT. 18-20 blocks later, we found ourselves at what would be the location of our best meal since our arrival in Argentina. The restaurant was called “Betos” and their specialty was the famous Argentine parilla – a huge charcoal barbeque that makes and awesome meal called an “asado”. The asado consists of all of the special Argentine meats, mostly cuts from a vaca (cow, for those of you who are now learning Spanish vocabulary) puerco (pig), and pollo (chicken). We got to taste everything, from blood sausage (nasssssssssssssssssssssssty) to chorizo, to French fries with scrambled eggs on top (would have been better with Canadian bacon, ketchup, cheese, salt and pepper! like a breakfast omlet with hash browns!). It was a really fun meal and they just kept coming by our table filling our plates with different cuts of meat to try. Did I mention the best part? We got all of this, with a salad (tomato and lettuce) and two bottles of wine for 28 pesos! That means that it cost us only about 10 USD for the most incredible meal ever!!
After dinner we headed back to the hostel to change and play some card games. In the bar/living room area we met some other people living in the hostel that weekend. We met people from Holland, France, England, and few others from Buenos Aires. We taught them a few card games, which was a really funny challenge with the language. The guys bought the Cordoban “drink of choice” for all of the ladies to try – Fernet and Coke. We laughed pretty hard when they offered this, because we had read in our Lonley Planet guide book about the drink! I guess its funny when travel books are right. Whatever. We tried it and there is a really funny picture of me up on snap fish from my reaction to it. Absolutley NASTY. I took one sip and pretty much choked and then died of laughter. It was worse than Robotussin.
We left the hostel around 2:30 for a bar that the Holland boys had gone to the night before and really enjoyed. Holland boys in tow, we headed down the river (which stank) and came across a bustling crowd of people all waiting to get into this Cordoba hot spot. Bri (our little Rubia…Blonde) gave the bouncer one smile and we were handed VIP bracelets and were only charged 5 pesos to get in. Unfortuneatly, the bar was extreeeemely boring and we stayed only for about an hour and a half. The music was just horrendous, and so loud! All everyone was doing was this side, step, side, step move that was just so completely original. When we left, there were a TON of people waiting to get in! There was probably someone famous there that we didn’t know about, because it certainly wasn’t that great!
We crawled into our bunks at the hostel and slept until 9:30 the next morning, quickly packed up and were checked out by 10. We moved our stuff to a new hostel 3 X 3 blocks away. Yes, 9 blocks. Not as bad as 20. We were completely blown away by the new hostel! It was called Morada and what caught my attention first was the gorgeous fully equipped kitchen that we had full access to. Not to mention the roof/balcony area where there was a barbeque and really cool view of the city. The bathrooms were much nicer and the people that worked there were so friendly and helpful. I cleaned up a bit and then I joined Becca and Nicola for a nature adventure. I really wasn’t sure if I was going to really like a hike through some hills through a National Park of Condores, but I said what the heck and hopped on the bus with them.
After enduring a massive headache from the insane bus ride at what felt like a hundred miles an hour up and down and around hair pin turns on a mountain, we made it to what we thought was our stop. We got off the bus at a little rest stop and looked around to see where the hiking groups left from. We quickly realized that our stop was about 7 kilometers down the road and that we needed to get back on the bus. We talked to the bust driver and he said he was definitely making a stop there and not to worry. Seven kilometers later, we got off the bus. Me in my John Deere hoodie, Nicola in sandals and sweatpants, and Becca with the only purse that she brought…the copper one with roses on it. Ready to go, we looked around for some semblance of an entrance to a National Park. What we realized was that we had just been dropped off on the side of a road in the middle of the Cordoban mountains. All we could see was road, dirt, dust, and a fence. I mean…I wasn’t expecting Disney, but there was literally NOTHING!! We just started laughing and I called to the girls, ‘what the heck! lets go this way!’ Just as soon as we started walking, these hardcore backpackers looked at us and decided that they were going to help out these insanely dressed American tourists. They told us that the only way to the park was on the other side of the road and that we needed to hop the fence (that clearly said no trespassing) in order to get to the park. They looked like they knew what they were doing, we re-read the sign and re-interpreted it to mean that it was no trespassing for cars or other motor vehicles, and then we followed our new friends over that fence and began on our hiking journey. John Deere, sandals, and rose purse in tow.
We must have walked about a mile when we came upon the information center. We went up there, took a potty break, and were reminded again that we were going to be freezing and that we didn’t have enough time to make it to “the gorge” AKA the final destination on the hike because we would loose daylight, but we were undaunted and set off to get as far as we could and enjoy the view. I had really never gone hiking before, but now it is one thing that I cannot wait to do again! We walked and walked and stopped for pictures and walked some more. There were times were we just stopped and sat down. There were moments where the world was so still…so still. It was absolutely beautiful. And I must apologize, I do not have any of my own digital shots of the hike because I was very busy taking snap shots with Daddy’s camera and the video camera. I will steal pictures from Nicola and Becca and post them as soon as I can. It was completely breathtaking in every moment. We didn’t even realize how far we had hiked and how high up we were until we stopped to breathe for a moment. Just incredible. And we weren’t cold at all! The sun was shining and my face got some great color. Of course my neck is white because of my sweatshirt, but oh well! It was sooo worth it.
We turned around at about 6:00 pm and headed back to the road to wait for our bus. Apparently you can just wait there on the side of the road and the bus will stop for you on the way home. Amazing. The busses…I will say it again – amazing. That was a very interesting way to punctuate that last sentence. Hmm….
When we got back to the hostel it didn’t take much for me to convince the girls that they should let me cook for them. We headed off to the nearest Disco supermarket and shopped for a real American meal, our first since we had been there! Becca, my su-chef and I had a blast in the kitchen trying to light the gas burners and lighting flames in the oven (what?!?!). I was so tired from the hike but I had been dying to cook ever since I arrived in BA. We made some classy garlic bread on hot dog buns, a REAL salad (salads here are basically carrots and mayonnaise…ick!) with tons of fresh lettuce, yellow and red peppers, onions, tomato, salt, pepper (very rare here) and my home made balsamic dressing, sautéed vegetables, and a massive pot of farfalle pasta with my special stolen recipe for vodka cream sauce. The recipe is stolen from the Italian restaurant that I work at, Pasta Amore, but I make it better and not as heavy: fresh tomato, marinara sauce with basil, little bit of heavy cream, splash of vodka, freshly grated parmesano reggiano cheese, and garlic. Mmmm good! At the grocery store we also found the wine that we had really liked at a restaurant that was only 4.25 pesos and 20% off! We bought two bottles of that and served it with our perfect American/Italian feast. We sat around the table, I said a prayer (and made everyone hold hands…just like at home 
), and we dug in. Everyone was so appreciative for me cooking, but I was just so happy that they let me do it! It was so much fun…we really felt like we were living the life. Totally on our own and having an amazing time doing it.
After dinner the girls did the dishes for me cuz they are just sweethearts like that, I took a shower, and we reconvened in the kitchen to watch a movie together. There was no way that I was partying till 7am that night! Noooooo way. The condors wore me out. We watched Madagascar dubbed in Spanish until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any more and headed to bed.
The next morning we slept in for a little while and enjoyed our complementary breakfast ( a roll and coffee..hahaa). Then we packed up again and got on another bus to a small town near by called Alta Gracia. It was another gorgeous day, and we were so excited to go visit the home of Mr. Che Guevera! The Motorcycle Diaries man himself. His house in Alta Gracia is now a museum. We wandered around the town for a bit looking at some of the really ancient Jesuit establishments and colonial architecture. Then we were only 5 blocks from Che’s house according to the map, and guess what, YES you guessed it. We were really 15 blocks away. We looked through the museum and took pictures and had so much fun there. He is a fascinating historical figure with a lot of strong modern ties. There were several pictures from when not too long ago Castro visited the museum. It was a small museum, but I took a picture with the statue of Che in the lobby and we had a really fun time.
After the museum we went out for a very ‘local’ lunch: empanadas y locro. The empanadas I could handle. Ham and cheese, carne and onion, chicken, whatever is in them I can usually take it ( i just wish they were spicy sometimes), but the locro? It was LOCO. The flavor was surprisingly delicious. We all started eating it with fearless hearts and empty stomachs. Pretty soon we started to ask questions. Like the calamari looking stuff…fish? Calamari? No…we were no where near the ocean. Cow intestine. That’s what it was. And the other meat that still had little black hairs? Either tongue or ear we decided. I almost threw up. But at least I can say I tried it. We ate most of it because we were starving, but we just shoved the questionable meat to the side and closed our eyes.
After we finished our afternoon in Alta Gracia we took the bust back to Cordoba, stopped in a bakery for little desserts for the bus ride home, and went back to the hostle to eat leftovers from the night before. We were all starving because no one really ate their nasty hairy/intestine filled lunch. We putzed around the hostel for a little longer, drank some mate, finished up the wine, and then went to the bus station to wait for our departure. On the bus ride home we met the cutest little Argentinean girls! They were sitting in front of me and they were so adorable!! They were speaking to us in Spanish and then Mark made a sock puppet in the seat behind me and was making us all laugh hysterically. They kept asking us why we speak English and we kept telling them it was because we were from another country but they just giggled and wanted to know where Mark’s “mono” (monkey) puppet went. The rest of the bus ride was not as enjoyable because I had the window seat and it was freeeeeeeeeezing the whole night long. The draft was unbearable and we were on a much smaller bus than on the way there. Regardless, we arrived safely home in BA at 7:00am, grabbed a taxi and went back to bed when we reached our respective homes.
I slept from about 7:00am – 11:30am and got up for my next weekend activity. My friend Rodrigo had invited me to an asado (like I talked about earlier at the restaurant in Cordoba) at his sister and brother-in-law’s house. I met him at the corner of Santa Fe y General Diaz and we took a bus to the house. The whole neighborhood smelled of meat on the grill and I knew it was going to be a good day! The sun was out and it was a little bit chilly, but it was truly one of the most gorgeous days that we have had so far in BA. I was nervous to meet another family and be put on the spot again with my Spanish, but I knew that I had to suck it up and just go for it because there is no other way to learn.
From the minute I walked into their home, I felt like a part of the family. Rod’s sister, Amanda took me in to meet her youngest daughter Abril who is three(Spanish for April) and her nephew Federico who is 11. They were so cute and both gave me kisses on the cheek. Then I met another niece named Belén who I clicked with right away. She is 17 and right at the age that I want to teach. She was so adorable and seemed really excited to be making friends with an American girl around her age. She explained to me some of the snacks they had laid out. One of them she pointed to and said a word I didn’t understand. She rephrased it by saying, “como Bambi!”. Now that I understood! It was deer meat. And I actually like it! It was like beef jerky. Amanda sent Belén, Rod, and I to the bakery to pick up a cake for dessert and we chatted for a while, meanwhile really practicing my Spanish. When we returned we went up to the terrace on the roof to begin our meal. The family has this beautiful parilla (remember, that’s the name of the huge brick grill over charcoal) on the roof and the kids were kicking a soccer ball around. The brother in law gave me my first real lesson in wine since I’ve been here and I think I understood most of what he was saying. What we were drinking was a red wine that doesn’t sit in barrels or age. It goes straight from the metal vats into the bottle…or at least that’s what I understood. Either way, I really enjoyed the wine! And the meal was absolutely gorgeous. Blood sausage was offered again, but I knew how to politely turn it down. Not all Argentines like it either, so I didn’t feel so bad. We enjoyed a beautiful late afternoon lunch on the roof terrace of their apartment and I couldn’t have been more content. It really made me miss my mom and dad though, because I know how much fun something like that would have been. And I can see them being really great hosts to a foreign student as well.
We finished the meal and cleaned up for dessert: coffee, alfajores, and cherry ice cream. Riquisimo! As the family cleaned up, Rod’s nephew Federico came up to me and asked me to play soccer with him. I was seriously delighted. If I was more of an emotional person, that probably would have been a time to cry a little. But I didn’t, I just picked up the ball and was set to kick his little 11 year old butt! We passed back and forth for a while but then he was ready to get serious. We did penalty kicks on each other (keep in mind, this is on the roof!) and well…we were tied 2-2 and i totally kicked like four balls right to him and on his turn he snuck one right by me to win 3-2. I let him win…of course…hahaa. Before I left everyone in the family wanted to take a picture with me and they are really cute (see on snapfish).
PHEW! This is 5 and a half pages on word! You seriously deserve a prize if you made it through this entry in one sitting. Kudos! Thanks again for keeping up you guys. This is so fun for me and I’m glad that I have such an amazing support system at home in my family, friends, and teachers. Chau for now!!!
20 °C
42 °C
) but I give them a ton of credit! There will be much for me to teach them, and I know that i will learn a lot from them as well. There is always something to be learned from a person starting fresh in the education track...they have a mind that is innovative and unconstricted by overanalyzation or theory.