Córdoba

For the first time in our travels we managed to secure first class bus seats, commonly known as “cama” instead of “semi-cama” for our overnight bus to Córdoba. I slept like a baby and Deeanne like a baby with a fever. This was due to the fact that like business class seating in airplanes, we had large comfy leather seats with permanent arm rests preventing Deeanne from using me as a pillow. In coach or “semi-cama” class Deeanne likes to raise the arm rest and burrow around until she manages to comfortably drape herself over me and fall asleep; this was impossible in business class.

Upon arriving, Deeanne just wanted to get to our hostel in hopes of catching a few more minutes of sleep. We stopped by information on our way out of the bus station and picked up a city map as well as directions. Unfortunately the directions the attendant provided were wrong and we ended up walking an extra 30 minutes around town before we finally realized it. Fortunately Cordoba felt amazingly refreshing and cool at 7:30am. This came as a bit of a surprise since the weather forecasts said it would be hotter than Buenos Aires. Neither of us were complaining though as we lugged our backpacks across town.

We made it to Pewman Che Hostel and got to check in right away. I laid down and immediately fell asleep for three hours (Deeanne couldn´t sleep though). The hostel turned out to be a disappointment;  the cleanliness and bed comfortability ranked in the bottom two of all places we´ve stayed in the last seven months.  But the fact that they let us check in at eight in the morning, and the staff´s remarkable friendliness  somehow made our stay pleasant enough.  We did look around for other places to stay, and  did find another great hotel — just couldn’t afford 4 nights there. So we toughed it out at quite possibly the most unusual (but quiet) hostel yet.  We were grateful for the fan they provided (but we harbored dreams of AC) as nightly temps still hovered around 87 degrees in our room.

Córdoba is Argentina’s second largest city. It is home to Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, the oldest university in Argentina and the 2nd oldest in the Americas.  It was founded in 1613 by the Jesuit Order, and many of the buildings are now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city feels very much alive, and has a large student population, and a pedestrian only city center. We wpent the first afternoon just wandering around the cobblestone streets in old town and then weary from lack of sleep (well at least Deeanne) slipped into a theater to watch It’s Complicated with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.  Funny!

Our next three days in Cordoba were a blur of museums, old churches, mansions, ice cream, and cafes. The days were hot and Deeanne was feeling a bit under the weather so we left the hostel late most mornings and visited a museum or just strolled the pedestrian walkways. We ended up seeing two movies in three days something, we haven’t done in years. We were too busy eating the ice cream before it melted to take pictures, but we´re back to the land of huge waffle cones filled with more ice cream than two people can comfortably eat for like 60 cents.  I know, it´s a rough life, but we´ll try to eat our share.

One day we caught a bus out to Che Guevara’s childhood home in Alta Gracia just outside of town. It’s an unassuming house on a little suburban street. Che once said, “If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.” Even as a young child Ernesto Guevara sympathized with those hurt or in need, but somehow along the way he got lost in my opinion. Che was a devout Marxist and staunch defender of socialism. It surprises me then how much of his later life was spent supporting an authoritarian power structure in Cuba and how much he advocated guerrilla warfare as the only means for change. In the end he became a countercultural icon and symbol of rebellion for leftist movements worldwide, his goals of equality and justice lost along the way, never to be realized, while other leftist leaders to this day try to ride on his coattails. At his childhood home there are pictures of Hugo Chavez attending the inauguration as if by association he could somehow be considered a liberator and hero instead of a small dictator.

We finally made it to the old Jesuit crypt on the last day before a mad dash to catch our 12:30 bus to Iguazu Falls. Saving it for last turned out to be fine. The entire crypt couldn’t have been more than 1000 square feet. It took us an entire four minutes to tour the entire complex, but, admittedly were in a hurry to make our bus. The most interesting thing about the crypt is that it was buried under one of the major streets in the city for many years, and was re-discovered when some telephone workers were laying cable in 1989.  It is well restored, but pretty small and is lacking the big piles of bones that you´ll see in oter crypts (like the one in Lima that we saw).