Cordoba

Hola!

I have just spent a very fun few days in Cordoba, Argentina's second biggest town with a large student population and thus a very good nightlife. I arrived on Thursday morning and checked out the town, highlights of which included a 350 year old school that you can just wander into whilst class is in session, some great Jesuit architechure, a big gothic cathedral and some really nice cafes and restaurants. Unfortunately the main square and cathedral knew I was coming and searched in their wardrobes for their best scaffolding which they wore proudly, trying to impress me. I, however, am not impressed by fancy clothes.

Gah! Almost forgot to mention the weirdest art gallery I have ever been to. Beautiful space featuring paintings from your nightmares when you have a really high fever. South American art is straaange.

On my second day here I decided to do an organised trek to a National Park called Quebrada del Condorito, but Nancy on the hostel reception said it was very easy to do independently. Off I went then, trying not to be put off by failures of independent activity in Mendoza, and arrived very happily at the park after a 2 hour bus ride through some incredible hills, a little reminiscent of the Peak District, but bigger and drier. The walk itself was quite relaxed, despite being quite high up, and the surrounding hills were beautiful and there was absolutely no one else around, which was awesome until I stumbled across the above sign which, as far as my Spanish will allow me to understand says: Pumas and Snakes with the ability to KILL YOU live here and as this is a National Park, we allow them to roam freely. 'What to do if you see a Puma': wave your arms around, don't run away, collect all children into your arms (as children, to Pumas look very similar to rabbits and other small snack-sized morsels). 'Advice': don't walk on your own. Crap. And for Snakes: if a snake bites you, leg it immediately to the security post, an hour a half away, before you pass out from the poison. That's all I understood. Every day the need to understand Spanish is becoming more a question of life and death than common courtesy.

The whole point of doing this beautiful walk is to see the condors at the end. It is common knowledge that I have a particular interest in condors and other ugly birds of prey so I was very excited to see them so close up, but unfortunately little camera with rubbish zoom didn't catch any of them very well, but I saw lots of swooping and diving and circling and one even fanned its wings at me from where he sat upon a rock. Very nice.

Whilst waiting for the bus home a real live coolest thing ever gaucho talked to me (to tell me I had just missed the bus) and I stared at him for a really long time before he got picked up by his other gaucho friends, but I was too scared to ask for a photo. P.S. Gauchos are like cowboys and are THE symbol of Argentina and Borges writes about them and there's a big famous one called Martin Fierro so this was very awesome. Two Argentinian girls spoke to me and decided they liked me and then another Argentinian couple offered us a lift back to civilization which saved me my bus fare which was also very good.

At the hostel I made more friends, hoorah, and we had a big asado organised by the hostel staff and drank lots of red wine and then went out to dance, which was very good. Then the next day, it appeared that only me and a friend I had made, Daniel, were hardcore enough to get up and go to Oktoberfest in a small village of Villa General Belgrano, population about 6,000 people, in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. Now this village is cool. It was founded by a group of Germans in the 30s who have basically rebuilt Bavaria in the middle of Argentina. I didn't get any photos (busy thinking of beer), but all the houses are alpine chalets and it is very surreal to drive there from colonial Argentina. Apparently this Oktoberfest is the third biggest outside of Munich and I have never been to one before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but for those who are also ignorant, everybody genuinely dresses up in leiderhosen - grown men included - wears funny hats, has a parade, lots of music and you have to buy a mug and some people get a strap to attach their mug to them and then you get your mug filled up with beer from lots of different stalls and you drink beer all day. How cool is that?! I am going to Oktoberfest every year from now on.

Daniel and I made friends with some Americans, Canadians and French from a university in Buenos Aires and drank lots of beer and then it chucked it down with rain, which was fun to begin with cos the Argentinians took the tops off the tables and two men held onto them and the game was to stand and stay on the table top whilst they bounce you around on it. Good game. I did it and did not fall on my arse. Result.

Then we came home, ate pizza and went to bed and today is an administration day (Sunday) and tonight I go to Buenos Aires, so I have to figure out an itinerary and also try to figure out exaclty how much money I spent on beer yesterday...