Our
ever helpful host directed us to a traditional café close to our guesthouse
(Bar Cao on Independencia Ave) so that Steve could partake in his promised
steak and wine meal in Argentina. Some
things just have to be done! The wood
dominated décor and excellent ambiance made it a great last evening in Buenos
Aires. In fact it was so good we decided
to splash out on a cheese and meat platter to finish off the meal. Well, we’re not dessert fans and we’d been
watching the chef carefully slice platters all evening and couldn’t resist. Despite it being quite a decadent pig / blow
out we are still well within budget.
The
following morning we were up very early to catch the 7.30am bus to
Cordoba. We’d read that most people don’t
go out until late and in fact clubs don’t even bother opening before 1am. We thought it must be a bit of guide book
exaggeration but sure enough as we were getting started for the day the young,
fun loving Buenos Aireans were just making their way home. Another thing the travel guides got right was
to reach the bus station at least half an hour before departure time. There are hundreds of buses so tracking down
the right platform took some time.
Sure
enough we got the system sussed and patiently waited for our vehicle which duly
turned up in time to get loaded and set off on time. The streets were pretty much deserted so we
progressed towards the city limits quite quickly. It gave us a much better perspective as to
the scale of the city and in fact it took ages to leave the industrial belt
behind. I’d like to say we went through
some fantastic scenery and we were glad the airline had gone bust and we’d been
forced to travel over land. The truth is
that we travelled for mile after mile for hour upon hour through flat, open,
empty farmland.
The
route affectively followed the River Plate up to Rosario (another main town)
before cutting across country towards Cordoba.
The only slight incline we saw was when the bus pulled off the highway
and had to go up the flyover to get into town!
We saw plenty of farm animals including lots of cows of course but the
most surprising thing is how many dogs there are over here. They are literally everywhere – even
pottering down the central reservation – unfortunately they haven’t all learnt
their green cross code.
Despite
the fact that the bus stopped at every little town along the way we pulled up
in Cordoba bus station on time and 11 hours after leaving Buenos Aires. We jumped in a taxi and were soon checking
into Babalonia Hostel http://www.babiloniahostel.com/en/ where we are once again the oldest backpackers in
town. It’s a great little hostel with
very helpful and friendly staff and it’s in a good location near one of the
main squares. We’ve got all day tomorrow
to explore.
To
say that our command of Spanish isn’t improving would be an understatement –
here’s what I mean: The taxi driver knew
where we needed to go as we had the name and address of the hostel on our
reservation confirmation print-out. That
was fine until we approached the street which turned out to be bisected by a
main road and the taxi driver wanted to know which way to go. He was speaking away but in this age of
mobile phones we duly ignored him.
Something alerted Steve that this may be the wrong thing and asked me;
“Is he talking to me?” I pointed out
that I didn’t know but suspected he might be to which Steve replied; “There’s
no point him talking to me!” On the plus
side we’re getting very good at pretending to understand on checking into
hostels, nodding and saying ‘Si” in what we can only hope is the right place!
We
crashed out early yet again last night but for once slept right through – the
best night’s sleep we’ve had in weeks.
In theory we should have been feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed but
we seemed to end up having a slow start to the day. Maybe it was just what we needed after all
that was involved in packing up the flat and leaving KL. Not to mention the fact that once we reached
South America we hit the ground running and haven’t given ourselves much
breathing space. Without a Lonely Planet
for Argentina we have very little information on Cordoba so just intend to go
for a wander and see what we can find.
We
knew there was an old part to town so we headed in that direction. Unbelievably the weather is glorious again and
in the sun it’s actually warm enough to get down to just a t-shirt layer. That’s not to say we’d be foolish enough to
leave the guesthouse without a fleece!
Cordoba is Argentina’s 2nd biggest city so much of it is just
a functional, university city. However,
there are lots of old buildings to admire with many of them being a church or
cathedral. It’s great to see them being
preserved and well looked after. The
biggest difference we instantly noticed between here and Buenos Aires is how
much cleaner it is. Plus the graffiti is
much reduced and there is none to be seen on the old important buildings.
The
main pedestrian shopping area was very busy – on a Monday morning? – so we quickly
walked down it to look at Plaza San Martin and realised that we needed some
sort of focus for the day. As luck would
have it there was a tourist information board so we armed ourselves with a map
and came up with a plan. We decided to
steer clear of the busy shopping area and walk around the outskirts of the old
part of the city along the river. It
wasn’t majorly picturesque or anything but it stopped us sitting in a café
spending money unnecessarily just to do some people watching. It didn’t take too many hours for us to have
had enough of wandering the streets so we returned to the hostel for a brew and
some journaling. We have another long
travel day in store tomorrow but hopefully we’ll start seeing more interesting
landscapes.
