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Trip Start Jul 16, 2008

Trip End Ongoing

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Where I stayed

Cordoba Backpackers

(Cordoba hotels)

Flag of Argentina Cordoba, Argentina
Monday, December 15, 2008

Coming to Cordoba was a good idea! I really liked the city. I don't know if it is because I arrived on a Sunday and so it was much quieter then Mendoza was when I first arrived but it really appealed to me! There seemed to be much more culture in here. I spent Sunday afternoon walking around. I visited a cultural center that had some modern art on display. It was displayed really nicely and was open to all who wanted to walk in. I moved on from there to an art museum, Museo de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa, which was also free. It was the first really nice musuem I had been to in South America. I find that usually it seems as if someone just threw everything on a shelf or up on the wall just because they have it whereas here, the work was actually nicely displayed. I could appreciate it more because it was layed out in a more appealing way, in a way that art would be displayed in a musuem at home.

After the museum I wandered around in the park, which was not as nice as the park in Mendoza. It was not as green and not as clean. In the evening I visited a great market that just opens at night. There was a mixture of antiques, artesan crafts, and clothes in three different areas. Really nice market.

The next day I decided to go to the Che Guevara museum, which is in Alta Gracia, about an hour bus ride from Cordoba. I asked someone at my hotel if it would be open on Monday (because I had a museum guide and a few museums were closed on Mondays), asked at the bus station, and spoke with a guy at the fruit stand. They all said it was definitely open. So, of course I get there and it does open on Mondays, but not until 2 pm! I had a 4 pm bus and had an hour ride back to Cordoba, had to get my stuff from storage at the hostel, and make it to the bus station. I was pretty pissed since I had just spent an hour on the bus to get there for no reason! So, I stood outside of the museum for a while. Several other groups of tourists came by wanting to visit it (made me feel better that at least I wasn't the only idiot who schlepped all the way over there!). At some point I was the only one outside. Someone who worked at the museum walked out to get something and I explained my problem, how if I didn't get in now, I wouldn't be able to see it since I had to catch a bus. He went inside and spoke with the other workers, then came back and got me and said I could have a quick walk through, just not to mind the women who were cleaning the museum! I was thrilled! The museum is his childhood home. He spent several years living there, moving there with his family when his asthma got too bad for him to live in Rosario, Argentina. The museum gave a lot of information on his childhood life, I guess what shaped him into who he became. But, there was not much information about his transformation into politics. I was glad that I got to see the museum...persistence can pay off! And I made it back to Cordoba in time to make myself some lunch and catch my bus to Iguazu!