Tuesday, January 18, 2011 - Wednesday, January 19, 2011
I arrived in Cordoba yesterday morning after a ten hour bus ride from Paysandú, Uruguay. I slept the majority of the journey, but I can’t say it was a particularly restful sleep. We arrived at 10:30am, and I headed towards Turning Point hostel, the hostel that was recommended to me by the couple I’d met in Montevideo. Andre, the guy at reception, showed me around, and while it looked good enough, there was no air-conditioning. I told him that as much as I liked it, I was really interested in having some a/c after the nights in the estancia with none.
Andre agreed to watch my backpack while I set out to find a different hostel. I walked through the city’s main plaza to a crowded pedestrian street. As I walked through the sea of people, I realized I liked the quiet location of Turning Point. When I finally reached my destination, the hostel had no availability for the night, air conditioning or not, and I’d already decided I wasn’t interested in staying. I took another street back to check out one more hostel, but was put off by the people sitting on the step outside the front door and concluded that Turning Point was my best option. On that same street, I saw a synagogue, an unexpected surprise that I would not have encountered. Taking the time to check out the other hostels was a worthwhile experience. Sometimes you need to see a few other places before realizing that what you have is pretty good. Since I rarely arrive without accommodation, I don’t usually get a chance to look around.
When I arrived back at Turning Point it was almost midday but check-in wasn’t until 2pm. I stored my bags and after chatting with a few Israeli guys and watching an episode of Seinfeld, I strode into the heat to explore Cordoba city. Having only eaten a small breakfast of crackers on the bus, my first stop was Sol y Luna, a vegetarian restaurant recommended in my Footprint guidebook. I walked through the main square and past a few of churches (Iglesia de San Francisco and Iglesia y Monasterio San Jose de Carmelitas Descalzas and a couple others) but avoided the pedestrian street I’d taken earlier and took a different street. There weren’t any tourist attractions close to the restaurant, and I took pleasure in the fact that I was seeing a part of the city I wouldn’t have otherwise explored simply because I was looking for a restaurant.
I found Sol y Luna without a problem, but once I got inside, I couldn’t figure out how pricing worked. In the end, I realized that you chose the dishes you want from the buffet and pay by weight. The food was excellent; I relished having only vegetables after so much meat.
After lunch I walked to the canal (which ended up being nothing) before heading to the main Cathedral with a Romanesque dome, on Plaza San Martin. Having just missed a 4pm tour of the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, I chose to walk to Tango Hostel for Latitude Sur to find out about skydiving and other activities. The journey was a waste of time since the hostel guy was the one giving information and seemed to be the same service my hostel offered. I still had time before the 5pm tour, so I sat in the shade reading for a bit.
The tour of the Universidad, conducted in Spanish, was mildly interesting. I’m sure it would have been better if I could understand all the history (Lonely Planet says it’s a great tour in English but because of the summer holidays English was not available), but it was worth seeing the former Jesuit institution. I quickly looked inside the Manzana Jesuitica, UNESCO site. By 6pm, I was feeling tired, sweaty and gross having not showered since the night before my bus ride.
After settling in to my six-bed mixed dorm, I took a shower and hung out with some of the Israelis in my dorm. Oren, one of the guys I’d met earlier, invited me to his birthday celebration which was taking place in the back kitchen. Some point around 10pm I went downstairs to join the fun, a group of almost 20 Israelis drinking and cooking food (hamburgers and steak, mashed potatoes, salad). It was quite the production. As I introduced myself, I took pleasure in the reaction I received when I told people that I’d been to Israel on Birthright and was Jewish. I really clicked with this girl Tali, who speaks perfect English and arrived in Cordoba on her own. Most Israelis seem to travel in groups, and while she’d travelled with a few people, she wasn’t yet in a group of six. We ate just before midnight and sang happy birthday to Oren in Hebrew. A couple girls prepared dessert cakes and melted a bunch of chocolate for fondue. It was a fun evening but eventually I got tired of not being able to understand conversations, which were conducted in Hebrew unless I requested English, and went to bed.
I had a restless night sleep and awoke this morning for my tour at 9am feeling tired. Steven picked me up at the hostel before getting the three other passengers. Even though he spoke English, the rest of the people on the tour were Spanish speakers, so the entire day he was repeating himself. On our itinerary were three of the estancias which are part of the “Jesuit Block and Estancias of Cordoba” on the UNESCO World Heritage list. According to UNESCO, “The Jesuit Block in Cordoba, heart of the former Jesuit Province of Paraguay, contains the core buildings of the Jesuit system: the university, the church and residence of the Society of Jesus, and the college. Along with the five estancias, or farming estates, they contain religious and secular buildings, which illustrate the unique religious, social, and economic experiment carried out in the world for a period of over 150 years in the 17th and 18th centuries.”
Our first stop was Estancia de Caroya, from the 17th century, a large white building around a patio with a quaint stone chapel. Steven showed us around pointing out highlights of the various rooms. I especially appreciated the beautiful wood beams in the ceilings and roofs. After a quick drink/pee stop at a gas station, we continued to Estancia de Jesus Maria which holds a museum of religious items and paintings and a coin collection from around the world. One of the most interesting aspects of the building was the bathroom. The Jesuits knew something about hygiene and they had a room for toilets, holes on the second floor of the building which fell into running water another floor below. When the Jesuits were kicked out, the new property owners cut off the water and used the space as a type of trash deposit.
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| Estancia de Caroya |
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| Estancia de Jesus Maria |
For lunch, Steven took us to an Italian restaurant (the estancia was used as an Italian immigrant hotel in the 19th century so there are a lot of Italian influences in the region) with a pre-set menu. After a small starter of cold meats, we were served seven different types of pasta dishes, from spaghetti to ravioli, and a couple of meat plates. So much food, all of it delicious. We finished off with dessert, flan with dulce de leche.
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| Me and tour guide Steven at lunch |
Tummies full, Steve took us across the street to Bodega La Caroyense. We were given a tour of the winery, the part where the juice ferments and is bottled, and then had a tasting of our choice. I sampled a couple wines and decided to buy their house wine, two bottles for 15 pesos (less than $4) to share with people at the hostel. By the time we left it was already 4:40pm and we had a 40 minute drive to our last estancia.
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| The three other people I spent the day with |
The last 15 minutes of the ride were on a very bumpy dirt road. Seeing Estancia de Santa Catalina in the distance, I could imagine what it would have been like for visitors to find this place 350 years ago. The estancia is in private hands, so we took a short tour of the church and a bit of time to enjoy the grounds before getting in the car for the drive back.
I arrived back at Turning Point at 8pm, completely exhausted. After a conversation with Tali about skydiving tomorrow and some hanging out, I came upstairs to go to bed.
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