Cosquin and Alta Gracia

Friday, January 21, 2011 - Saturday, January 22, 2011

I can’t believe how little I did yesterday.  I woke up at 9:30am to have breakfast and inquire about bus tickets before spending time on my netbook uploading skydiving photos and doing some research.  But I’m not really sure where the morning went.  I chatted with the three new Canadians in my room about their travel plans.  At some point I called home to say Shabbat Shalom to dad and that’s when Tali finally came into my room.  Our plan was to the Cosquin Festival Nacional del Folklore, which is why I hadn’t much yet.  But how it was already 2:30pm, I’m not sure.

Not knowing exactly when the festival started, I asked the hostel guy and found out it was more of an evening event.  So I went out to get a couple empanadas for lunch, then came back to the hostel and chatted with an American guy from DC before joining Tali, Oren and another guy (I still don’t know his name) in the kitchen outside.  Oren cooked a huge lunch of meat, rice and salad.  We sat around talking but at 5pm I suddenly felt very tired and went to take a short nap.  It must be the heat that’s getting to me.  Not that I mind the warmth, but with no air-conditioning there is no relief.

Tali was still in the same place when I came back downstairs and we decided to leave at 7pm for the bus station.  We purchased return tickets and boarded the next bus to Cosquin.  Along the route, we picked up so many passengers that it was standing room only.  Upon arriving at 9pm, we asked in a shop how to get to the festival.  Turns out it started just around the corner with a huge street market.  Stalls of vendors from around the region selling everything from jewelry to wood carved items to books to musical instruments.  We got distracted walking around until I noticed an ice cream shop.  We’d been craving ice cream all day, so we rushed inside and ordered brownie sundaes.  They were so decadent we couldn’t help but take pictures, and the entire staff got together for us.  Talk about a sugar rush, the thing was SO sweet!

After a bit more “window” shopping (and a couple small purchases), we headed down the main street towards the stadium.  The street was crowded with restaurant tables, street performers and people trying to get from point a to b, including those with baby strollers.  While we walked, a small fireworks show took place nearby, lighting up the sky.  It took us forever to push our way through the crowds and find the queue for tickets.  We finally got inside the stadium at 11:30pm and were shown to our seats.  There were still a number of empty places, but tons of people packed the bleachers. 

We watched a number of performances: singers, dancers, accordion and harmonica players, all showcasing various traditional songs and dances of the region.  However, there was a lot of talking in Spanish between numbers and between acts which eventually got boring.  The temperature had also dropped now that the sun had long past set.  I was in a tank top and pants, but Tali was wearing a skirt, so we were both sitting there trying to warm ourselves.  I thought the performances were interesting but by 1:15am, we were ready to go.  (I found out that the whole thing didn’t end until 5am.)

Arriving at the bus station, a bus was just pulling out for Cordoba, and though we had the option to board, it was standing room only.  No thanks.  Sadly, we didn’t realize that the next bus was in another hour.  So we sat having some water and talking.  Two buses pulled in around 2am, and I went to check if they were ours, even though it wasn’t until 2:30.  Tali kind of gave me a hard time for being so anxious that when a third bus pulled up at 2:12, I didn’t bother seeing if its destination was Cordoba.  A few minutes later we decided to check, just to be sure, and it turned out it was our bus.  Not only that, but there was a huge queue of people and no seats left.  URRR.  The bus left at 2:20, ten minutes ahead of schedule and I ended up standing for an hour, listening to my iPod, extremely annoyed with myself for not following my own instincts.  Enough people got off along the way that we eventually got seats and dozed a bit.  We finally arrived back at the hostel just after 4am and to my surprise (although at this point I’m not sure why I was surprised) most of Tali’s Israeli friends were still awake.

Since I just got my laundry back, I had to shower before putting on my clean pjs.  By 4:30am I was in bed, ready to get some sleep.

As it was my last day in Cordoba, I wanted to go to Alta Gracia and forced myself to wake up at 9:45 even though I needed more sleep.  The morning was spent repacking my backpack, eating breakfast, booking my bus ticket and sorting out my bill.  After applying sunscreen to every square inch of my body showing, I was finally ready to depart for Alta Gracia; it was almost noon.  Once I bought my ticket, I waited near the designated platforms slightly confused because I didn’t see any buses with my company’s name.  The bus was late, but it turned out I was in the correct place.

An hour later, I was dropped in Alta Gracia near the Che Guevara museum.  A German couple were also looking for the museum, so we walked together through the heat.  The museum is located in Villa Beatriz, which was the Guevara’s primary residence in the 1930s, and contains a number of photographs from Che’s life and a few maps showing his motorcycle journeys around Latin America.  There was also a section about his involvement with Castro and Cuba.  I found it interesting but I still have a lot to learn about his life.

I strolled back into the main part of town, stopping for lunch at a restaurant with a very colorful interior.  It was already 2:30pm, so I figured my meal would act as lunch and dinner and ordered the lasagna.  From there I went to the Iglesia Parroquial Nuestra Senora de la Merced and the Jesuit estancia, now the Museo Historico Nacional del Virrey Linies.  The building is part of the UNESCO group of Jesuit estancias that I visited on Wednesday.  A beautiful building with archways, rooms showing furniture from the last owners, and a communal bathroom which in the Jesuit days had running water.

On the central Plaza Manuel Solares, I found an ice cream shop and took a mint chip cone to help cool down.  It has been so hot lately.  After wandering down a street, I determined that I’d seen what I wanted and headed toward the bus stop.  Perfect timing as it arrived a couple minutes after I did.  I was on the bus at 4:45pm and arrived back in Cordoba just before 6pm, plenty of time to shower and relax before my twelve hour night bus to San Rafael at 8:40pm.  Refreshed from my shower, I relaxed in the common room watching the end of the Pursuit of Happiness before saying goodbye to some of my new Israeli friends.  A couple of the boys called my name from the balcony of our shared room when I left the building.

As I walked to the bus station, I smiled.  A very successful time in Cordoba.  Of course, after I boarded the bus, having stood around for 20 minutes with my backpack on, I looked for something in my daypack.  In the process I realized my pills were missing.  I was fairly certain they were in the bag and hadn’t been left behind, but I started to panic.  I frantically began searching my bag and couldn’t find them in any of the normal places.  Telling myself to calm down they would appear, I continued looking, but then I feared they may have fallen out in my locker at the hostel.  Tears rolled down my cheeks at the thought of losing two weeks of pills and I tried to rationalize that dad could send me more, but it didn’t help calm me down.  I approached one of the drivers and tried to explain in Spanish that I didn’t have my medicine and that the hostel was only 10 minutes away (I wasn’t able to say all of that, but I pointed on maps, etc); it was no use.  I didn’t have time to go back.

Turning back to my daypack, I continued the search.  As it happens, I found my spare camera battery that I thought I’d left in Punta Arenas.  A huge relief as I really didn’t remember packing it and almost purchased a new one.  At least there was some good from my panic.  Eventually, just as I was about to give up, my hand felt the case.  Thank goodness!  A few minutes into the drive, one of the bus drivers came up to ask me about my medicametos and I told him I’d found them.  I was warmed by his caring nature.  

Guess I’ll try to get some sleep.  We’re supposed to arrive in San Rafael at 9am.