Córdoba

The last weekend of August four friends and I went to Córdoba. Corinna, Terese and my two roommates Karen and Edgard were the perfect travel companions for this trip! J

Córdoba

Thursday night we went to the bus station in Buenos Aires and took a sleeping bus to Córdoba. It took about 9 hours and was actually pretty comfortable just super cold that’s why still we didn’t sleep very much.

When we arrived in Córdoba on Friday morning we checked into our hostel, which we all enjoyed very much – the beds were comfortable, everything was so clean, the staff was amazing, and so was the breakfast.

Córdoba

After leaving our backpacks in the hostel we went to the city center, walked around for a while and then took a guided bus tour to some more places. Córdoba was wonderful! So much smaller and slower than Buenos Aires and the people were very friendly.

That night we were super tired but still stayed up late in our hostel room and enjoyed being on vacation.

Córdoba

Art in Córdoba

Light show at the Centro Cultural in Córdoba

Candonga

Saturday we got picked up at 9am to experience one of my favorite days in Argentina! We went all day out to a horse farm in Candonga in the Sierra del Córdoba. It was only us five on the farm that day so we got personal attention all day through. Before lunch we got to ride horses for a couple of hours through a beautiful landscape on wonderful horses. For lunch we had an Asado and after lunch we got to go horseback riding for another couple of hours. In between we had time to look around the farm – the vegetable and herb garden was amazing!

That night all of us were super sore – understandable. But everyone did great with the horses even though they haven’t been on horses in years or even only once or twice at all before. It was the perfect day! :)

Candonga

Candonga

Candonga

Candonga

Candonga

Candonga

Alta Gracia

On Sunday Karen and Terese decided to take it slow and stayed in the hostel while Corinna, Edgard and I went to Alta Gracia, a small town outside of Córdoba. There we visited Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s parents house, where he grew up. They made a museum out of that house that tells the story of how Che grew up. It was very interesting and great to see that people put a lot of effort into it.

Che Guevara Museum Alta Gracia

When we returned to Córdoba, we went to a small but nice art market at the canal that flows through Córdoba.

Afterwards we picked up our things at the hostel and went to the bus station to take another sleeping bus back to Buenos Aires. This time it wasn’t so cold so we got to sleep a little more.

The whole weekend we got really lucky with the weather: Córdoba is a very dry province in Argentina, especially in the winter months. The weekend we were there it was not only dry but also hot! Over 30°C! We got to wear shorts and didn’t need jackets. I know, that’s what all your August looked like, but here it was still winter so that was pretty amazing for us!

I would say, that Córdoba was one of my favorite weekends so far. 

But more trips are to come and I'm sure, they will all be special in their own way :) 

Thank you so much to Corinna, Karen, Terese and Edgard for that wonderful trip! 

"Many words are a sign of few actions"

Tigre

August 21 I went together with two friends, Corinna and Terese (from Denmark), to Tigre. Tigre is a small city in the Provincia Buenos Aires and is the perfect place to get away from the city for a day. Tigre is very laid back and super pretty!

When we got there we decided to go on a Hop on/Hop off bus tour, since it’s a nice and easy way to get around the city and see all the interesting spots.

We hopped off at the Mate Museum, the Art Museum, a market (which unfortunately was closed) and saw some beautiful buildings. Just like Buenos Aires, Tigre lies at the Rio de la Plata and is very famous for its boat tours, which we decided not to go on. But that just gives us a reason to go back there some time when it's warm out and enjoy the small city some more.

Mate Museum

Mate Museum

Art Museum - the building was art itself

Art Museum

Art Museum

Art Museum

And of course the tiger, that gave Tigre its name

Parroquia de la Inmaculada Concepción

Mendoza

From August 14-17 I went on a weekend trip to Mendoza. 

Mendoza is a city at the foot of the Andes and very famous for its vineyards - about 80% of Argentinian wine is produced in the province of Mendoza.

I took an early flight on that Friday morning to have a couple of hours in the city before it got dark. Flying towards the Andes is exciting by itself! We were flying above the clouds and from a certain point I could suddenly see the mountaintops peaking through the clouds. The closer we got the more I realized how gigantic these mountains were. It was truly incredible to fly towards this huge mountain range right in front of us until we turned to land. 

Andes

Already from the airport I had a wonderful view at the mountains and even in the city they were almost constantly visible. That Friday I spent a couple of hours just roaming around the city and enjoying the peacefulness of a small city in Argentina. I lived in a hostel right in the city center, which made it easy to get to all interesting places. 

Saturday I spent some more time in the city but at 2:30 I got picked up to go on a vineyard tour. The tour was completely in Spanish and I was the only foreigner so at first I wasn't so sure about the whole thing but it turned out to be a lot of fun! And my Spanish got better with every glass of wine… We went to two vineyards with wine tastings and also to a place where they process olives. So we got to try quite a bit of wine and olive-products (bread spreads, oils, cosmetics…).

On Sunday I had some more hours in the city and then I got picked up for the highlight of my trip - horseback-riding at sunset at the foot of the Andes with an Asado (Argentinian BBQ) afterwards. 

It was simply amazing!! I have not been on a horse in years and now with that background it was very special. I met a Swiss girl that works on that horse farm and she kind of implied that I could work there, too, which made it very hard to return to my hostel that night and fly back to Buenos Aires the next morning. 

Oh, I almost forgot - I had wonderful weather that whole weekend but it was freezing! The nights cooled down to 0°C and during the days 12°C were the maximum. Pretty cold for August, hmm…