Cordoba

Cordoba, Argentina

Yes - this is Cordoba Argentina, completely different to Cordoba Spain which not only did we booked accommodation for, but also became super excited for 'hottie watching' which was listed as the number 3 thing to do. Failures on so many levels, but at least we were able to play the Honeymoon card and get our payment back (thank you online booking agency which cannot be named for legal purposes)!

So much to Leigh's dismay there was no hottie watching in Cordoba, however the quantity of suit clad males was quite high which led to some interesting commentary.

Arriving on an overnight bus from Buenos Aires after a less than positive bus experience, we were tired and exhausted. Plusmar Bus provided, semi-cama seats, which were not a high standard and provided a sleeping experience half a sleeping tablet could not overcome!

Arriving at the Palenque Hostel we were pleasantly surprised by the overnight managers Gato and Mike who were accommodating and cleaned our room  while we checked in. This quickly resulted in Leigh and I having an extended nanny nap waking late in the afternoon.

Palenque Hostel has a lovely warm feeling and has been very comfortable and homely. A rareity in the hostel world, they held a free empanada night, where we learnt how to make them ourselves and this followed up with a BBQ experience on the final night. Both these provided great socialising opportunities including meeting another couple and a group of girls who are also travelling for 8 months.

Our second day in Cordoba was a tourist extravaganza!  Spurred on by free museum entry (free every Wednesday), we quickly set out to save $1.25AUD per entry. We started at the Catedral Ingles, which although under repairs, was exquisitely extravagant.  We visited sculpture, modern, and contemporary art galleries. With the preservation of the outside Architecture of the museum, inside we found renovated and polished galleries and did Argentina proud in showing of its cultural side.

Paved streets and cobbles walls... leading to the Memorial Museum - showing the detention and torture facilities used during the "Dirty War".

Leigh outside Catedral Ingles

Some crazy artwork in one f the many plazas.

Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa

Inside the Museo Provincial which used to be a palace.

Both Leigh and I are still getting used to the amount of meat that we are needing to eat, but have been more than surprised and ecstatic over the amount of vegetarian vegan restaurants we have found so far. Sol y Luna (Sun and Moon) was the first one discovered and was very happy with the self serve buffet for the amazing price of Au$1.75 per 100 grams of food. This place was upstaged by the chinese run vegetarian joint that we found, which cost AU$2.00 for 250 grams.  Such a bargain!!

Sol y Luna vegetarian restaurant

Inside Sol y Luna

After the BBQ on the final night, we were invited to a local Jazz Fusion club. Arriving near midnight, we were early, as the club does not start its entertainment until 1am. Making ourselves busy, I was introduced to the strange world of Argentinian 8-ball. This game changed frequently with the locals making new rules during the game. This included the black to be sunk in the back right corner only. On my final shot to sink the black ball,  I was then told it had to be sunk in the same pocket as my last ball which conveniently this was at the other end of the table... Ending the game in frustration we enjoyed the music, and chatted with the locals.  Afterwards I was told that they either wanted to sell me drugs or take advantage of the gringo....

Marc doing his part for the environment. 

At the underground jazz club with some people from Palenque Hostal 

Red Asian face Leigh very excited by her 1L plastic cup of beer for less than AU$6

Recovering the next day, we found the excuse we needed to return to Cordoba and Palenque Hostel and have committed to a week of intensive Spanish lessons.

We are headed to Mendoza where we will have three wine filled days before returning to study. Cant wait!

Vegetarian restaurant crawl of BA

So we admit it, we have been eating meat whilst away.  Judge away, I know we are.  We tried to fight it.  We resisted as hard as we could, but after days of eating stale bread and fried potatoes our will was weak and our strength was fading.  We had managed to find one vegetarian restaurant early in the week.  By Australian standards the salads were bland and unimaginative but it was better than nothing and the seats were really comfy.

BA offers meat restaurant after meat restaurant with top quality steaks at bargain basement prices.  The thrifty Asian could no longer hold out and was the first to crack.  Not wanting to do anything by halves, a bloody medium rare steak was ordered and quickly devoured.  It was good but I knew there would be consequences.  The next day I felt ok.  A little lethargic with only a hint of stomach pain.  As I had broken my meat pact thoroughly, it was now Marc's turn.  Another delicious steak was inhaled with a small side of guilt.  Two days was enough.  We knew we had to find vegetables.  So with the help of a few blogs and a couple of hours of hard core internet research we had our targets and set off.

1. Bio

This place was a sheer delight and not only because of the FREE home made breads and pumpkin dip!  Here we sampled their delicious fresh lemonade with a good hit of ginger and a stir fried mixed mushroom dish.  It was simple fare but executed brilliantly and after days of poor eating we were quite happy with our mushrooms and rice.  The vibe was accidental love child oh urban hipster meets dazed and confused Nimbin hippy.  This place scores 4 out of 5 tofu cubes.

"Stop taking photos of me I'm trying to eat free bread."

Smug.

Hongos a la Bahiana - mushrooms with chili and coconut milk

2. Meraviglia

We completely misjudged the distance between all these restaurants and thought we would snack at one then slowly make out way to the next by which time we would be hungry again.  Unfortunately they were all quite close together and we were not really hungry.  Marc managed to squeeze in an orange and banana juice (odd combo but surprisingly it worked) and I forced down an amazing organic wholewheat flour cinnamon bun.  So good and definitely worth the public shame of having to undo the top button of my shorts.  The atmosphere here was a little sterile compared to Bio but the staff were very friendly.  3.5 lentil patties out of 5.

3. Artemisia

Our last stop of the day was 2 blocks down and we were well and truly full by this stage.  We managed to score some more free bread and ordered a large bottle of gingery lemonade in the hope that the ginger would help settle out stomachs.  The place was lovely and airy and open and the waitress was very tolerant of our minimal ordering.  As we didn't actually eat here the score will have to be for service and ambiance only.  4 wheat grass shots out of 5.

Buenos Aires

We are coming to the end of an interesting week in Buenos Aires.  After our lovely hostel experience in Pucon we didn't wish to tempt fate so had enquired with a local short term rental agency to book an apartment for the week.  We foolishly thought that when a website said it would get back to us within 24 hours that it actually meant what it said.  So young, so naive. We emailed them on the Tuesday and when we hadn't heard back from them on the Friday (and we were meant to be checking in on the Sunday) we became a little anxious.

A bit of Evita action on the Avenida 9 de Julio.

The Obelisk on Avenida 9 de Julio

This led to the very rash decision of booking a hostel for one night in BA.  Our first night was ok if not a little dungeon like but we thought we would be fine and would be able to contact the rental agency first thing Monday morning.  This was not the case.  Not wanting to be outdone by their Portuguese speaking neighbours, BA decided to have two days off for Carnivale!  One friendly taxi driver pointed out stands and barricades along the widest main road in the world (this fact has not been substantiated) and we thought we were in for some awesome Latino semi-nudity.  Again this was not the case.  Not only did we no longer have any accommodation on what turned out to be a four day long weekend in a city already jam packed with tourists, we also failed so see any skimpy high cut sequined bikini bottoms or nipple tassells.  You can imagine our sheer devastation.

Anyway we (being Marc) rallied and managed to score a lovely corner room (read small and cramped) in a hostel a few floors up from the one we had stayed in.  The exiting couple had told Marc that the room was lovely but could be a little noisy at night from the endless parade of buses and trucks driving past the building all night.  They recommended keeping the doors closed and turning the fan up high so we didn't overheat.  Joy!  Suffice to say, the night was not the most pleasant and we promptly checked ourselves in to a lovely and cheap 3 star hotel for amazingly the same price as a private room in a backpackers!  The Asian in me was very proud.

So after two days of faffing about with accommodation we finally started to explore the city.  First stop was Florida Street for some retail therapy.  Here we happened upon PICNIC!!!!  A vegetarian/organic cafe.

The bustling Florida Street where you will probably get robbed! 

How is their economy not stronger when they have 25 hours in a day!!!

PICNIC!  VEGETABLES! YAY!

The next day we intended to head off to Recoleta to check out the famous Recoleta Cemetery.  We made it here...

which is actually opposite the cemetery so you know, we were close.  We then decided to do this...

Look how cute my little beer is compared to Marc's half a litre!

 And eat these...

Attractive looking but horrible tasting onion rings.

This is where we met Sheena and Justin (as seen in the background of the onion rings photo), a lovely couple from Wisconsin.  We stayed at the little micro brewery where the boys sampled most of the beers on the menu (twice) and discussed everything from religion to American politics to most importantly, cheese!  Sheena and Justin were full of delightful Buenos Aires tips, one of which was a small steak restaurant called Dada, which at around 9.30pm we decided would be an ideal place for dinner.

Justin watching Marc piss off the waitress, and Sheena perusing the delicious menu. 

 The next day we did actually make it to Recoleta Cemetery.  It was beautiful and eerie (or as eerie as a packed tourist attraction can be).  The wealthy and famous of BA are buried here with new shiny marble mixed amongst old crumbling stone mausoleums.  The place is set out like a city with tree lined main streets and it feels like it goes on forever.  We stayed off the main paths and managed to find some deserted areas.

After the Cemetery we were starving and luckily there was a lady serving up delicious Choripan (chorizo in a bun) for AU$2.50.  BARGAIN.

Once our hunger was satiated we made our way down to Puerto Madero which is pretty much the Southbank of BA including a brown Yarra River equivalent.

Random giant chair

Southbank?

Definitely Southbank.

One of the more random tourist attractions in BA is the A line subway.  It's a short line which takes you along Avenue de Mayo and was the first subway in South America dating back to 1913 (this fact has been substantiated, thank you wikipedia).  They still use the old wooden carriages with wooden benches and there is a sweet little conductor man.  Was very cute!

The next day we decided to explore the barrio of Palermo which is meant to be the chic cafe, bar, restaurant and boutique shopping area of BA.  It did have some lovely cafes etc but it may need a few more years to really come in to its own.  This is where we conducted our vegetarian food crawl!

Out of what I believe now to be nothing but pure travellers guilt, we signed up for a tour to a Gaucho ranch to see how they "used to live".  Traditionally the Gauchos were nomadic so I'm not sure how going to a ranch with homesteads and the like is a true representation of their traditional ways.  Anyway we headed out of Buenos Aires city for a day trip where we ate empanadas and grilled meats and salads.  We went on a horse and cart ride, rode horses and watched the gauchos compete in some odd sport where they had to pull a pin out a strap of leather.  When they won they had to kiss one of the many old ladies (most with copious amounts of peach fuzz on their top lips) and give them the ring so I am not really sure how this can be considered "winning".

View from my horse.

Making friends with a group of mustachioed Colombians. 

One of the Gauchos looking extremely proud of himself for no particular reason. 

One of the "winners" going in for a furry lip kiss.  Winner!

As a side note, yes Lisa and Andy, this is exactly the same place we went to when we were in BA way back in 2007.  The same old creepy guy that was cracking onto Lisa was still there and everything!

Our last day in BA was spent at the San Telmo antiques market with Sheena and Justin.  At first I felt like I was walking through the Argentinean version of the rocks market but once we got in there it was full of gorgeous old wares sold by equally gorgeous old people!  Such a delight!  Marc and I both showed great restraint and managed to walk away empty handed!

We are now heading west to Cordoba (Argentina, not Cordoba Spain, where we may have accidentally booked accommodation).

Ciao!