Solo una semaña mas

I just arrived in Buenos Aires on another night bus. Just barely made it on the bus last night. Figures I'd meet people to hang out with at the hostel in Cordobá (Palenque Hostel-good people run the place) on the night I leave. Cordobá was chill. Much much bigger than Mendoza. The bus stations just keep getting bigger. Cordobá's was bigger than Mendoza's and Buenos Aires' is huge.

Cordobá is much more of a city. I couldn't tell this when I got there Sunday morning and it was dead. It remained that way the entire day. I think it was a combination of the end of S.A. Labor Day weekend, a big Argentine fútbol match in Buenos Aires televised nationally, and it being Sunday which are usually much more subdued in most of the places I've been. Made checking things out pretty easy. A city of 1.3million people and there wasn't too much to see in my opinion. Maybe I missed the big attractions. There are some nice plazas and monuments and green spaces. Actually there's a really nice green space around the arroyo they have running through town. I was trying to figure out that day how I could get to Montevideo or Colonia in Uruguay. It's possible but it was almost as expensive as taking a bus from Mendoza. I wasn't sure what to do. After making a plan for leaving the next day and going to Buenos Aires to take the ferries to Uruguay, I decided that with my dwindling cash supply that it would be best to go straight to Rosario for a few days before going to Buenos Aires or go straight to Buenos Aires for my last week. As you can guess, I chose the later. I figure if I want to go to some other places, I can do that from here.

So the last 2days I went to some of the surrounding towns/villages of Cordobá. I understand now that most travelers come to Cordobá as a jumping off point to go to these towns in the Sierras (no not the same Sierras in California. I think they're called Sierras Maestra). On Monday, which was way more bustling in Cordobá than Sunday-a magnitude more I'd say, I went to General Belgrano (I'm missing a word here) up in the Sierras. It's a this strange tourist destination (well it looks that way anyway) that has German store fronts everywhere. They have a big Oktoberfest Celebration in October (which would be strange to have since it's spring). No one was about but there are some nice areas to walk around outside. I did that as well as drank some decent Argentine, German-influenced beers. The scenery going out there was dope but I had the same problem I always do of falling asleep on any mode of moving transportation I get on. I slept a lot that day, but I also walked a lot.

Yesterday, I went to Alta Gracia where there's a fair bit of history unimportant to me but also a Che Guevara museum. Alta Gracia is a really nice town. I suppose it's a suburb of Cordobá and as with typical suburbs there were some massive houses everywhere. They were really nice houses though. Alta Gracia was very quiet too. I think it would be a nice place to raise a family. Probably another reason that Che's parents moved the family there (the other reason was Ernesto's asthma). The museum is actually pretty good. There's a lot of photos from his life and good explanations in English. They have a replica of the Norton bike that he rode with his friend (whose name I can't remember now, the one from Motorcycle Diaries). If you've got 4h to kill in Cordobá, definitely go to Alta Gracia to see the museum. It only cost $1.

From there I went back to Cordobá to wait to take a midnight bus to Buenos Aires. Now I'm here and everyone has already told me that a week isn't enough. Truthfully, I'm a bit ready to come home. I can't tell if it's because I'm actually ready, or if it's because I'm running low on cash, or a combination of the two. Likely the combination. I feel like I've come the end of a race, which I hadn't anticipated feeling. Next time, I suppose I should give myself more freedom to wander instead of moving methodically toward a destination. I'm not sure if that would work for me or not though...I'll try not to think about a week from now and try to concentrate on being here. So I'm off to find a park for a work out then do what I do...walk around and try to find mischief.