Cordoba, Argentina 2008

Que Tal Todos,

 

That's probably grammatically incorrect also.  My Spanish vocabulary has improved.  And the funny thing is that I have been able to chat with some guys here in South America in German.  It seems that after Spanish (Portuguese in Brazil) and then English, German is the next most spoken language we have come across.  Southern Chile seems to be a hot bed of German.  And I have chatted with a couple of guys in German in the few days we have been in Argentina.  That made more sense to me because of the Nazis fleeing to Argentina after the war.  Lol  Now that I think about it, Matheus, the Brazilian I met in Berlin mentioned in my last post, is pretty fluent in German and went to a German school in Brazil.  He made it sound like that was not that unusual.  So my point was that I have been able to keep up on a little German while I have been in South America also.

 

Now to Cordoba...  Ah Cordoba...  As Ozell mentioned in his post about Valparaiso, Chile, I am disappointed with Cordoba and would say this is a city that could be easily skipped on a tour of South America.  Our guide book mentioned that Cordoba assumed the title of "Cultural Capital of the Americas".  Well, I haven't seen it.  I've only seen a moderately dirty city with little in architecture or street level appeal.  We arrived on Monday so we wanted to stay through the weekend to give the city's nightlife a chance.  There seems to be no nightlife during the week- at all.  In fact, this is the first place in South America that seems to shut down completely at 9-10pm.  The funny thing is that it is still daylight at 9pm, but yet everything is closed.  "Everything" may be a slight exaggeration, but not really.  And considering that every other country's nightlife (restaurants, bars, shops) seemed to just get started or at least stay open at 10pm, midnight,  2 am,  this is a little bit strange. 

 

I did visit a couple of the museums and walk around half of the outer city.  I don't have pics posted of this place because I have found very little reason to take any pictures.  There is nothing of note here.  We have had an okay time just relaxing in the afternoon and evenings.  Like we are doing right now- sipping beer (they have a liter of Stella Artois for $2.50), getting some sun (I'm trying to prep for Brazil), and catching up on these blog posts.  I get to listen to some streaming American radio.  It is hot during the day and comfortable at night.  It reminds me of Florida without the humidity.

 

The one pic I am posting with this blog is of a church we came across while walking to a museum.  It wasn't even listed on our tourist map, but it happened to be the best looking building we have come across.  The main square, Plaza San Martin, is full of trash.  The adjacent Cathedral is very unimpressive except the interior was passable as a cathedral- but nothing special.  Just like this city of 1.4 million people.

 

We head to Rosario next, but after talking to the Argentines from that area last night, I think I will enjoy that town much more than here even though it is half the size. 

 

We might take a winery tour tomorrow to pass the time.  Oh shit!  I think it is past the time to sign up for that tour.  Oh well, I can drink the tour fee worth of wine from one of the local restaurants.  LOL.

 

Well, that is all for now...

 

Sean