Well, as many of you know, we are currently held up sorting out a wheel bearing problem. We thought we would skip back through a few photos of Argentina’s scenery that took our fancy, and share them. Hope you enjoy.

 

 

We met this lovely couple Klaus and Christina who were also traveling in their camping car, but the difference between them and us is that they have been traveling in the same camping car for 30 years and the car itself is 68 years old, but as Klaus says there is still a lot of places to see and living to be done. He himself is 74 years old, still full of adventure and spirit which is wonderful to see from somebody who has done so much already. He joked and said the car is nearly ready for the museum as it has already done over 600,000 kms. Whow, we both said, we have a bit of catching up to do! We just asked him about some places we wanted to see, routes to take, he didn’t even have to look at the map, he knew every place off by heart, and even told us of more we hadn’t heard of. We liked the image and energy that Klaus portrayed so much, we submitted a little insight story to the Ted Simon Foundation.

We also met Andrea and Anna, a lovely couple from Brazil who are traveling by bicycles, and as we drove by they were stopped on the side of the road, so we pulled up to see if they were okay, they were just mending a puncture, one of many they told us.(Little did we know that we would soon have our own puncture and wheel trouble). However, we asked would they like a cup of coffee, and who in their right mind would say ‘no’ to one of Merv’s special brews, so in they popped to the Mog as it was too cold to drink it outside and they told us that they too were en route to Usuahia for in or around Christmas time, they on bicycles, us in a truck, hmmmm. They travel between 50 and 80 kms per day, and then pitch their tent pretty much where ever they stop. The day before they met us they spotted a Puma in front of them on the road, weren’t too sure it was one at first, as they were tired after their day, but as they got a little closer they realized it was, and suddenly they had a new lease of life as they peddled very fast to get away from it, so as to pitch their tent in safety. Seeing a Puma is very rare here, so the fact that they were on bicycles, there was no noise, plus they were small ,and it meant that the Puma didn’t feel threatened by them. Really lucky guys seeing a Puma, envious!.

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Reluctantly we left our sleepy little places that we had traveled through over the last few weeks, but  as we were heading towards the Andean Northwest,  the city of Cordoba was on route and it took our fancy for a day, and we were not disappointed.  We parked in the Municipal Gral San Martin campsite which was about 10km from the center and we took the bus in , mind you it was a 2 km walk to the bus stop, but sure no worries we said.  Actually it was a nice walk as you were walking through the natural reserve so there was no traffic. We were the only people staying there, so we had a huge area all to ourselves, no problem with space for the mog, and as you saw in an earlier photo on face-book, we even had our own guard dog.   However, when we got on the bus,we realized that  the bus driver didn’t take money as everybody operates on pre-paid bus tickets which you just swipe as you get on, but he didn’t blink when he saw us Tourists. But, a lovely lady got up from her seat and paid for us without evening thinking about it, people are just so good, mind you I did pay her, and for our return journey home a student did exactly the same for us.  Apparently it is quite acceptable for some one else to pay on their card for you, and you just give them the money, but in fact the student didn’t even want to take the money from us! I certainly will be more aware when I see Tourists on Dublin Bus in the future!

Cordoba is set in the central sierras and it is a bustling modern and university town, characterized by beautiful old colonial buildings, a fascinating mix of old and new, for example you can see crowded student bars next to old Jesuit ruins!.  Most of Cordoba’s population are of Italian descent and you see some young designers and artisans selling their stuff on the streets.

Here in Cordoba we wanted to see the Museo de la Memoria (Museum of the Missing). This museum occupies a space formerly used as a clandestine center for detention and torture. It was operated by the Department of Intelligence (D2), a special division created in Cordoba to persecute and repress suspected political activists.  The walls are covered with photographs of people who are still ‘missing’ after 30 years, memory books are left in memory of loved ones, and people can bring related subject matter like letters , written documents, objects, belonging to these people at any time to the Museum.  It had quite an eery feeling as you walk through it imagining what had happened here , but it is a reminder of an era that human-rights groups hope will never be forgotten  , or all of us for that matter.

After all of that heavy stuff it was time for lunch and a beer which we enjoyed sitting in amongst the students and people watching while enjoying the lovely sunshine.

Just a little outside of Cordoba is a beautiful little town called Alta Gracia, and it first came into prominence in the 1920 s as it attracted wealthy Argentinians in search of second homes, and it was here that Ernesto Che Guevara spent a lot of his childhood years, and now the house/museum is like a shrine to him.  It is only a small little house, and here you can see a collection of family photos, Cuban bank notes (as he became the President of the bank ) , school report cards, letters to his aunt, his favorite books that he liked to read, he also played golf and was an excellent chess player.   Also you can see the house’s original kitchen stove, and it was know as an ‘economy stove’ due to its novel system of supplying the house with hot water, and Ernesto spent a lot of time here when his asthma prevented him from playing with his friends.

There are great maps of his trips through Latin America and you can see the 500cc Norton that he and his buddy used for one of them. An added interest to us was that his family were partly of Irish descent, apparently!