Argentina Part II

Cordoba

After a lengthy stay in Mendoza we made a move towards Cordoba. The first day we drove east until we reached Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas, a miniature Canyon Lands. We arrived just in time to enjoy the views of the red canyon walls in the setting sun before setting up camp. The next morning we drove to Mina Clavero, a beautiful tranquil village nestled in the foot hills of the Sierra Cordoba. We managed to find the one campground that wasn’t closed for the winter and bartered for a cheaper price since the hot water was turned off. After settling in we went into town to watch Argentina lay the boots to Greece in a four nil victory. The town went wild and we were entertained by the post game parade which consisted of teenagers ripping around on scooters, honking, yelling and flying the Argentinean colours. Back at camp we barbecued steaks and drank red wine before retiring for the night. The next day we decided to get some exercise so we went for a jog. The trail wound along the river passing beautiful homes and farms and then the river turned into a small canyon full of small swimming holes and boulders. At camp we met a couple of Argentinean artisans who were also travelling to Cordoba so the next day they hopped aboard and kept us company. The drive was beautiful; it went up in the mountains and passed through a Condor reserve before descending into Cordoba. We dropped off our passengers and then found the camping Municipal, where we stayed for night. Since the camping was 15km from the city we decided to find somewhere to stay closer to the center. We checked out a few hostels in Nuevo Cordoba, but weren’t impressed (a sign of age maybe?) so we moved to the old city and looked for something there. On our way we met Alejandro and Flor, two warm hearted locals who pointed us in the right direction. When we finally found a decent place for a good price we couldn’t find a 24 hour garage for the van. By this time we were almost going to turn around and head back to the campground, but we decided to look at one more place. The Gran Victorian Hotel, is a beautiful old two star hotel located right on the pedestrian street. Unfortunately it was undergoing major renovations which meant that you had to walk up the four flights of stairs and there was also a lot of noise during the day, but we got a great room with a balcony overlooking the city and also got a special price due to the circumstances. This would be home for the next week. Our first objective in Cordoba was to find Karen a wedding dress. So we wasted no time and went dress shopping for the first few days. After Karen had tried on almost every dress in the city with no luck we found the Palacia de las Novias(Palace of the Brides), a store with hundreds of wedding dresses. Here we found “the one” and they were able to make some adjustments in just a few days. During the rest of our stay in Cordoba we went suit shopping for Pete, watched the Argentinean World Cup games (with Alejandro and friends), went out for dinners and drinks, went to a play directed by Alejandro and watched tango in the main square. We were also able to learn a lot about the history of Argentina from some of the locals we met and how corrupt and brutal their government has been in the not so distant past. The more we learn the more we understand their culture and why so many now live as Artisans enjoying every day as it comes. You never know what could happen tomorrow. The bank could steal your money or you could “disappear”. Wow. We also posted our van for sale on a few forums and within a couple of days got our first reply. A Swiss guy, Patrick, seemed very interested and wanted to see our baby. Our intention was to sell the van in Buenos Aires but he convinced us to drive up to Asuncion, Paraguay and meet him there.

The drive to Paraguay

We took our time on the drive to Paraguay and enjoyed every minute with Patience knowing it could all be coming to a quick end. First we visited Tanti, a small village outside of Cordoba. One of our first hot days in awhile, Pete went walking in sandals on the riverside trail. Unfortunately along the way he tripped on a branch and cut his toe. We hoped that it wasn’t too deep of a cut but when we got back to the van and had a closer look; it was deeper than we had expected. So we went to the clinic and Pete got three stitches. When we went to pay for the bill we were surprised to find out that it was free. Free public health care even for foreigners, nice. The following day we drove up to San Marcos, a small hippy town complete with the “world’s first hippy museum”, and spent a couple of nights there. Our next stop was Mar Chiquita, a large salt lake which is home to numerous birds including flamingos. We found a camping municipal right off the highway and immediately went down to the salty lake shore to take in the sunset and watch the flamingos. We kept making our way up north and stopped for the night in Tostado at another camping municipal on the river. Here we met a local family who insisted on giving us their town flag as a gift. Our next stop was Resistencia. The campground here was very nice and only a few dollars a day. Since it was school holidays and a weekend the place was packed during the day with families cooking up huge asados and we even had some fellow campers consisting of some strange artisans that we hung out with quite a bit, and an even stranger biker couple. The bikers were riding an imitation Chinese Harley with a skull on the front, a skull flag on the back, a small trailer full of skull decals, a samurai sword strapped to the front shocks, and to top it off a pet hawk which they carried in a small box decorated with skulls. We’ve met some weirdoes on this trip and these two are definitely in the top three. Formosa was the next destination, but wasn’t any camping in town so we drove 30 min. North and stopped in at an animal reserve where they had many injured birds and cats. Unfortunately we were told that we weren’t allowed to camp there because it was too dangerous. The previous night a wild cat attacked someone and was now in one of their cages and there were also many poisonous snakes in the area. Their solution was to drive TWO minutes down the road where it would be much safer to sleep on the side of the highway. We took their suggestion, but didn’t venture out of the van the whole night. The next morning we drove to Clorinda where we got our visas for Paraguay and then drove a few minutes outside of town to the border. Onto country #15...Paraguay the world’s most corrupt country outside of Africa to sell Patience.

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