Cliff jumping and condors in Córdoba

Last weekend was one of the most fulfilling parts of the trip so far.  I am sure they will be some of my favorite memories of Argentina.

With 2 papers and our intern reports out of the way, we started the trip off by walking to the bus station at Retiro where we boarded our double-decker cama suite bus.  In a cama suite the comfy leather seats are wide enough to sit "Indian-style" and recline all the way back to lay a flat 180 degrees. It was a 10-hour trip so we booked an overnight trip hoping to sleep on the way and arrive refreshed and ready to hike.  Shortly after we started moving, they served us dinner which was topped off by a complementary shot of whiskey.  Yes, please! What better to help you fall asleep?

Why has this service not been invented in the States yet?  Tourism would have to increase greatly.  Surely everyone would would travel more if they didn't have to pay for gas, stop for bathroom breaks or snacks, or even pay attention to where they were driving.  You would never get lost, just go to sleep and wake up at your destination in the morning, all for about 100 bucks.  That's a great deal! I would have seen all of America by now if we had that.  It's strange to think the trip to Córdoba was the same as the flight from Houston to Buenos Aires, but so much more comfy.

We arrived around 7:30 in the morning and power-walked to the hostel since we had a hike booked for 8:30 a.m.  We cleaned up a little, ate some breakfast (medialunas, of course), and headed out. The trekking excursion was arranged through the hostel to be sure we had something planned for Saturday without spending all our our time in Cordoba researching.

Paula, our guide, drove us about 2 hours in her rugged Land Rover through the winding roads of the mountains to cross the Sierra Chicas before arriving in the Condor Gorge National Park (Parque Nacional Quebrada del Condorito) which is in the Sierra Grandes .  We hiked about 12 km (7.5 mi) stopping along the way to take pictures of the beautiful views and giant quartz deposits.  We also saw the diques (water reservoirs) of the towns below provided by the mountain water.  The main spectacle of the park in the Condor Gorge.  It's a huge gorge where the endangered condor, the world's largest flying bird, still resides.  Sadly, we didn't see any condors, but the view was still breathtaking.

That is, before I got stung by a bee!  I felt something on my neck so I swatted at it, not knowing it was a bee.  After stinging me, it remained stuck to me and I had to try not to scream like a little girl in front of everyone while someone tried to get it out.  Not a big deal, everyone gets stung by bees, but I'm allergic and didn't know how I would react.  I tried to tell the guides several times that I've never had problems breathing from stings, but they radioed the rangers for epipens and advised that we head back.  Oh well. Better safe than sorry.

When we got back to the hostel, we finally got our first good look of it.  It was my first hostel experience, and I admit I was as much nervous as a was excited.  We met people from New Zealand, England, Holland, and Isreal.  The common language was obviously English, which was kind of nice instead of working to speak Spanish all the time.  Kylie, Max, and I stayed in the Verde room with 3 other people.  Bunk beds, yay!  There was a living room where everyone hung out together when they weren't out doing something. I almost died when I saw the guitar leaning against the wall.  Even though it's been so long since I've played that there are few songs I still know by heart, I was thrilled to play around.  I haven't gotten to play guitar or piano since Christmas break, and it sure felt good.  We also met David from Holland who went out to dinner with us.  He invited us to a party after dinner but as we were all exhausted from hiking and anticipating another early morning, we opted to stay in and go to bed early.  Before returning to our rooms, Ya-el, one of our roommates taught us a Hebrew card game, Taki.  It's a lot like uno, and it was so fun to learn new cultures.

Sunday, the group split up and did separate things.  Kylie and I headed to La Cumbrecita, a small German town outside of Córdoba.  The couple in our room was going too, so we walked to the bus station together.  It was about 3 hours with many of the road still in the process of being carved out of the mountain.  We also got to see the diques we had seen from the top of the Sierras the day before.  It reminded me of the Lake of the Ozarks with houses and docks lining it's shores! We ended up spending the whole day with the couple from our hostel. It was great!  La Cumbrecita was a cozy pedestrian-only town nestled in the mountains.  It was very touristy in the sense that other South Americans came to visit.  The layout of the town was kind of a circle, and we accidently saw everything in the perfect order.  The first lake we saw had a small waterfall and we we're already content for our choice of activity for the day.  However, our main goal was to find La Olla (the Pot), a natural swimming hole.  A few minutes down the road we found it.  It was perfect.  There were large boulders to lay out in the sun, a swimming hole w/ a waterfall slide, and rocks perfect for jumping off of.  We spent a couple hours just hanging out at La Olla.

It was getting close to leaving time so we made our way to the last stop, La Cascada Grande (the Big Waterfall).  It was more of a hike than anything else we'd done that day.  We definitely climbed a LOT of stairs on a path completely surrounded by trees.  You couldn't even see the sun or hear the water anymore.  It was worth every step when we finally came to the opening.  It was a magnificent waterfall embedded in a lush, jungle-like wall of rocks, vines, and trees.  Once again, we were SO happy we'd chosen La Cumbrecita.

The way home was a little more stressful.  Our bus back to Buenos Aires from Córdoba left at 10:45 p.m. When we left La Cumbrecita, we allowed plenty of time, but of course, in South America you never know what's going to happen.  On the way from La Cumbrecita to Córdoba, you have to switch busses in another German village, Villa General Belgrano.  We stopped for ice cream and made it back to the bus in plenty of time when they wouldn't let us on.  Our tickets were for return, but they didn't have a specific time.  Oh well, we were still early.  We fixed our tickets and had to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus.  Except it was late. Alright, we're starting to cut it a little close.  Not yet freaking out, we boarded the bus and headed on our way.  Until the one-way highway traffic halted to a complete stop. For miles. It didn't look too bad, just a rush hour traffic jam or something until we got to a corner and could see the single file line all the way down the mountain.  Luckily we made it back to the bus station without 10 minutes to spare and said our goodbyes to James and Jemma, the couple spent the day with.  Dinner and bedtime in the cama suite; life was good.