Cordoba, Iguazu, Buenos Aires - Solo Traveling Begins

Me at the falls, Brazil Side
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Alright, I know that I have been incredibly lax about updating this thing, but I promise I´ll try harder to get more frequent updates from now on. Currently I am sitting in an internet cafe in Barcelona, Spain but that will be the next entry.

When I left Mendoza, what feels like months ago, but which is really only 3 weeks ago. I was nervous again. I was leaving a support structure I had come to love and depend on to strike out into unknown territory. This is a motif that I believe I will continue to feel everytime I venture out into a new experience. Those who say there´s nothing new to discover in our world haven´t looked far enough inside I feel.

Me at the Falls Again, Brazil Side
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Anyway, I took a bus to Cordoba, a vibrant college city (Argentina´s 2nd largest), which is right in the middle of the country. This is a place where unless you´re traveling for a long time in Argentina you wouldn´t go. It´s absolutely beautiful and full of history but it doesn´t hold the same appeal as Patagonia, Buenos Aires, Salta, or Tierra del Fuego. I got here and decided to interview everyone of the 10 people that approached me to see if I wanted a hostel. Finally I decided to go with the girl who had been the nicest, it helped that her hostel was also the cheapest. When I got to the hostel I realized two things. There was a reason it was so cheap, and that the owners were really awesome. It turns out it was the hostel´s first week in existence! I spent two and a half days in Cordoba, partying with the owners and there friends both in and out of the hostel, visiting some of the spectacular churches and museums in Cordoba, and finally going to a little town called Alta Gracia to see a Che museum and to sit and have a really relaxed afternoon just sitting and reading next to an artificial lake.

After Cordoba I took a 23 hour semi-cama bus to Puerto Iguazu to see the falls. The bus ride was pretty awful, we stopped at every single little town on the way, but I ended up making friends with 3 Mexican girls my age who were traveling through Argentina for about 3 weeks. We ended up going to the same hostel in Iguazu which turned out to be a dump, and spent a day touring the Brazilian side of the falls. Here I met a great older couple from Buenos Aires and we spent the day talking and laughing. It was great to be able to continue to speak Spanish, as in the hostel setting the language of choice is english. The 2nd day in Iguazu I went to the Argentinian side really really early. This side of the falls is simply spectacular, for the 6 hours I was there I never tired of seeing the falls from whatever view presented itself around the next corner in the jungle. Finally I stopped at La garganta de Diablo (The Devil´s Throat), where a catwalk snakes across the river to end literally almost on top of the largest and most spectacular waterfall I have ever seen. The mist from the falls shot up at least a 100 meters to soak everyone as we stood there gaping as swallows darted right above the water. The next day I left Iguazu, which though spectacular was way too expensive and touristy for my taste (go early in the morning to the park to escape crowds for at least an hour or two).

I finally got on the bus to Buenos Aires! The vibrant capital of Argentina, the city where we had two extraordinary days as a family. Before my time in Mendoza I would not have felt ready to navigate this somewhat intimidating city on my own, but I felt completely comfortable getting around on the buses and metro, and seeing the city alone. I stayed at a Hostel which had a great group of people rotating in and out (V&S Hostel), but that had horrible rooms for sleeping and a somewhat smokey common room. Anyway I saw all the typical tourist sites (La Boca, the antiques markey on Sunday in Plaza Dorrego filled with tango dancers and street performers on every corner, Recoletta cementary etc) went to Teatre Colón, the Evita museum etc, and spent the nights at various bars and nightclubs throughout the city with my new hostel friends, some of whom I will be hanging out with for a few days as I get back to Bs. As. and prepare to head onwards to Bolivia and Peru!

I had a great time in Buenos Aires, although I didn´t like it as much as I had expected too, the Argentinos continued to endear themselves to me by being so friendly and helpful on the streets and in the hostels. In the end, my greatest memory of the city will be the fact that whenever I come back I´ll always have people to call and see.

Only 2 Photos from a really nice couple, as rest are on disposable camera and on the camera of my friends and won´t get them till my parents get the camera and send me a few pictures, or my friends return home in weeks and send me some