It's been a challenging few days since we last posted, as we have been travelling a lot and it has all started to catch up with us. Well, me in particular, although I'm feeling much better again now that we're going to be in Buenos Aires (more about that on the next post) for a week or so. That's not to say that we haven't enjoyed the cities we've visited in the past few days but I suppose it's just a case of having done lots in 6 weeks and covered a fair distance in the past week alone. In fact, as one of our many methods to kill time whilst travelling we added up how many hours we had spent on buses and trains since we arrived in Lima - yes, we were very bored... The current count is approx. 89 hours, which doesn't include the (infamous) jeep trip or day tours etc. Quite scary!
Anyway, going back to where we left off, on Tuesday afternoon we wandered round Tucuman feeling increasingly tired, but enjoying the relaxed small city atmosphere of the place. It was very clear that this is not a city used to many English speaking tourists passing through, and lots of people turned to look at us when they heard us talking - quite a novelty compared with a most of the places we have been to so far. A few people actually stopped to ask us where we were from, and seemed really pleased that we had chosen to visit their city; it certainly seemed like a friendly place and had some attractive architecture as you can see.
We were however, more than ready to leave when the time for our bus came closer, mainly because we were exhausted and looking forward to getting some sleep. We were due to board at around 1am (by which time we had been up 20 hours) but unfortunately the coach didn't make an appearance until 2.40am. To say that we were a bit grumpy would be an understatement!
However, when we finally left we managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep and so on arrival in Cordoba at around 10am on Wednesday we felt just about lively (and brave) enough to book our next overnight bus to Buenos Aires for Thursday night. Perhaps needless to say we opted to use a different company, easily done as there is a long list to choose from on many routes. We then checked into a decent enough hostel in Cordoba for the night, and I crashed out for a few hours, leaving Andrew to wander for a while. Later on we both had a walk through the city, but it was certainly not the most active of days and we spent the evening relaxing in the hostel.
The next day we felt much more with it, and we were able to take in some of the interesting sights of the city. Cordoba has a very strong university tradition and is therefore known as 'La Docta' - as a result of its historical importance the city is designated a UNESCO world heritage site and I suppose it could be described as the Oxbridge equivalent in Argentina. It is home to the oldest university in the country, founded by Jesuits in the early 17th century. We had a really interesting tour of the the old university building - with an excellent guide who was struggling with a load of largely disinterested teenagers!
We also were taken round the adjacent Compañia de Jesus church dating back to mid 17th century. It was once one of the most important churches in central South America, and is therefore ornate inside despite a relatively plain exterior. It has a particulalry interesting and unusual ceiling, shaped like the hull of a ship. I also found it really interesting that there was a connection with Lourdes (where I went a few times as a teenager as part of Liverpool Youth Service to help look after sick pilgrims) in that one of the Italians who was involved in the construction of a side chapel in the late 19th century had apparently promised a relative that they would include a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes. It was quite a surprise to find this so far away from the South of France, but the varied rather than strictly colonial European influence is feeling stronger the further we get into Argentina; there has been a lot of immigration here over the years. In fact generally speaking Cordoba had a very European feel and it was nice to sit out in the cafes enjoying the the sunshine and sampling the local (cold - see photo!) beer.
I was also relieved that I was once more able to understand most of what was being said. I have been getting increasingaly frustrated in the past week or so as the accents in Northern Argentina are very difficult for me to follow. I didn't have too too many problems in Peru or Bolivia despite the clear variation from the accent in Spain, but in Argentina I had found that they speak incredibly quickly and not very clearly, don't like pronouncing the letter s, and the 'll' sounds is a strong 'j' amongst other things. The guide on our Cafayate trip actually apologised for the fact that his region's accent is one of the most difficult to follow, so that reassured me slightly, but as we have headed further south it has been getting easier again. Let's hope it stays that way...
Tucumán town hall lit up at dusk..
Some photos from wandering around Cordoba, first the Jesuit church (which looks like an upside down ship's hull inside)
A tram on display (though they don't seem to have them any more)
A view in the central courtyard of the original Jesuit university college of Cordoba
The Cathedral which is a very odd mix of styles
A photo of the interesting purple trees that we've been noticing recently (there were lots in Tucumán), which Cath wants to plant in our garden (when we eventually get one) We're a bit botanically challenged - anyone know what the tree is????
And finally just an odd photo (to signify the nice relaxing day we had in Cordoba), where when I poured my very cold beer into my very cold glass a small reaction occurred that turned almost half the beer into ice.. Still tasted good though :-)
2 comments:
Is the purple tree a jacaranda? mum
Is the purple tree a jacaranda? mum
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