Córdoba is the second largest city in Argentina, and our destination for La Semana Santa (Easter Week). (By "our" I mean me and two friends from my program). After a 10 hour, surprisingly comfortable bus ride, we stayed in Córdoba city for one night in a very urban, internationally-minded, centrally-located hostel. Here is the view from the roof...
Córdoba is an interesting city because it has a lot of old Spanish architecture - especially cathedrals. However, we avoided the more cultural experiences - museums, etc - and went shopping instead. :)
My goal for this vacation was to really get away from city life and relax. The Córdoba province is full of small mountain towns, and we chose to stay in La Cumbre - 2 hours north by bus.
La Cumbre kind of reminded me of Door County in northern Wisconsin, but smaller... and in the mountains. (Note: these are not the Andes, they are called the Sierras.) La Cumbre also had something that Mendoza lacks - flowers!
Our hostel was the complete opposite of our hostel in Córdoba city. It is really a family's home, so we felt more like house guests - complete with free breakfast. After a day of relaxing and window shopping, we stayed in to socialize with the other travelers staying at the hostel.
Day 2 in La Cumbre : We woke up - still exhausted from our travels, decided to rent mountain bikes anyway, and bade farewell to our new Israeli friends.
So, we decided to bike up to Cuchi Corral a "vast natural balcony with views over the Río Pinto valley¨, and also (fun fact) the destination for an international paragliding competition, according to my guidebook. I learned many lessons on this biking excursion including 1) "mountain biking" through actual mountains and "owning a mountain bike" in the Midwest are very different things, 2) always ask for a bike with shock absorbers, 3) 7 km uphill will take you longer than you think.
But we made it! Here is the view from the top:
And on the way back down:
After a very long siesta, we tried something that Córdoba is famous for: alfajores. Alfajores - basically cookies - come in all shapes and sizes - this one with dulce de leche and chocolate:
Day 3 in La Cumbre : Because it was Easter Sunday, we thought it would be appropriate to visit a giant, 50-year-old statue of Jesus (El Cristo Redentor, or The Redeeming Christ) that looks over La Cumbre. After a short hike, we made it to the top where there was a nice view of the town.
More flowers and if you look closely through the fence, El Cristo.
