We arrived in Cordoba after an all night bus ride from Tucuman. The bus was a double decker in which the seats folded down flat into beds. The sway of the bus put most of us to sleep in no time, although I had several dreams I was falling. I was amazed at how comfortable the bus was to sleep and travel in, and unlike the domestic flights, on time! I will post a photo of Gretchen, our Fulbright leader, sleeping in her bus bed.
Immediately upon arrival, the Fulbright Commission gave us the rest of our travel stipend. Unfortunately, I took my eyes off my back back for a minute in a restaurant and the backpack, with all my travel money, was gone. A restaurant crowded with customers and servers and nobody saw anything. While I was quite upset, my travel partners came through and replaced a lot of what was stolen; restoring my faith in humanity.
The main thing to tour in Cordoba were the Jesuit churches and estancias. The Jesuit churches and ranches were built sometime in the early part of 1600. Many of them still had original walls and frames and were very interesting to look at. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see a working estancia. I did find it intersting that after awhile, in the 1770's the Jesuits were expelled from Argentina and the estancias fell into ruin. Altogether we toured 4 Jesuit estancias with the most beautiful one being Santa Catalina, that is still privately owned by a local family.
We then were graced with a day and a half of free time and I visited some art museums in Cordoba and took in a fabulous craft fair with amazing locally made crafts of all kinds. I finally found my mate cup and spoon and will soon be looking for some yerba mate to drink.
We are now in the best hotel of our entire trip, the Hotel Modern in Mendoza. More about that later.
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