CORDOBA - ARGENTINA

Requiring a break from the incessant partying endured in Mendoza, I travelled to Cordoba, primarily to visit a few friends of mine from my previous trip to Argentina´s second largest city. Throughout my whole stay in the city however I was inhibited by the ridiculously hot conditions, with the average for my 5 day stay being around 40 degrees. As such I spent a large amount of my time indoors, reading my book, chatting with people and browsing a number of the large shopping malls in Cordoba.

Cordoba province contains a number of interesting towns, a number of which I visited during my previous visit, however I was intending to visit a few more this time. Unfortunately as I already iterated, the weather made this almost impossible. As such, my attempt to relax and get away from the party atmosphere, at least for a few days was thwarted.

During my stay I caught up with a friend of a friend (Kristen from Newcastle, Australia). It was good having a local contact with Argentine friends, meaning that I spent quite a bit of my time hanging out with the group, going out and catching up in Cordoba.

The only real interesting stories from my stay came from my nightly ventures into town. The first adventure on a thursday night proved to be extremely good fun as the nightclub I visited with a few of my Argentine friends was packed full of a young and enthusiastic crowd, made up of many locals and a few others from elsewhere in Argentina. I had a great time and met some awesome people, I was continually just blown away by how friendly everyone was. Deciding to walk home with a number of the boys staying at the hostel, I enjoyed watching them try desperately to charm some of the local argentine ladies, without any spanish, instead relying on drunken and slurred english. I of course stayed right out of it, occassionally providing a translation, whilst also enjoying the amuesments transpiring.

The next night I met up with Kristen and a few of her friends and we went out to a club. Unfortunately the vibe wasn´t quite as good as the previous night, probably because the crowd was slightly older and as such didn´t go quite as nuts. The club was however pretty packed and we struggled to find sufficient room to bust out a few dance moves. After leaving the club around 6am we eventually found somewhere to grab a bite before I left them at the bus station and returned to the hostel.

My last night was again spent with Kristen and her gang although this time I travelled the 1 hour to a small town close to Cordoba (Rio Segundo) where they were all living. The night was fully planned out and we were meant to drive the 30 or so minutes to a nearby town in order to visit a different club. Unfortunately however, this club and pretty much every other club in all the small towns nearby were closed and so we spent around 3 hours driving between places, only to return to Rio Segundo. Everyone was pretty annoyed however we did manage to spend an hour or so in the club in Rio Segundo, which was a different to anything I had experienced before. Whilst it wasn´t the greatest night out, in hindsight it was still pretty cool. Another morning pizza was followed by the hour bus journey to Cordoba.

In essence, Cordoba was not as fun or as interesting as Mendoza the reasons for this being:
1) Many locals had left to holiday elsewhere in Argentina meaning the vibe was more relaxed.
2) The weather was opresively hot.
3) Bad luck I guess.

Still, it was good to visit the area again.

Photos 1-3: Thursday night in Cordoba with friends old and new.
Photos 4-8 Kristen, Romi & friends in Cordoba (Friday night) & Rio Segundo (Saturday night).
Photo 9: Quick roadisde toilet stop for the girls.