The Other Argentina

Hello, everyone- well, tomorrow will mark three and a half months that I've been in BsAs. Since I will only have spent five months here by the time I leave, three seem to have gone by in no time at all, but at the same time, it feels like I could've been living here forever. A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to get the chance to visit two beautiful areas of the country outside of the capital.

The first trip was to Iguazú Falls, which it turns out is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It was wonderful to get out of the city and into some fresh air for a few days, and I definitely needed it. I had been going stir crazy the week or two leading up to the trip, and I was about ready to try to climb one of the buildings just to get a glimpse of some sky. The first day of the trip we visited a working estancia and had one of the best asados of the trip so far, in my opinion. We got to do about an hour of horseback riding and spent the early afternoon relaxing by the swimming pool that was there for guests next to the grill. Later that day we got to visit 400-year-old ruins from a Jesuit settlement, and then took a three-hour ride in a small bus that was more like a big van and all tried to get some sleep sprawled on each other's laps and leaning on each other's shoulders (Anna, you're the best).

The next day we headed to Iguazú national park and saw the falls, which I can confidently say are the most amazing sight I've seen in my life, to date. The third day we got to visit a Guaraní village- the Guaraní are an indigenous people of the jungle that spans most of Paraguay and spreads into the borders with Brazil and Argentina. Instead of trying to describe all of this, I'm just going to let you see for yourselves- unfortunately even the pictures don't do it justice.

The next weekend, two of my good friends and I took a two-day trip to the city of Córdoba, Argentina's second largest city, which houses the oldest university in the country and the second oldest in all of Latin America (over 400 years old). The hostel we stayed in was a great place with cheap rooms and coffee all day long, the weather was beautiful and cloudy and cold, and it was so nice to experience a different part of the country's culture. A lot of people don't realize that there are so many cultural components to Argentina because Buenos Aires itself is so full of its own culture, and according to the cordobeses, most porteños go to a place like Córdoba and expect it to look like the middle of nowhere because they're so proud of Buenos Aires. It was definitely not the middle of nowhere, and even though it has a population of 2 million, it has a feel that is so much smaller and more open than the capital. We got a great city tour from one of the owners of the hostel, visited the Jesuit crypts and all the oldest Jesuit architecture, and spent the second afternoon walking around the little mountain town of Alta Gracia. We had amazing food the whole trip and took the nicest overnight bus I've ever ridden to and from Córdoba- seats that folded into beds, free toothbrushes, dinner and breakfast, and complementary wine!

 Leandro, our tour guide, giving us some inside perspective on the military dictatorship and the desaparecidos of the '70s and '80s (whose faces are printed on the banners above his head)