One last city in Argentina, Cordoba
Well, what we thought would be a small community turns out to be the second most populated city in Argentina, second only to Buenos Aires. We actually selected Cordoba because we needed to get close to the Bolivian border to make our journey north possible. And now that has changed so the reason we’re here is to catch a flight to Juliaca, Peru. Seems that from the time I did my research on these modes of transportation, things have changed. Good thing we’re flexible, and retired!
Cordoba is home to about 1.6 million people. And as far as I can tell, it has one of the last remaining operational railways in South America, but on a very limited schedule and destination. Cordoba is known for being the location for many business congresses (conventions), and for their 17th century Jesuit Block. Not sure why this would be the preferred location for a convention but apparently it is one of the top in Argentina.
As for the Manzana Jusitica, that’s understandable. This block of 17th century cloisters and churches is the site of the original university campus, the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. How original! This area is also a UNESCO World Heritage site so there is still time, for those of you who haven’t already, to donate to our goal of seeing every UNESCO site on Earth. Let me know and I’ll send you a link to donate.
So, we arrived around 7:30pm, grabbed our bags and Ubered our way to the apartment. Took about an hour to get here since there was a demonstration happening in the town center that blocked a lot of the roads. Kinda getting used to this demonstration thing.
Checked into our 1-bedroom apartment, with air conditioning, and unpacked our cases for the stay. Pretty lucky, right across the street are two mini-marts so grabbing a few groceries was a snap. Put everything away and settled down to watch a bit of television.
End of day one in Cordoba. Somehow, I feel that Ricardo Montalban is going to pop out and tell me about the rich, Corinthian leather. Some of you will get that, some not.
We have a private city tour lined up for tomorrow, should have a bunch of good stuff to tell you.
Salud