Cordoba, Argentina

On March 23rd, after an 11 hour bus ride from Iguazu to Cordoba, we arrived to our Airbnb apartment. Our hosts, Martin and Naza, gave us a very warm welcoming to Cordoba by cooking us an authentic Argentinian BBQ which was by far the best meat we have ever tasted. Martin is a great cook. 

Their cute dog

The following day we made plans with Martin and Naza to head to a German community called Villa General Belgrano. We hopped on a local bus and an hour and half later we arrived. This town is the headquarters of Oktoberfest in Argentina and was filled with viking statues, beer barrels, cottage like buildings -- basically a viking Disneyland. After grabbing a snack and a beer in town, we decided to walk to a supposedly nearby river.  It turned out to be much further than expected so we settled with hanging by a little steam until we eventually turned around to catch a bus back to Cordoba. That night chef Martin made some delicious pizza from scratch. We devoured it all and went to bed, exhausted from the day.

We woke up the next morning, had some coffee and crackers, and headed to a market/nearby stores to buy ingredients for the dinner I was planning on making that night for our new friends: fishcakes, butternut squash risotto, potatoes, brownies. The whole market area was a bit overwhelming, but after getting situated and finding what we needed little by little, we were good to go. We returned to the apartment and I prepped everything for dinner while Marcela napped. Shortly after, we headed to the downtown area of Cordoba to look around. There was a great plaza with a church as usual. We had a nice slushy, then went back to the apartment to relax. Once Naza got home from work I began cooking and had a successful dinner, although the brownies were slightly burned and stuck to the pan because Marcela forgot to grease it :) Naza was so kind to buy us departing gifts for us to remember them by. (Earrings for Marcela and a few types of spices and a beer for me, for when I eventually open my sandwich shop. They got to know us quick!)

Wednesday was the day that Marcela was supposed to receive her emergency debit card, so we stayed in the apartment all day waiting for DHL to deliver it, doing laundry, reading, and watching TV. Our plan was to get the card and then head to Mendoza that night. But after 6pm we realized it probably would not arrive and after speaking with the bank to track the package we knew we needed to stay one more night in Cordoba. I went out to buy meat and vegetables to make dinner that night as well. I really wanted to learn how to cook Argentinian meat like Martin, so once he got home he helped me turn on the grill and gave me some tips on his process. We ended eating around 11pm since Naza got home late from her English class. The meat didnt turn out as delicious as the chefmaster but it was still pretty good. Now we know his secrets.....

The next day Marcela received the package around 12pm so we geared up and started to pack, plan the bus we would take, and look at hostels in Mendoza. Once Naza got home from work we said our goodbyes/until laters and headed to the bus station. We bought our tickets to Mendoza with a 10% discount :) We realized that sometimes if you ask for discount at bus terminals they may grant you 10-20% which is nice if you are travelling on a budget. We boarded our bus at 9:30pm and were on our way to Mendoza that night!