Che and Pablo

Howdy gang!

Gee willickers we have been having an action packed time here in Còrdoba. Còrdoba is the second biggest city in Argentina, around 2 million people. It feels a tiny bit like Perth in places, except that if you go out at night

Yesterday we caught the bus out of town and went to Alta Gracia. It´s not such a big town, but the main reason you might go there is because Che Guevara used to live there when he was young (when he was older he moved to Còrdoba, for high school, and then to BsAs, for college, and then all over the shop, for Fidel.) We had a nice old time there. It is up on a hill and is leafy and green with some nice open spaces.

So off we trotted to Che's old house. It was a fairly modest sort of house (look it was no patch on Pablo Neruda's that's all I'm saying) but the inside had been turned into a museum, mainly full of wonderful old photos of the big guy. I'm not sure how I feel about Che. The museum really didn't mention all that much about his habit of sending execution squads after AWOL soldiers. But he seems like a terrifically dedicated gentleman and it seems that he never spent a moment thinking he wasn't doing the right thing. Who can ever tell with these things? They were great photos, anyway. I recommend it if you happen to be in the area!

Then TODAY if you can believe it we ingested even more culture! Now that´s just CRAZY! Yes it is true.

We´ve been eating at some fine places lately. We cook for ourselves more often than not but Còrdoba is very cheap by Argentina standards and even by my standards. I´m not sure why but perhaps it has something to do with the large student population? Last night we went out to a fantastic little hole-in-the-wall, all nice and dark and old, serving up big cups of red wine and platefuls of chicken. The walls were lined with notes that people had written - some were romantic and some were just shopping lists and some contained quotations and some were in strange languages although most were just in Spanish. Actually the food was nothing too special - I had ravioli and it wasn´t spectacular, as ravioli tends to be - but the servings were good and the atmosphere was lovely, all buzzing with young studenty types talking in low voices and laughing.

Today we went to a brilliant place for lunch called Sol Y Luna. It´s a vegetarian restaurant in the city centre. You can either order the Menu del Dia - menu of the day - or you can take the buffet lunch and pay for it by the 100g.

Oh freaking awesome! The hostel is playing Hungry Heart! Boy do I love Bruce Springsteen at the moment!

Oh no someone just turned up the TV and now I can´t hear it!

Anyway, the food was ace. I ate a wonderful moist veggie pattie with homemade ketchup and aji salsa (a hot sauce), roast vegetables, and a wee serve each of a tabouleh kind of salad with roast sunflower seeds, a potato salad and a lentil and olive salad. It was all wholesome and flavoursome and nutritious and lovely, just the way vegetarian food should be, none of this grilled halmoumi in pomegranate molasses served in the centre of an enormous plate crap. And all that for about $6! Who´s complaining? NOT ME.

Okay so after lunch we decided to go to the contemporary art museum. That was fun! The only bummer was that there was only one exhibition there. It was a photography exhibition, a bunch of guys (also: gals) from Spain - I think that was the only common thread. My favourite piece was a set of photos from anonymous cities. The interesting thing was that the photos showed absolutely no signs of life - no cars on the roads, no people, no abandoned shopping carts. I have no idea how the artist managed that. They were fantastic, though, all stark and creepy like deserts but with skyscrapers instead of cacti.

THENNNNNN we went to another gallery! It was a magnificent edifice, my goodness. Quite a knockout and with a brilliant chandelier. They had a nice mix of modern and older art on each floor, but the wackiest part of all was on the tiny, dark creepy little top story - I was admiring a sketchy series of dreamlike images, almost lke a comic, when I checked the artist and realised it was a Picasso. Nice one! Almost all of the other work was by artists from Còrdoba or Buenos Aires, so it was quite a surprise to see the little guy jumping out of nowhere. All that for three pesos! I´m not complaining.

Boy, I really enjoy art galleries. They are nice places to wander about.

Tonight Ro and I are going to venture out in the rainy streets and party a little! It´s been a while since we´ve been out. We are fairly eager to find the reggae club in town for purposes of busting sweet moves. Reggae clubs are pretty fun, I am starting to discover.

No one´s emailed me for a while so hurry up you terrible friends.

Love Caroline!