Abandoned train in Cordoba looking slightly resemblance to the Russian train used in the film Goldeneye.
my favourite piece of art on the trip a photograph.
flowers litter the streets of buenos aires.
An advertisement for ferret branca, the drink of choice for Argentinians.
Back to Canada. After 7.5 months travelling I finally returned home to Canada. It was a whirlwind adventure of a lifetime my travels. I learned Spanish and I made so many friends along the way. Part of me now longs to find a career that would allow me to travel. Also to not forget my Spanish I hope to practice. The continent of South America is so beautifully. The people, dance, food and music. One day I hope to return.
The province of Cordoba is quite a beautiful place. It has the landscape of Manitoba for me. Lots of beautiful rivers and streams. The only difference is there are some small mountains and ceros. Certain parts of the province are more tropical. I understand why Joel Balm said that it reminds him of Costa Rica.
Before leaving Canada I was Reading another Canadians Travel blog (Joel). He mentioned a place called Playa Los Hippies where you can go and camp for free.
I took the bus from Cordoba to Cuesta Blanca. From there I walked for half an Hour to the town of Diquicitos. From there I walked another half an hour over a small mountain and down to the beautiful beach.
Sign in Diquicitos signalling Playa Los Hippies.
View of the beach as I walk down the mountain. It is a joke amongst the hippies at the beach to make a play on words of the town Cuesta Blanca and call the área Costa Blanca, for its beautiful Green scenery similar to Costa Rica.
River Selfie.
These kids are 17 and live in Cordoba. I was camping near them. They are very crafty and Smart. They make popcorn with tin cans and can turn pop bottles into a variety of different inventions. If Cordoba were ever to discover oil they have some great thinkers that would make good engineers.
This is my friend Juan. He lives at Playa Los Hippies permanently. He showed up to the beach with just a shirt and his shoes and he has groundscored all of his possesions. Asado grills, pots, pans, coolers, a lawn chair, two tents and even adopted a stray beach dog named Angor that now lives in his tent. Juan has everything but he did lose his shoes. He has a newborn baby on the way and plans to bring the baby to Playa Los Hippies and live there permanently with his family. He is the best backcountry cook I have ever met. He made a variety of different food that he gladly shared with me. Curries, Polento and once even coffee that he made from a special tree bark. It was amazing!
Juans camp with his Beach dog Angor.
Me and my tent.
Cuddles with Angor the dog who also has a baby on the way with his Beach Wife Dog. His favorite activity is going with Juan to collect firewood. Juan is very insistent that people help him collect firewood because everyone spends time in the night around his fire and he uses the fire to cook for people. I went with him one day. It takes about half an hour to traverse the mountain and get to the spot with lots of deadfall. From there he carries about 30 kg of Wood down. It was so heavy I could only carry for about 3 minutes before I dropped the Wood. But Juan runs with it down the mountain without a problem barefoot Wood on back.
Left (Juan), middle my travel Sister Leia, and right my other travel sister Leila. I keep meeting up with these girls on my travels. In San Pedro de Attacames in Chile, in Valpraiso Chile we all volunteered in a hostel, in Mendoza for a couple days and again in Cordoba. Here we are walking out with Juan to catch the bus home. It turns out that today Christina Kirchner the President of Argentina was making a speech and when that happens the country shuts down. There was no bus, we couldnt go home. We turned around, bought three boxes of wine, and returned to the beach to share our wine with all the broke ass hippies. One more night at Playa Los Hippies. No one was dissapointed. And Juan was so happy to have us as company camping in his sight/home.
All in all I spent about a week at Playa Los Hippies. I went on two separate times during my 2.5 weeks in the province of Cordoba. There is definitely a lot of hippies there. Different types of hippies: hippies with money, hippies without money, backwoods hippies, punk hippies, and rasta hippies (Juan).
At one point I made a day trip to Alta Gracia, the home of Che Guevera. I actually went to his childhood house that has been converted into a museum.
Here is the pedal bicycle with small engine that he used to go on his first trip across South America. This was before the trip profiled in the movie Motorcyle Diaries.
The fake Passport Che used to gain entry into Bolivia, the journey that led to his demise. I used my fake student ID card to get a discount into the museum. After seeing this Passport I realized that maybe me and Che arent so different.
Statue of Che.
Up Next I headed to Villa Maria, Cordoba to see a Manu Chao Concert. Manu Chao is from Spain/France but he is living in Argentina for the summer. In my travels throughout South America I felt that Manu Chao is probably the most popular Rock/Reggae Artist right now. In Chile and Argentina especially they are so popular amongst youth and hippie types. His lyrics combine French, English and Spanish.
The town of Villa Maria is very beautiful. Many modern cutting edge architectural projects like this bridge.
Fishermen stand on the bridge and lower nets to catch fish.
Me and my friends getting ready to go to the manu chao concert. Left Lucy from France. Next Charlie from Villa Maria, he lives at the hostel so he can hit on girls from Europe. And Natalya from Cordoba/San Luis who just also happened to be at Playa Los Hippies and then I saw her again at the hostel for Manu Chao. i have said it before and i will say it again, the best part for me about travelling is running into the same people and friends along the way.
A video from the Manu Chao concert. I did not make this one that is why it is so good.
The concert was the best I have ever been to in my life. So much energy from the crowd and manu chao made sure everyone was involved. The concert lasted about 2.5 hours and Manu Chao made to encores. It took place in the Villa Maria Amphitheater, a huge Brand new venue right on the river.
A lot of people have been asking me how to hitchike from Mendoza to Cordoba and avoid having to pay the 500 pesos for a bus. Argentina is a hard place to hitchhike. Its not like Canada where you have the number one highway that runs across the country and is your best option. In Argentina, there are endless amounts of highways that splits the traffic up into all sorts of different directions and picking the right one where you will find a ride is hard. I picked the wrong one but it was what god willed and it led to a great adventure.
First you have to leave the city of Mendoza. A city of three million people in Argentina is hard to leave because its sooooo big. Plus the outskirt towns are usually flavalas and not safe to try and hitch a ride. So I paid 180 pesos and took a bus to the next big town in San Luis.
In San Luis there was a giant street market and food was cheap so i ate.
I also bought my first musical instrument in many years a small electronic piano for 30 pesos. I stayed in Pupy Hostel which is definitely the best hostel in all of San Luis. Owned by Italians and a luxury house converted into a hostel with a big backyard. There had been a bmx tournament in town and i became friends with some of the best bmx riders in the country. Ezequiel Helmriech from Villa General Belgrano, Cordoba was one of those guys and he had won the tournament that weekend. Check out this vid he made:
He is only 18 years old and in a special school for youth in sports. He wishes he didnt have to go to school and could just practice BMX all day long. But in the end he told me about all sorts of cool projects he works on in school and he enjoys.
From San Luis I took another bus to Merlo. 75 pesos. Except I lost my ticket and had to pay twice so 150 pesos. Again San Luis is a big city and a hard one to get to the outskirts so I paid for a bus. I ended up in Merlo which is a touristy town in San Luis Province Argentina. I ended up staying here two nights.
Merlo Phone Booth
Hippy Baclyard in Merlo
Unfortunately there was no Merlot Wine. So after two days I had no more reason to stay. Off next to hitchhike to Cordoba. From the town of Merlo I had to take a public bus to the highway costing 10 pesos. I waited there for much time with no luck. There were no cars and the cars that were going by did not stop. After about an hour, and nearly about to quit, a guy stopped and took me to the next town. He was a chocolate salesman. In the next town I had to walk for about half an hour to the next edge of town and another guy gave me a ride to the next town. At this pace I was never going to make it to Cordoba... just crawling across the country town by town.
After buying a avocados, bread and cheese and having a good lunch I got to the side of the road and stuck out my thumb. When a guy stopped and offered to bring me to the next town, I turned him down. I wanted to go far! People kept coming by and telling me I had a bad spot and I should go back into the middle of town. But I didn´t quit. Eventually someone stopped in a pimped out 1969 Ford Mustang.
My saviour! He was going all the way to the town right before Cordoba. He was on summer vacation and driving back to Buenos Aires over the course of two days. Just my luck! It turns out he owns a tango bar in Buenos Aires that I really wanted to visit... Catedral. He gave me a card for free entrance with a plus one.
Along the way we drove through some beautiful mountains with great views. It was a beautiful summer day.
I made it to the town of Alta Gracia (home of Che Guevera) where he dropped me off and I had to pay another 20 pesos to take the bus to downtown Cordoba. In total I paid 360 pesos on transportation, not including piano, food and hostels. It was expensive yes but it was an adventure and I got to see many small towns along the way that many tourists pass over when travelling. But I wouldn´t suggest hitchhiking as a way to save money. Just a way to see the country differently.
Many people asked me how I got vortexed into Mendoza, Argentina for 2.5 weeks. Its not the most fun city. There's no night life like Buenos Aires and Cordoba. Its so friggin hot at about 38 degrees on a bad day. But I found this city quite charming. The Wine Festival was going on and there was lots to see and do. And about five times I made delicious asado with friends from the hostel. Always I was the Asador (the cook). In Mendoza, rather than using Carbon, they always use wood which you light on fire and wait an hour for it to turn into coals. Sometimes the process of starting the fire and cooking the meat can take up to three hours. One Asado we didnt even eat until 1am.
Me and my French Canadian Brother Jules. Jules visited Oshawa, Ontario for work last year. He loves Canada and often wears his Canadian Hoodie. He is in Mendoza for the next six months to study. We both showed up to the same hostel on the same night and after that Asados and good times galore. I am wearing my Mickey Mouse Golf Club Shirt. Its not a real Golf League, just a Mickey Mouse League. But I am an official member.
Ampy from Usuya. Works in a refugio near Mendoza. She invited me up to the refugio for a couple days with her friends. Very relaxed. Drank fernet and cooked asado and had dance parties in the refugio until wee hours of the early morn. Unforuntately there was lots of clouds so I couldnt see too much of the mountains. Vallecitos Mountain REfugio is the name of the place.
On the walk out from the Refugio beautiful trees, rivers and streams...oh how i love you Argentina.
Back to Mendoza and the Wineries. This one is famous and has been around for more than 100 years. Very good high quality wines if you get a chance to drink them. They wanted 80 pesos for the tour and the tasting but in the end we didnt pay... Nieto Senetiner you just got out-gypsied. You have to try their Tardia Semillion which you can buy in the grocery stores in Carrefour. Their Malbec is to-die-for as well... of course.
Family loaded up in back of truck to head down to Plaza Independencia and check out the free concert.
Here is footage of the party:
Just Relaxing in the Carrefour Grocery store having a picnic in the lawn furniture section with my friends Yohan (france), Clara (BsAs) and Lea (France).
Here at Lopez Winery, the trucks roll up with grapes and are weighed. The driver is paid for how many grapes he brings.
The Door to Bodega Lopez. Huge winery and 100% of the wine is dranken here in Argentina.
Just a few of the grapes.
These casks full of wine can hold up to 15,000 Liters.
Here the wine is bottled by robots.
A street protest one fine Friday in Mendoza. Lots of these, the people in Argentina are so political.
24/7 non stop electro techno pool party beginning at Noon. Unfortunately the hostel staff kicked us out from behind the bar. This was at Banana hostel. A great place in Mendoza with nightly dinners, a pool and very friendly and fun staff.
The beer truck sits unnattended for anyone to come up and steal the beer. This proves how safe of a place Argentina is.
Bike Lanes are not made for pigeons. Not the most bicycle friendly city in Mendoza. Not too many bike lanes. A decent place for skateboarding though. Everything is on a slight grade and you can cruise until your hearts desire.
What to do when the hostel beer is too expensive and nobody has the energy to go on a wine tour. Make youur own tasting day. Everyone brought a bottle and we sampled many different delicious wines. Fabian on the right is a professional wine Maker from Switzerland so naturally he was our Tasting Leader.
All in all, Mendoza is a great place. Imagine the Okanagon of BC in a giant Metropolis with rich history and beautiful parks, plazas and archictecture.
Before starting this trip the one thing I was very excited about was seeing Mount Aconcagua... more than Machu Pichu. I knew I would not be able to hike it though because it takes up to 21 days with acclimitazation and costs roughly $2000 for a permit, not including donkeys and gear. That being said I needed to lay my eyes upon this beast. At roughly 7000m tall it is over 3km higher than Mount Robson (the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies). And only less than 2000m shorter than Everest. It is the tallest mountain in the Americas and also the tallest mountain not in the Himalayas. My adventure started when I left Valpraiso for Los Andes in Chile.
In Los Andes I found a nice hotel named Arunco. I told the owner Patricio my plan to make camping near Aconcagua and he was intrigued. There was no free rooms in his hotel, but he was very nice and let me sleep on a spare bed in a room that they usually dont rent out... for free.
From Los Andes I hitchiked to the frontier of Argentina (in the picture above following the arrow to Mendoza). It took three different rides from three different truckers and they dropped me off in a small town called Horcones just barely in Argentina. From here I was close to the mountain.
Me waiting for a ride at the Argentinian border.
Horcones was a small town with not a lot to do and very boring. But i had to rent a hostel here for a night. Hostel Nico is 150 pesos and offers great breakfast.
The markets in Horcones attract drivers making the haul from Valpraiso to Mendoza and vice versa.
Street dog lounges.
This natural sulphuric bridges has been used since the time of the Incas. A British company did build a hotel here in 1905 and you can see the remnants. The hotel was destroyed by a rock slide in the 1960's and abandoned. This is also a tourist site in Horcones.
The town of Horcones itself is at 3000m and some of the regular mountains nearby are beheamoths too. This one isnt even Aconcagua.
This one is Aconcagua! Every morning in summer you can see it clearly but by afternoon it starts to get cloudy.
I made it. Its difficult to deal with the bureacracy of getting into Aconcagua when coming from Chile. First you have to do your paperwork for leaving Chile. Then about a 100km later you have to do your paperwork for entering Argentina. Then you have to turn around 3km and go backwards to the park entrance to Aconcagua.
What a fucking beast man!!!
So big I cant believe my eyes.
And other beautiful greenery and lagunes nearby. This laguna is called Laguna Horcones. For 20 pesos you can go here for the day and walk around and explore. If you want to make Camping for 1-3 days it will cost you 200 dollars American. Because its late in the vacation and I have lack of funds I chose the first option.
