Last Day

I've spent the last few days hanging out with my host family and packing. I can't believe we took this photo six months ago.

                                 

What an amazing adventure. I'm currently in love with the quote: 

How lucky am I to have had something that makes saying goodbye so hard.  

 ~Winnie the Pooh

Up next: Maine. Here I come! There's only 30 hours of planes and airports standing in my way. 

Day Three: Córdoba

Please pardon my oh-so-uncreative title. I'm tired. Anyway, day three in Córdoba was great. Basically we went to all the museums that were closed on Monday. I didn't really take all that many photos. Not mention photos of museums are probably not something you all wanna spend very much time looking at. The museums we visited were mostly art museums. Almost without exception that art was Argentine. About half of that was modern. That is about all you need to know about the art museums. Oh, and two of them were in stunning antique homes. The houses were incredible.

The more impactful* museum was the Memory Museum. This museum was built to honor the memories of the 30,000 people who were disappeared during Argentina's military dictatorship, which lasted from 1976-1983. This period was full of fear and terror. People were pulled from there beds by undercover military and police agents and brought to clandestine torture centers and concentration camps. These people owned the wrong books, were friends with the wrong people, asked the wrong questions or committed even less offensive acts. Pregnant women were kidnapped, the delivery of their babies was forced. The mothers were killed and the babies given to the families of political elites to adopt. People were drugged and dropped into the ocean with their stomachs cut open so that they would sink and not wash ashore. This museum was in a former detention center. It focused on the photos, like mug shots that were taken as people were brought in. Some of them blind folded. Some of them clearly injured. We saw the cells were people were held. The stairs they were forced to climb to be tortured. We saw the scrapbooks the families of those who died created to honor their memories. We saw the remnants of their lives in the form of dresses and guitars and swim-meet medals. We saw all of this. And yet there are people here who claim it didn't happen. People who claim that the only people killed were guerrilla fighters from the forested north. 1976-1983 was not that long ago. I have meet so many people who lived through this period of "nation reorganization." The reality is every single Argentine who is middle aged and older was on one side or the other during this terrible time.  


* There's a little red line telling me that's not a word and it doesn't go away if I add another "L." I'm leaving it there, because I cannot think of a better/real word to take its place. See sentence 2 in the first paragraph.

Capilla del Monte

On Tuesday, we went to see a bit of the landscape outside of the Córdoba.

We hiked here.

Climbed under here.

Saw views like this.

Climbed through this crack.

On the other side of the crack.

Worth the view.

Plus we ate empanadas after.

After climbing down we explored the area more and found this place.

Climbed up a bit and got this view.

There were these pretty birds.

Then there was this view.

Then we walked around the little town. I loved the way these bricks were painted.

There were some beautiful houses.

We made our way to the base of the mountain.

Also, there have apparently been some UFO sightings from this town.
It's a tourist draw. I couldn't not mention it.

Amazing Churches and Some Other Stuff

Monday was Carrie and my first day in Córdoba, second largest city in Argentina. Basically Cordoba is full of students (it is home to the first University in the Western hemisphere), churches, museums, and lomos (beef sandwiches). Because the museums were closed on Monday, we mostly explored churches on our first day in the city. The very first one was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in. As an added bonus, there was no one worshiping when we visited, which meant that I felt comfortable taking photos.

The absolute best part was getting this perspective.
There were open stairs to go to the top and look over the church from the front.

And then there was this building. We couldn't decided if it was a church or a shopping mall. It was actually a converted women's prison.

 More churches:

Jesuits have played a large role in the history of the city. We visited several building dedicated to the religious order. La manzana de los jesuitas was one such place.

 The original government building now serves as several museums and as a tourist info center. 

 

We also walked around the park a bit:

And visited a Jesuit crypt. It was lost until very recently when a telephone company discovered the ruins while installing new, underground lines: 

Argentina is lacking on the whole recycling thing. This art piece is trying to change that.







The coolest time line I have ever seen. Every year in the city's history has it's own circle.

We ended the day here. We thought maybe there was a slight chance that perhaps the name was an unfortunate accident. Then there was that red star on the menu and the benefit of the doubt went out the window.

    

Chacras

Carrie and I left for Córdoba Sunday night. Before that, I spent my time on Sunday well. Carrie, Catie, Rachael and I went to Chacras, a cute little town just outside of Mendoza. Every Sunday, local artists and antique dealers sell their goods on the square. It's lovely. Weather-wise, it might have been the worst day of the whole time I've been abroad. It was cold and precipitating. We're in a desert; that isn't supposed to happen. But with that exception, it was a beautiful day.

The church beside the square. It was little and simple.

Catie bought a hat.

I bought two mates. It's a shame I haven't posted about mate. It's a tea that is everywhere. People gather around mate. One person serves it and each person takes their turn drinking. The server finishes one serving first, refills and passes to the person beside them. That person finishes (and rather quickly) and returns the mate to the server. It gets refilled and passed to the next person. Repeat. When Christina (the president of Argentina) visited the newly elected Pope (also Argentine), she brought him a mate.