Purplelake: Day 15 – Jul 6, 2019 Cordoba (really), Argentina

Turned out all that warning to arrive 2 hours before our boarding time of 7:30a (for 8:15a flight) is BS. We zoomed past check-in, got our taxi expenses reimbursed, had our breakfast (again fixed at 2 croissants plus coffee or tea), walked through security, and waited for 1.5 hours at the gate for boarding. Cordoba is only 1h flying time from Buenos Aires. It is the second biggest city in Argentina but feels totally different. From the airport arrival to taking a taxi, the pace is a lot more relaxed. After checking in the apartment hotel (very nice and spacious), we set out on a compressed city tour since we now only had one day in Cordoba.

July 6 is Argentina’s national holiday. Although many tourist places were still open, some star attractions took the opportunity to close up. This caught many tourists by surprise. The Manzana Jesuitica (the Jesuit Block), one of the star attractions that includes the oldest university in the country and the old Jesuit church Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus all closed up shop. We managed to walk through the neighborhood and still absorbed the atmosphere of the buildings. Luckily, many other sites still opened as scheduled. Among them is Parroquia Sagrado Corazon de Jesus de los Capuchinos (the Church of Jesus’s Sacred Heart). This church is quite impressive with many statues decorating its façade.

Remember this scenery? Honocal - used as Aerolineas Argentina's background picture

Cordoba's landscape is quite different from Salta

The church of Jesus's Sacred Heart

Inside of this church reminds us of Mesquita Cathedral in Cordoba, Spain

Detailed statues decorated the facade of this church

Cordoba is an intellectual city filled with universities and museums. We visited the premium art museum Museo Superior de Bellas Artes Evita next located in a very fancy old mansion. Their ticket includes admission to two other museums nearby: Museo Emilio Caraffa (dedicated to modern visual arts by some famous local artists) and Museo Provincial Palacio Dionisi (dedicated to photography arts). The city park and zoo were all located closed by and we could see many locals walking their dogs there. Argentinians love their dogs but unfortunately, this means you have to be constantly on the watch for dog sh-t when you are walking on the sidewalk. We had our first taste of the much vaulted Argentinian ice-cream when we walked inside a haledo (ice-cream specialty shop) to order two cones. Unfortunately, like many places we had been on this trip, none of the young women store clerks there spoke any English. After much google translating and hand-signals and broken Spanish and English, we had our passion fruit/pineapple and peach/cherry cones. They were really good as advertised and very affordable.

Museum Square in Cordoba

Fine Art Museum of Cordoba

Very stately mansion inside

Used to belong to a rich doctor

Few young people shouting slogans and protesting along the street

Entrance to Museo Emilio Caraffa. Looks quite avant garde already, isn't it?

Interesting visual art

Made with colorful ribbons. Hey, we can replicate this at home too...

Out of nowhere we saw this striking structure next to the zoo

Plus a building with a curving roof

that shaped like a race track

Very good ice cream from specialty parlours called haledo in Argentina

Plaza San Martin is a scenic old square where the city cathedral and other historic buildings are located. On this sunny and relatively warm afternoon, locals and tourists were just relaxing and soaking in the sunshine. Nearby, we chanced upon blocks and blocks of pedestrian shopping streets. Most of the shops were closed due to the holiday but I could imagine how busy this whole area would be when it’s business as usual. We had another famous Argentinian snack in a local hot dog shop – Choripan. It’s essentially a local version of hot dog – chorizo (pork sausage) + pan (bread bun). We were not too impressed with this choripan. It tasted more like a regular hot dog.

We decide to order a takeout pizza for dinner from a well-known pizza shop. Contrary to many tour guidebook recommendation, the pizza we had was not up to standard. Crust was way too thick and there was not enough sauce.