Sierras de Córdoba

Having whipped out 2 papers just in time for deadline late Friday afternoon, I was packed and ready for my first "weekend excursion" of study abroad: Córdoba, Argentina. Córdoba is the second largest city in the country (after Buenos Aires of course) located in the geographic center of Argentina and known for its architecture. I was mostly excited to be done with the papers, and away from the stresses of work and school in Buenos Aires.

Arguably the most comfortable
chair I have sat in in months

We arranged to take a long distance bus that would get us to Córdoba in about ten hours, overnight. And I promise that this won't be another post about buses, but this bus was crazy comfy. Never before have I legitimately enjoyed transportation (perhaps with the exception of catchphrase filled road trips to dance competitions). The chairs were comfortable, leather, and reclined 180˚. We were served dinner, shown a movie (in English, with Spanish subtitles), lolled to sleep with the rocking of the bus, and awoken with food in the morning, breakfast in bed style.

Being the second largest city, I didn't expect my weekend in Córdoba to be too different from BA, but there is a huge disparity in size as well as atmosphere. In terms of metropolitan areas, Buenos Aires is home to about 13 million people, while the Córdoba area houses about 1.5 million (not even bigger than KC!). The air was fresher, the streets were quieter and emptier, and the city was physically smaller and easier to navigate.

But the best difference was the sierras, small mountain ranges that surround the city. Aside from getting a terrible sunburn that limited my physical activity for the next two days, hiking in the sierras was one of my favorite experiences here so far. Apart from my family's roots being in Iowa, I've mostly considered myself a city girl, and I didn't realize that I would miss just driving through roads surrounded by grass. It was refreshing to just be out of a jungle of tall buildings, surrounded by busy people and crazy traffic. I feel like my experience in the sierras is best shown through pictures, so I'll stop writing here and let you see for yourselves.