Road Trip - Cordoba

Well, we left Rosario hoping for greener pastures. Rosario was nice but not that interesting.

Arriving in Cordoba by way of some sort of backroad really dropped our opinions of the city until we got to its centre. We think we missed the propper turn-off to the centre. Our turnoff was a "turn off". It put us through shadier looking areas where garbage pickup must not be included - garbage lined ditched as far as the eye can see. Once we got on this road it really felt like we were going the wrong way but I figured that if we kept following the river, we couldn't help but end up at the centre. This turned out to be rather intelligent though I wasn't feeling very bright at the time. We didn't have a map except what is in the guide book which only covers the city centre.


We arrived at our "boutique" hotel and were relatively impressed......until we got to the room. It was a good size but was really poorly finished. I am fussy about this kind of stuff. I hate seeing poor workmanship because it is just a waste of resources. You can't help but think "this stuff is going to last only a few years because they didn't install it well". Sloppy painting and poor choices in materials just cost more in the long run.

They were working on the hotel, which has potential. They had installed a pool on what was a beautiful rooftop patio but the pool was so cloudy you couldn't see the bottom. We actually care for our health so we opted to not go in the pool. A word of advice to other travelers, boutique, when it comes to hotels, is not quite the same as how boutique is used to describe a precious little clothing store where your honey got that special little something. In this case, it really refers to "we want our hotel to sound cute yet sophisticated". Additionally, "we're going to put nice stuff in the lobby so that the internet photos make it look incredible and fool you into thinking this place is wonderful". I shouldn't be so sarcastic because it was a pretty decent place but it did have the character of being thrown together like one of those modern art pictures everyone loves to make fun of.

Cordoba is more refined and significantly more attractive than Rosario (though Rosario had a really nice river front and some very nice parks). The streets are nicer and the city centre is cleaner and more open.

The population is about 20% students and this plays a major role in it's economy and character. As a result, it is likely far less prone to economic problems than the other cities are and that is reflected in it's greater appeal. With numerous universities, you will always have students and you will always have culture. It is the student town in Argentina and has, though not readily visible, a vibrant nightlife. We witnessed the anecdotal evidence - groups of girls dressed in unbelievably skimpy outfits strutting the streets with their high heels on a saturday night. They were walking to get somewhere and dressed to make men drule.

I think the culture and life in Cordoba would be great but you've got to be able to break into it. People here don't speak much english and so you're going to have to learn spanish if you wanted to really have a good time here.

That said, Cordoba still lacks that special something to make it irresistable. There is nothing that grabs you and there's very little to do - the buildings and architecture are what you go for. And, you can just slow down and enjoy your time out of the fast land. Cordoba is a more relaxed and quiet place than B.A. Once you've done that, you leave and enjoy the many places the country side offers.