Cordoba

Cordoba was certainly a mixture of highs and lows for me. On arrival were too early for checking in so it was necessary to wait around for a while until the room was ready. Once ready we dropped our stuff in the room to find that we were sharing with 4 Australian guys who all turned out to be great guys and good fun to get to know. I decided that since it was a nice day I’d go for a walk and explore the city a little and walking round I didnt like it so much compared to Mendoza. Many of the buildings were similar to those in Sao Paolo in that they were shabby, dirty, crmbling high rise builidngs although nothing could have prepared me for the fabulous churches and cathedrals in the central area of the city. Here there were many old colonial buildings and having the oldest university in the country meant that all the campus buidlngs were beautifuklly constructed and old style architecture and the cathdral near by was by far the best one Ive seen so far in South America which when lit up at night, along with the cathedral near the square were absolutely magnificent builkdings. I was soon in love with Cordoba and the beautiful ladies everywhere you turned definitely helped.

 It had such a young and studenty vibe and a fantastic night life so for me it was up there as one of the best places Ive been so far for sure. Lee and I visited a funky modern art museum (there were many museums in the city but unfortunately that was the only one I got to), then I walked to the park and went to the zoo which was enjoyable. There was one huge setback to my enjoyment of this great place and that came on day 2. I had heard from people in Mendoza that it was possible to go skydiving in Cordoba so with the you only live once feeling in my stomach I decided that it had to be done. After booking at the hostel, the guys there were party animals and one of them from Mexico was cooking Mexican food for the group as it was his last day before he left to go back home. Everyone decided that we would go to a club afterwards which we did and knowing I had to get up early for the skydive the next day was constantly playing on my mind so I headed back after a session of attempting salsa dancing with a local girl and laughing at the aussies all trying and failing so I headed back at the relatively early time of 4am all ready for skydiving at 8! Getting up the next day was obviously a struggle but I managed to get breakfast and then began the long long wait! If someone tells you a time in Argentina, they never mean literally that time, its always an hour or two later. When he told me 8.30 real time what he really meant was 12.30 in Argenitean time. Then you have to compensate for the fact that they are more than likely going to be late so I spent the majoirty of the day waiting. Eveytime I asked it was10 -15 minutes. As the hours passed I was getting more and more frustrated. Whilst waiting I decided to lock my computer and ipod in a locker and have it them charging. An Israeli couple arrived in our room but the girl didnt want to stay in there becuase she didnt like the shower (or lack of), one could say it was more just a shower head. Anyway so I chatted to the guy for a bit, he seemed like a nice and genuine guy and we laughed and joked about how dodgy the lockers were and how easy it would be to get into them even with a padlock. I locked up the computer thinking nothing of it and went downstrs in the hope that the guy might finally arrive. He finally arrived at around 3pm and off we went. He looked like he was in a bad mood and I was thinking to myself that I should be the one in the mood having waited all day for him so very few words were exchanged between us. We picked up 3 Israelis from another hostel and then off we went. On arrival, there were 4 or 5 others all also Israelis (dont know what it is about the Israleis but there are an awful lot of them here in South America now). Anyway so we got there and I find that we had to go one by one so we were going to have a long wait with so many people going up. Luckliy they had a ping pong table there so I enjoyed giving all the Israelis a good whipping. One even challenged me to a game to see who would go up first and I duly thrashed him. Just as it was coming up to my turn, typically the weather began to turn and a huge thunder cloud was forming on the horizon so that was the end of our hopes for doing it that day! After having waitied all day to do this jump when I could have slept in for a little longer or done another actvity we were sent back to the hostels in a taxi and told we could do it at 7.30am which obviously meant 9 at the earliest in Argie time. This made me very frustrated so on returning to the hostel I thought Id check my emails and facebook on my netbook. In the room, the first thing I noticed was the padlock combination had changed as I remembered what I had left it on for ease of reference to the code which I found very strange and somewhat worrying. On opening the locker I found nothing except the charger lead. The ipod lead had been placed on the knob of the locker below. Maldicion!! Where the hell were they!!

Someone had somehow got into my locker by cracking the code, it’s the only possible way they could have done it as there was nothing broken and no forced entry. This just turned my bad day into the worst day ever giving me a headache I really didnt need! After some time freaking out about what to do, I headed to the police with Willy (one of the staff at the hostel) and we gave a statement to a very nice young policwoman who spoke perfect English. Feeling gutted, depressed and just generally exhasusted I headed back to the hostel (even though I didnt want to as I felt that now I couldnt trust anyone)but still kept a brave face and actually had a good night with everyone in the end and got a relatively early night (still about 1am) in preparation for the early morning skydive.

Waking up the next day i looked at my watch and saw it was 10am but wasnt too worried as I knew they probably would be late and it was raining so it was more than likley not happening today so I just resigned to the fact that my skydive wasnt happening unless the rain cleared up. I decided that today Iwas going to go and buy a new replacement hopefully cheap netbook but after trapsing through what seemed like every electical store in the city (at least 15-20 stores) in the pouring rain, I realized that I was going to have to pay over the odds (actually more than i paid in the UK) and in the end bought exactly the same one without Windows 7 even, for more money but it was utterly necessary in my view, I couldnt live without it!!

I felt slightly appeased but at the same time depressed at having to spend all that money so I decided that I was going to drown my sorrows at Willy’s barbecue and afterwards go to Studio Teatro, the club that the Dutch girl had told me about. After the barbecue having met some great people, around me were French, Spanish, Australian, American, English, South African and Israeli (the thief couldve been amongst them for all i knew) we went to the club which was fantastic and highly recommendible especially getting in for free. This was the closest I’d heard to proper dance music I’d heard since being in SA and I thouroughly enjoyed the night, the music and the comapny although it wasnt til around 5am when we left and then we stayed up a little while back at the hostel just chatting. Finally getting to bed around 6.30 I thought I just have to get up to watch Chelsea at 12. Next thing I know it’s 11am and the cleaner is knocking on the door saying check out now. Nick (the aussie in our room) jumped up saying shit i have a bus to catch in half an hour so he and I were both frantically packing and gettin washed as I we should have both checked out an hour ago! Since most of the staff were with us the previous night I thought to myself that they should understand. Whilst pakcing up one of the staff memebers came up and told me that skydiving was on and they were coming for me in an hour so I was even more frantic thinking I can#t possibly I’m still drunk and have barely had sleep but foolishly simply nodded and agreed. Having packed quickly and watched the first half of Chelsea. The guy turned up and picked me and 3 Israeli girls up who I had got to know alittle so it was better than last time when I was with complete strnagers who I didnt evne know! Halfway there I relaised I just had flip flops on but the guy said Id be ok! When we arrived, I was still feeling like a zombie, god knows what the guys working there mustve thought! I was told that since I had to leave for the bus at 5 that I would be first!! So off I went to get ready, feeling out of it. I couldnt believe I was doing this, in the state I was in but perhaps it would be easier as it didnt feel real! I was really not in the mood or looking my besy for being filmed which they do from start to finsih of your jump for a DVD they give you at the end but I tried my best to smile and put on a brave face! Once all kitted up I was ready to go. It was a beautiful day and as we climbed I could clearly see the city of Cordoba in all its glory, the moutnains in the distance and fields for miles and miles! It was alot greener than I expected, they must get alot of rain or irrigate the place pretty well! After gaining height for around 15 minutes I began getting nervous, I knew the drill as Id been told it twice now since this was my second visit and I was just going over and over it in my mind, 5 mins before jump swivel round and put your bum upand sit on his lap while he connects you both together, then when the cameraman opens the door, shuffle towards it, hang your legs out to the right, do not grab anything in the plane, just dangle your legs and cross your arms and on 3 jump or prepare for him to jump. When in the air, arch your back and pull your legs up so your heels are to his arse and keep the arms crossed until he taps your shoulder! Easy peasy J. When he told me to swivel I started to get nervous but once in the air, I was ok, it was the craziest thing I;d ever done but I loved it and wasnt that scared. The freefall felt amazing and he told me that I did it very well, just as he’d explained which made me feel good but on watching the DVD afterwards I did look a little clumsy at times in my shorts, tshirt and bare feet! I loved the coming down slowly in the parachute most of all as it was sheer relief that I had made it and the parachute had opened properly. He even said look how well the parachute opened which made me wonder if it didnt open that well every time! The scenery below was beautiful and the weather just perfect with not a cloud in the sky and when he pulled on the parachute cord to direct us I loved the accelration into the warm wind. After a perfect landing I just couldnt stop smiling I was so pleased I had done it and it still felt like a dream. It was the most scary but exhilirating thing Id ever done and thoroughly worth while. I’d defintely do it again but from higher and with a group would be preferable next time. Oh and to be more prepared myself of course! On return to the hostel I find that Chelsea had won 4-1 and so I was extra happy although unfortunately in typical fashion, arsenal scored in the last minute in their game to beat Hull which wasnt so good. Now it was time to leave and head to our next desitnation, the city of Rosario which I hadnt heard much about apart from it was the birthplace of |Che Guevara and the place where the Argentine flag was designed and riased for the first time (and that there was a big monument put up to commemorate this).

I was going to miss Cordoba for sure, I did very much enjoy being in the city very much and met some great people and had some good times especially at night but obviously the theft of my belongings has somewhat tainted my view of the place but thats not the fault of the city, just an individual(s) who clearly have no respect for other people or their possesions. I just hope that there is such a thing as karma and they get what’;s coming to them!

Overall, Cordoba’s historic buidlings, nice young, friendly people and great nightlife made it one of my favourite cities so far and so after Mendoza and Cordoba, Rosario has a lot to live up to! Let’s hope it does!