Homeless

We slept in the car in the town where Che Guevara spent his adolesence. The town is called Alta Gracia and is about 100 km away from Cordoba. Parked by some houses on some road we were awoken by barking dogs and some mean man who knocked on the window at 3 a.m and told us we couldn't park there. We drove off to park near the freeway where we slept til 8 a.m. By this point we were so close to Cordoba we drove into the city to return the car undamaged. The only extra cost was 32 ARS because the tank was only 5/8 instead of 6/8 full. Damn! So here we homeless and tired with our luggage and no place to stay and a 200 ARS fine we aquired driving with the lights off in the freeway by day... So we did our best to figure out which bank to go to. It was hell. We went to 6 different banks with our luggage til we reached the right one. It was the first of the month and consequently everyone wanted to pay their taxes and pick up their retirement checks and so on... so as you can imagine... the line was HUGE. I waited an hour in the tax/fine payers line.

We left our luggage at the bus station and left to find a place a place for lunch.
We were pretty beat after sleeping in the car. After lunch we fell asleep on some benches in a nice area. There was a fountain infront of us and it felt nice to hear water dripping while drifting off to sleep. The area we were at used to be a womens prison. Stefan was the only one who didn't sleep because he decided to study for his exam coming up. It was such a gorgeous, hot summer day. We really enjoyed just laying there in the peace and quiet. When we finally regained some energy we walked back into the city center to look for some ice cream. We ended up buying postcards and finding a cafe to write the postcards in, instead.
(If you want a postcard send me your address...ehem Ale and Mom)
When we were done writing postcards we went out in search of ice cream. The boys can´t go to an ice cream parlor without ordering dulce de leche ice cream. I really enjoy the fact that they appreciate it so much.
The we shopped around a bit too. Stefan found a really nice argentinian Rugby shirt (which reminded me of Ale when I saw it) and he bought it. It looks really good on him and brings out his blue eyes. Hehehe. It´s true!

We went out in search of a bar for some beer and some card games. We ended up almost accross the place where we had had our nap before. Throughout the trip we played Remmi and Scheisskopf (our favorites) all the time in bars and any place we had the chance. It was getting late and we started heading for the bus terminal to take our bus to B.A., when Stefan discovered a Pollo Parrilla! I had been eyeing those Chicken bbq joints when I was still too sick to eat any. I think that's a specialty of Cordoba. We took some chicken to go with chimi churri (sp?) sauce and lemon.
It was soo good. Amazing! Too bad we don´t make this here in Uruguay.
We ate the chicken with our hands at the bus terminal and literally licked them clean. Our bus left at 22:00 and was even more comfortable than the first bus.
The seats were wider and the buses were brand new. We slept the whole 10 hrs to Buenos Aires and were pretty startled when we arrived. We were the last ones off the bus when it arrived at 7 a.m.

We hadn't reserved a hostel so we headed out to our familiar one Hostel Suites Pallermo, which we had satayed at the first 3 nights in B.A. We took the subway to the hostel and were disappointed to find out they were full for the night. They sent us to the Backpackers Tango Hostel just a couple of blocks away. We paid our dues, filled out the forms and enjoyed the benefit of using the showers! I think by this this point it had been 3 days for me... 2 days for the boys since our last showers.
I felt pretty gross! I really like this hostel. It is well organized and has enough bathrooms and showers for their capacity which is not what I can say for other hostels (*cough* Cordoba Backpackers). I give this hostel 4 stars... and only 4 cause the staff was a bit... ehm rude? Well not as attentive as in Hostel Suites Pallermo... where the staff is pretty cool.
I am thinking about working at a hostel maybe in the near future... I think it would be fun!

After getting ourselves together and storing our luggage we left to go in search of a rain jacket for me and a retro argentinian jersey for Stefan's dad, the kind Maradonna wore in 1986.
I finally found the kind of jacket I had been looking for since the trip began. It even cost half of what I was willing to spend. I was happy!
Happy and content we ended up having a great lunch at a "green" restaurant where they lay great inportance in fresh ingredients. Stefan and I had a gucamole-chicken burrito each, which were delicious. Andi had some sandwhich with brie, sun dried tomatoes, rucola and prosciutto.
We played some cards and then soon after we found the jersey Stefan wanted for a great price. Afterwards it was all about killing time.
- Botanical Garden (sooo beautiful with kitty cats all over!! The boys were woken up by security guards for sleeping on the benches).
- Bar & beer on the way to the Japanese Gardens, where we played cards.
- Japanese Gardens (not so spectacular), more card games
- Hostel to settle in and pack up
- Parrilla goodbye dinner at Estillo Criollo (yummy!!!)
- Sleepy time