Personal Connections - The Best Part of our Travels

Hello Friends,


It's been far too long since our last post, this I recognize. However, we have been having an absolute blast on the European leg of our travels, which hasn't allowed for much downtime to pen our next story.  Suffice it to say, we've been having too much fun to stop and document the whole process :)

That being said, I was particularly touched by a recent interaction with a restaurant owner in Leuven, Belgium that I wanted to share with you as this, to me, encapsulates the best part of our travels - making personal connections and learning about how people live and exist within a city/country/culture.

We were dining recently at a fantastic Indian restaurant in Leuven called Masalatop and had the good fortune of meeting and being served by one of the proprietors, Bal.

Bal was particularly engaging, always with a huge smile and had a sincerity and curiosity about him that made for great conversation. It was also later in the night and with few tables left to attend to, he had time to engage us in discussion.

Like most people we've encountered in Europe, he politely asked where we're from, and we shared that we are from Seattle, Washington in the USA. That is typically as far as the conversation goes with most people.  However our inquisitive host Bal wanted to know more, asking how long we've been in Europe, where we've been, where we're going and how long we would be in Europe, why are we in Europe, etc. At this point, we typically consider the conversational door to be open to talk about our story and our travels, so we took the cue.

We shared with Bal that we've been on the road since February, traveled across most of South America, some of the U.S. and we had been in Europe about one month.  We also shared that we'd sold our house, our cars, most all of our stuff, quit our jobs and wanted to fulfill our desire to travel.

At this point Bal was enthralled.  You could sense that he had a genuine interest in our story and our motivations and told us how excited he was to know people like us that would take a look at the conventional thinking of risking all that we had worked for and cast it aside to fulfill our personal desires.

He then shared his brave story of leaving his family and moving from Nepal to Leuven in search of a better life.  He had found work in Indian/Pakistani restaurants in Belgium, learning the business and recipes as he went along and finally decided that he wanted something more for himself.

He loved and was inspired by some of America's business leaders like Elon Musk and Tony Robbins and wanted nothing more than to bet on himself and open his own restaurant.  Granted Elon Musk was born in South Africa and is a citizen of South Africa/Canada/U.S. and Tony Robbins is a motivational speaker, but his heart was in the right place and these were the first two that came to his mind.

He gathered a group of friends and opened Masalatop, only one year ago.  At the time we went, it was the 2nd highest rated restaurant of 297 in Leuven with 4.5 stars and 187 reviews on TripAdvisor.  Clearly he had made the right bet.


Throughout the night he would drop by our table, always sharing that huge smile on his face, and we would chat about his travels back to Nepal to see family or his aspirations to do more in the entrepreneur space as he mentioned that Masalatop was only "the beginning of an empire" for him.  He was a truly interesting guy with big motivations and a child-like curiosity that will undoubtedly take him far. You got the feeling that in good times and bad, he always tackled every day with a big smile. It was inspirational and heart warming.

After our meal, Bal gave us his card with his email and said he would love to hear from us, as he was inspired by our story and our courage to do what was right by us and not by what other people say that we should be doing.

We left the meal both physically and mentally fulfilled and talked a bit about it on the walk back to our place.


A few days passed and I still had his card in my pocket.  I found a free moment in the day and sent Bal an email saying how pleased we were with our evening at Masalatop and how much we enjoyed meeting him.  His response was simple, yet so touching that we felt the need to share it with you (the Dr. may or may not have been chopping onions when she read this):


Dear Adam and Andrea,

Thanks a lot for you kind mail. It was pleasure to meet you guys. There is something to learn you two. We all try to make our life as we want but not all the can get. Me as wel as you are trying to follow my heart not only follow the obligations.

Anyway have a good time forther and wish you from my deeply heart a nice life as you two guys want.

I like telling motivational stories you will some time a heros of my stories. 

Thanks

Bal


We have certainly had many fulfilling times on our travels and made new friends and personal connections along the way.  This brief interaction however, may have been the most touching.  It's not often that you get to be someone's hero, but that night we made history in one man's life, as he did to us.

Mendoza - Argentina's Wine Region

Photo Album - https://goo.gl/photos/YmLbSnDLhkoWMnPz6

Hey Gang,


This post brings us back to the magical area of Mendoza, Argentina, which is home to the primary wine growing and producing region of Argentina.  It is easy to look back on this area fondly as it shares similarities with other fancy wine growing areas of the US.  It's a rather sprawling area centered around a decent sized town and surrounded by many different valleys and microclimates of awesome wine.

To be honest, the majority of our time spent in Mendoza just centered around drinking wine and eating good food, so that's what you'll see below.

One thing about Argentina, and subsequently most of South America that absolutely tickled me was how inexpensive it was to get a good or great bottle of wine.  Wine down there was so much more affordable, it made me rather frustrated at the thought of what we would spend for a similar quality of wine in the states.  I'm sure we have many friends who can articulate the various reasons why this is, but either way, we enjoyed the hell out of it while we were down there.

To give comparison, we never spent more than $15 USD on a bottle of wine from a retail or grocery store.  That same bottle of wine would easily be priced at 2x or more in the states.

The most we spent on a bottle in a restaurant was about $60 USD and it was one of the best bottles of wine I've ever had in my life (see below).

For the pricing of great wine alone, it was a very memorable place.  Above and beyond that, it was a beautiful area that was easy to walk around in with plenty of amenities and oddities to see.

Shirts with Funny Phrases

It was odd how regularly we saw people with shirts that had silly or strange phrases on them.  We had one person tell us that these were second hand shirts that were basically given away or sold for extremely inexpensive down here (said by an Argentinian guy wearing a US men's national soccer t-shirt), which was one hypothesis.  

The other fact was there were stores simply promoting these stupid shirts:

While I have a great deal of respect for the Simpsons, I do find it funny that they'd sell a Duff t-shirt in the equivalent of a Walmart (conveniently 3 blocks away from our hotel), but the "Text Goes Here" shirt was just ridiculous.  Either way, it was quite amusing to see this as a fashion trend throughout Mendoza.

As a side note, and an homage to the Simpsons (The Dr.'s favorite TV show of all time), we also stumbled upon this delight of a kiosko:

Wine Time

I was going to write a paragraph or two about living here for a week, or doing laundry or walking around the town, but realistically, we came to Mendoza for the wine and wine culture, so while the city itself was quite pleasant and easy to navigate, there's not much to report outside of the parks were nice, every street was shaded by trees (as is all of Argentina) and they had a casino in the middle of it, which was kind of fun.

Now, let's get to the good stuff!

I didn't have a better picture of us actually drinking from the fermentation tank, so I'll leave you with Alex from Pennsylvania who works in the restaurant industry and was a delightful addition to our Uco valley tour

We did a bunch of research and found these guys were well regarded for their tours, so we decided to do all 3 tours offered, while enjoying some downtime in between to explore the city.  We were not disappointed.

We started off on our first full night with a wine and food pairing at their office, followed by the newer growing area of the Uco Valley, wrapping up with the most prestigious Lujan de Cuyo area where most of the famous Malbec comes from.

Wine and Food Pairing

This was a SUPER fun way to kick off our stay in Mendoza.  We were paired up with 3 other couples in a pairing led by two delightful young neo-hippies from the area.  Both of these gals had worked in the wine industry for the last 10 years working as tour guides, tasting room managers and the like, and decided to partner with Ampora to do this wine/food pairing course.  They both were excellent cooks and had a really fun and relaxed demeanor to them, which brought a great vibe to the night.

The other 3 couples had their own fun backgrounds and stories, which made the night super interesting.  

There was a British couple who had rented out their house, sold a lot of their belongings and were on a similar life journey as us, except they were in their early 50s.  They basically tricked out a truck to become an RV, equipped with solar panels, a water purification system, mini shower, etc, and they were driving throughout South America.  

There were two super gay, super funny accountants (yes, funny accountants do exist), one from England and one from South Africa, who both relocated to New Zealand for work and were on holiday.  These dudes were very non-P.C., a bit raunchy and fun as hell to party with as we would come to find out.

The other couple wasn't nearly as interesting, so I already forgot their story, so we'll pass on them (no offense if you're the couple we forgot and are reading this blog, but the other 2 couples were WAY more interesting).

We tried 5 different wines, paired with 5 different empanadas made in the style of 5 different regions from Argentina.  It was fun not only to learn about the different wine growing regions and the characteristics of each, but also the different empanada styles and what made them distinct as well. For instance, Buenos Aires empanadas typically have olives, but the ones from Salta are almost always made with lard instead of butter and do not have olives.

Through several glasses of wine and hours of great conversation, we left the tasting with new friends and hopefully some new blog readers.

Uco Valley - Mendoza's Newest Growing Region

Like most other fancy wine growing area, real estate is at a premium and every micro-climate has it's own nuances and characteristics that make it desirable.  Since the lower valley of Lujan de Cuyo is more or less fully developed, wine growers in the area started figuring out about 20 or so years ago that the adjacent and higher altitude of the Uco valley could turn out some pretty solid grape juice, so more and more people started developing the area.  Think of Uco like Argentina's Sonoma.  They still make world-class wine, just not as highly prized as Lujan de Cuyo (Argentina's Napa).

We did four different wineries, all with their own charm and style.  This was a great way to start the official vineyard/winery tours as the Uco valley is a little newer, so the facilities were newer and more fancy.

I won't go into detail about each winery, but suffice it to say, most of the wine was great, some better than others, and we generally had an insightful and great experience at each place.

What was more momentous were the other 6 people on our trip.  We had a big of a mish-mash of internationals, us from Seattle, Alex with the mustache seen above, and our two new favorite accountants from the wine tasting!

As we rounded out the 3rd winery, we had about a 30 minute drive to our lunch spot.  All of us were working on a decent buzz at this point and between the accountants and us, we decided that it was time for a road soda.  We casually asked our tour guide if this sort of behavior was allowed in Argentina, to which after himming and hawing for a moment, he told us as long as we played it cool, it wouldn't be a problem.  So we proceed to each grab 2 cold bottles of bubbly for our group on the road.

It was like all 8 of us were back in college, passing around 4 bottles of sparkling wine and rose, telling stories, cracking jokes, etc.  I can't remember the last time I had so much fun being so damned irresponsible.  At least someone else was driving :)

Lunch was an exquisite multi-course, multi-wine paired meal set at a gorgeous winery and vineyard in the Uco valley.  We dined like kings and drank like sailors, all set in the beauty of the Argentinian countryside.

Knowing we had another 1.5 hours back from the Uco Valley to our hotels, we decided to keep the train rolling and pick up another 4 bottles for the drive home.  Hijinks, shenanigans and mayhem were all had, including some nap time and subsequent hugs and high-fives upon our drop offs at our respective hotels.

Lujan de Cuyo

Thankfully we waited a day or two to dry out before we hopped back on the booze wagon to wine town as we ventured out into the famed Lujan de Cuyo area of Mendoza.  While our tour group wasn't nearly as fun as the last group, we saw much more of the history of the area and visited some really cool spots.

It was cool to see the soil cut-away from ground level.  This winery made a small cave that you could walk down into, including this plastic retaining wall showing the make-up of the soil from the vines above.

This leg of the trip was more of deep dive into how the wine is grown and produced, including a walk through several vineyards and cellars, all with a detailed explanation of why each of these things were significant in the wine making process.  We went from small family owned boutique vineyards, to one of the largest producers in the area and got a different flavor and feel from each one.

While it was a much different trip than our Uco Valley one, it was still very cool and memorable.

Eating at the Famed 1884 by Francis Mallman

Francis Mallman is the most famous Argentine chef and known for his use of fire and charring in his cooking.  You can see some of his work on a few shows on Netflix, but my favorite was his episode of Chef's Table.  You get a taste of who this crazy guy is and why he's worth knowing about.

I had seen shows about him, heard about him and read about him, so we were excited to be in an area where he had a restaurant that we could try out.  Mind you, we have a fixed income, so I'm never excited to spend a bunch of money on a meal, but the US dollar travels far in Argentina, so we figured this would be a value compared to dining in his NYC restaurant or otherwise, so we made a reservation and made it happen.

It was nice how while this was certainly a fine-dining establishment, we were perfectly accepted wearing a pair of jeans and the nicest shirts we had in our luggage.  We quickly found out that this was the type of place that did nothing without purpose and certainly didn't bother with expedience, in a mostly pleasant way.  Since we had already been in Argentina for a few weeks by this point, we had come to expect that the pace of service was meant to allow for a more leisurely dining experience, regardless of where you were, so we were prepared to take our time at a leisurely meal.  This point was highlighted when we were at the bar and someone ordered a mojito.  Rather than simply putting ice in a blender to create crushed ice, or having some other device to create that texture, the bartender scooped ice out of the ice bin into a cheese cloth looking bag, then with a wooden mallet, hammered the ice into shape.  He then scooped it out to complete his cocktail, which took about 7 minutes to complete...for one cocktail.  As a result, we spent our first 30 minutes or so at the bar waiting for our drinks and chatting with the two gals next to us before we hit our table.

Above were our selections from appetizer (a selection of local tomatoes and avocado in vinaigrette) to our mains (grilled steak, I mean it IS Argentina) and our dessert of charred fruit served with ice cream.

To be completely honest here, I was really surprised at how average our main dishes were.  The tomatoes were exquisite (seriously, Dr. and I can't accurately describe how amazing all of the tomatoes were in Argentina.  We've never had tomatoes that tasted this good) and the charred fruit with ice cream was different and quite tasty, but the steak was no better than any other steak I had previously and actually wasn't even as good as the steak we had in Salta (you can read more about that on in our Salta post), which was a fraction of the price.

All-in-all, while the ambiance was great, cocktails were top notch and the apps and zerts were certainly tasty, I didn't think this place was worth the hype or the money.  Just my $0.02, but I'd maybe just try to grab a drink and something small from the bar if you can, rather than do the whole experience.

The Best Hotel in the World - Casa Glebinias

We decided since we were going to be in such a beautiful area and that this was our last place in Argentina that we would be, that we should go out with a bang and spend our last night or two in a really nice property.  We had done a good job of minding our budget and thought it would be nice to splurge a bit, so we looked at a few different websites and found that Casa Glebinias would be the best place to fit what we were looking for.  As of this writing, it has 682 reviews on TripAdvisor, with a full 5 star rating, and it is as accurate as anyone has described (Dr.'s note - this place was fucking magical).

It isn't so much a hotel as much as a super high-end BnB.  There were only 9 or 10 rooms between 5 different cottages, all on what was basically a larger parcel of family property that they converted years ago to be this kind of a place.  It is owned and run by members of the family and the experience was like nothing I had previously and by which all other hotels or BnBs will be judged. 

I could go on and on about this place, but as I'm sure it's not as amusing to you as it is to me, I'll stop here.  If you are visiting Mendoza, pay the money and stay here, if only for a night or two.  It's outside of the downtown area, but it's absolutely worth it.  I've never had such a positive hotel experience. Dr.'s note - Adam loved it so much he accidentally took the room key with him, which we had to FedEx back to them.

Bus Ride to Santiago de Chile

We left from Mendoza to catch our bus into Santiago to begin our Chile experience.  We read and were told by a few folks that it was well worth it to take the bus vs a plane from Mendoza to Santiago because the scenery was so nice.  We were not led astray.

Apparently on this drive, we also passed by the tallest peak in South America, which itself was kind of cool.  Also on the trip, we passed 11,000 feet at the Argentina/Chile check point, which was the first time we had experienced that kind of altitude.  We quickly found out that we are not meant to exist this high above sea level and prepped ourselves for our upcoming Lake Titicaca trip which would bring us to almost 15,000 feet above sea level.  Just crazy. (Dr.'s note - our bodies do NOT agree with altitude. They straight up revolted against us).

Wrapping up Argentina

It was bitter sweet leaving Mendoza and Argentina as there were many "firsts" had here.  While we have had many amazing adventures since Argentina, it is most certainly a country we want to visit again.  We had a month to spend in most of the country, but I still feel like we have so much more to see!  All-in-all, I am very thankful that we chose to begin our journey there and after 4 months of being on the road, I would gladly have done it over the same way again.

Until next time friends, where we bring you to our whirlwind of an adventure in Chile!

Adios,

A.T. y La Médica

Córdoba - Argentina's College Town

Hola Amigos!

It is with fond memories that I look back at Córdoba.  While not typically characterized as a "touristy town," to me Córdoba felt comfortable and maybe even a little at-home.  It is a big city, with roughly 1.3M inhabitants in the greater Córdoba metropolitan statistical area (Córdoba is also the capital city of the province of Córdoba), however it is home to some 7 different universities and roughly 300,000+ college students.  With those kind of stats, you can imagine this city has a distinct energy to it.

We stayed in the nicer part of town, Nuevo Córdoba.  This pleasant little neighborhood (or barrio in the local language) is adjacent to the biggest university in the area, National University of Córdoba, which is the second largest in the country behind the National University of Buenos Aires.  Apparently this is also the largest university for the medical trades as well, so we saw plenty of kids in scrubs walking throughout the town.

Creambury & Failing at Spanish

Because Córdoba is also a college town, there were TONS of great bars, restaurants, kiosks, cafes, etc.  This also was a great testing ground for our Spanish.  I recall very vividly our first attempt at Spanish in Córdoba at our local cafe, Creambury.

I actually borrowed this image from TripAdvisor, but this was our go-to cafe in Córdoba

Creambury was on the corner of our block, so for breakfast one morning, we decided to pop in and use their WiFi to plan out our day over a bite to eat and a coffee or two.  We stroll in, decide on a table and sit down.  We're greeted in Spanish by a very nice young gentleman and we exchange our initial pleasantries (good morning, welcome, how are you? etc).  Keep in mind, we had been in Argentina for about 2.5 weeks at this point and our Spanish was still extremely limited.

After the pleasantries, our server starts talking to us in full blown, rapid-fire Spanish.
Unfortunately, he didn't read the deer-in-headlights look on both of our faces and after his verbal diarrhea, he stared back at us, patiently waiting for a response.  The problem was we had no idea what he just said to us.
We both looked at each other, then back at him and respond with a ¿Qué?  He proceeds to repeat this entire ordeal again, not any slower, not with any more simple words, but just a cacophony of Spanish sounding noises.
We clearly weren't getting anywhere with this guy.  We asked if he spoke English, which he did not.  He did, however, pick up that we didn't understand much of any Spanish and he left our table to consult with his supervisor.  Interestingly enough, no one in the entire waitstaff spoke English, so the supervisor sent over the next best thing, someone who at least would meet us in the middle by speaking to us in super simple words so we could navigate the menu.
We worked through pointing at pictures, pronouncing as best we could and asking questions like "how do you say this?" and "do you offer an American sized cup of coffee?"

It was a great experience in that we definitely failed at communication with our first server, but after feeling frustrated that we couldn't effectively communicate with someone, we learned that we just needed someone to speak slower and in more simple terms.  This lesson would become very valuable for the remainder of our trip, even to this day really, since our Spanish still isn't to the "conversational" level.

Around Town - Kiosks and Brands

We were thrilled to find many "kioskos" near our AirBnB apartment.  Think of these as a tiny 7-11 without the coffee, nacho cheese pumps or day old hot-dogs withering away on rollers.  Kiosks were generally about the size of a walk-in closet, had one or two beverage coolers (maybe an ice cream cooler), always sugary snacks/treats and more often than not beer, wine and liquor.  Even if they didn't have a liquor section, they almost always had a few bottles of the national beverage, Fernet Branca.

These proved to be our grocery stores of sorts, as we could get our basic supplies for when we were lounging around the apartment.  What was more interesting than the description or availability of these kioskos was their choice in branding.

While I'd like to think that all of these respectable businesses obtained the proper licensure to use the likeness of a famous brand, or that the print shops that created these signs reviewed said licensure before printing their banners, but after seeing the 5th or 6th one of these, I had my doubts.

It was quite amusing though, walking around town and seeing some great old memories like Bugs Bunny, Donkey Kong (N64 edition!) and even Betty Boop.  Apparently copyright laws in Argentina are a little different than the U.S.

Dr.'s Side Note: A Blessing and a Curse - Lo de Jacinto Empanadas

We gleefully discovered that the empanadas at Lo de Jacinto are the culinary equivalent to a late night Jack in the Box taco. Sooo good and soooo bad. Our apartment was literally next door to this palace of bad decisions.

Look at this guy and his sketchy little moustache, how could you NOT want to buy quantities of gut busting, delicious packets of late night mystery meat from him?

We did... and we'd do it again! Viva Argentina!

Adam here - we ended up eating here frequent enough that the proprietor visually recognized us and would greet us on the street.  Probably not our finest moment, but seriously, these empanadas were gluttonously delicious!

A Presidential Visit to Argentina

Unbeknownst to us, President Obama had scheduled a trip to Argentina while we were visiting Córdoba.  While Córdoba wasn't on his itinerary, they certainly were prepared for his arrival.

Thankfully we didn't experience any negative backlash for being Americans since we looked like anyone else from Argentina, but it was a really interesting experience to see how other countries or at least people from other countries felt about our President's foreign policy.  Not dissimilar from most any college town in the U.S., the people of Córdoba appear to be passionate about their politics.

Looking Like a Local

While I'm on the topic of people not being able to spot us as Americans, I want to take a moment to talk about this phenomenon.  It was most interesting to learn about and experience the cultural identity of Argentina.  Because numerous European cultures had found Argentina as "home" over the years, namely Spanish, Italian and Germans, there isn't a distinct look of an Argentine.  While in Córdoba, we stumbled upon a great blog by a guy from San Francisco named Damon who relocated to Córdoba from the states.  His blog is an interesting read for anyone wanting to understand or know a bit more about the culture of Córdoba or Argentina, but I want to share his post on the look of an Argentine as he does a good job describing it:

When I was in Colombia the locals would stare at our pack of gringos as we roamed the streets, even going so far as to request photos of my pale self to accompany their dark faces.

Nothing changed as I went south to Ecuador. And just last year while riding a bus to work in Lima it was pretty clear which one of the riders was not a local.

However the Argentines are an eclectic bunch. Like the United States, Argentina is a multiethnic society serving as home to those with roots from Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, and France. Una crisol de razas – a melting pot.

As a result there is no standard looking Argentine. You’re equally as likely to find a blond with fair skin as someone with dark hair and features.

So on the streets of Córdoba my brown hair and blue make me no different visually than any other Argentine.

Looking like everyone else certainly has its pro’s and con’s

Pro – Locals pleasantly surprised when they find out I’m a foreigner

Con – Locals assume I speak Spanish and start talking at their normal speed

Pro – Slightly lower threat of getting scammed or targeted for theft

Con – No novelty factor from appearance

Overall I think looking like everyone else makes me more at ease. The threat of targeting while obviously still existent is definitely less and makes Cordoba a more comfortable place for me.

Now if I could just learn to speak like everyone else…

That last line has certainly rang true for me many times during our trip.  But it certainly was interesting walking through an entire country where everyone just assumed that you were from there.  I thought for sure our light eyes and translucent Seattle complexion would be a dead giveaway for an American, but visually at least, we were just like everyone else.

College Town Experiences

Like any good college town in the U.S., sometimes random things just happen in the streets of the city.  Take for instance, one weekend day when we were walking around town.  We decided to check out the flea market, ahem, artists market as we had heard it was interesting.  On our way to this display of "handicrafts", we hear some loud drum beats close to the church and knowing we weren't in a rush, we decided to check it out.

Apparently we stumbled upon some form of celebration.  I have no idea what the significance of it was (it was March 21st for anyone who may know), but it was awesome to watch!  The video hopefully gives a depiction of the vibe, but it felt like some form of Brazilian Carnival-like parade.  Lots of drums, dancing girls, closed down streets, etc.
This was also where Andrea took one of my favorite photos with the street dog biting the fender of the taxi.  The dogs of Argentina are fearless, for sure.

Daaaaaaaaaaay Tripper!

We decided that we needed some cultural experience outside of eating and drinking the local way, so we booked a day tour to 2 delightful European towns south of Córdoba: La Cumbrecita & Villa General Belgrano.

These two cities were close to each other, but in essence were holdovers from the German and Swiss settlers that found their way Argentina.  It wasn't until later that I had found out that apparently these "settlers" were Nazi officers and affluent Nazi sympathizers who decided to skip town before the collapse of Nazi Germany and Argentina was their countryside of choice.

Aside from their history, they were, visually at least, like stepping into what I would imagine would be a quaint little German town.  For my Seattle friends, it was like a visit to Leavenworth.  Everything in both towns were decorated like a little German village.  From the wooden signs, to the cobblestone streets, to the building designs, it felt nothing like Argentina outside of the presence of the Spanish language.  Even the Argentine beer selection was extremely limited to make way for the many different German varieties.

In addition to all the quaint German attributes to the town, I found a few old relics as well.

I found it hilarious that there were still public phones available, so I snapped a few photos.  It wouldn't be until a few months of traveling in South America (SurAmerica as the locals call it) that these are actually still a vital mode of communication throughout most countries down here.  While mobile phones are as present as they are in the states, they can be expensive to make calls and texts (which explains the prominence of WhatsApp down here) so having pay phones around is still relevant.

Córdoba City Art

I don't think we had seen a city with as much public art as Córdoba.  While some of it I didn't quite understand (which could be said for all art, really), some of it was quite beautiful.  There are more photos in the album, but below are some of the highlights.

A Pleasant Surprise on our Last Day

We decided on our last full day in Córdoba that we needed to get out of the apartment and walk around the town.  We headed towards the cultural center to do some exploring and find a bite to eat when we were very pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a few bboys breaking out the linoleum ready for the electric boogaloo.

At first it was quite novel and we stopped for a minute to watch these guys do their thing.  Then more and more people started to gather, chests were starting to get puffed and we had front row seats to a full-blown breakdancing show!  We must have stayed there for 20 minutes watching these guys.  This is probably one of the only times I have given money to a street performer, but it was well worth the entertainment.  It's nice to see that America's hip-hop culture has made a lasting impact on Argentina.

Too Many Stories to Tell

There are many, many more stories to tell about our trip in Córdoba (like when the Chileans we met literally doubled over in laughter as they tried to pronounce the English word "health"), but I wanted to provide you with the highlights as to not burn you out on yet another novella sized blog post.

I will leave you with this - Córdoba, for me, was the first time that I felt a sense of belonging on our travels.  Even to this day, I haven't found a spot that felt as comfortable or as "normal" as Córdoba.  Maybe it's the college-town energy, the cheap eats and convenient kiosks, or even the great parks and walkable structure of the city, but there was something about Córdoba that I really enjoyed and will look back upon with great memories.  It's certainly not a tourist town, but it provides an excellent opportunity to see what it's like to live like a local, which I've come to value greatly in our travels.

Next - Let's Get Boozy!

Until next time Amigos, when we take you through our journey to Mendoza, the heart of the Argentine wine region.

Adios,

AT y La Médica