Three weeks have flown by since we posted our last blog! With no more riding, our bodies did feel a bit strange for a while, and the change in our usual day took a bit of getting used to. With Phoebe and Nico we decided to leave the city of Cordoba for awhile and explore the surrounding areas. We tried to leave Cordoba by bus to get to a small village, La Cumbrecita, but arrived at the bus terminal to find nobody around, and soon learnt that all bus drivers were on strike over a pay dispute. So after a surprisingly cheap taxi ride, we at least made it to the next small town of Alta Gracia.

Alta Gracia is the childhood town of Che Guevara, and they have a really interesting museum in his old homestead.

The "Motorcycle Diaries" motorcycle

The next day, the buses where running again and we stopped in an old German settlement, Villa General Belgrano, in the middle of their annual chocolate festival! Awesome timing! Although it was getting a bit cooler, we all had our camping gear, and wanted to use it. We set up at the campground and found we were the only ones in tents, the rest were in big trucks decked out for camping. There seem to be a lot of Europeans driving around South America in big 4 wheel drive camp trucks, and we spotted one that had passed us on the bikes a couple of weeks earlier.

Another day and a small bus ride took us to the edge of La Cumbrecita. This town is pedestrian only for most of the day, and you are only allowed to drive a car between certain hours in the early morning and evening. We had thought of camping originally but it had snowed a week earlier and there was still snow on the ground. It was such a cute relaxing place, with many trails to walk or run, so we decided to stay almost a week! The four of us found a nice warm Cabana, with a kitchen and good heating and a view of the town, so we made it home for 5 nights. We were lucky to find a place to stay, as the month of July and part of August is holiday time for Argentines.

View from our house

Our walking friend

Phoebe and Nico

5 litre botella of vino tinto

Next stop was another small town, La Cumbre. We camped again, but this time, it was really getting too cold, so on the last night here, we warmed ourselves with a nice meal out and the help of the campground owners bar. There did not seem to be too much to do in this town, so after a couple of days we had walked all over, including up to the biggest statue of Jesus we had ever seen. Too cold to continue camping, we returned to Cordoba, and said goodbye to Phoebe and Nico as they were continuing on north. It has been awesome to be able to hang out with such good friends from NZ, in the middle of Northern Argentina. Feliz Viajes Phoebe and Nico!

Now it was just the two of us again, we had to get a few chores done, like find boxes to pack the bike up. Easily done in NZ, but in Argentina no one seems to keep boxes, as men with horse and cart come around collecting them for recycling. We filled in another couple of days in Cordoba, and had a nice meal cooked for us at the hostal by an older Colombian gentleman who had been staying there the same time as us. He had just retired and was circumnavigating South America by motorbike over 3 years.

The next stop was the capital city, Buenos Aires. We have 3 amigos from Argentina, who we met while working on a ski field in the States a few years ago. Agustin is now living in Buenos Aires, so we arrived to meet him and had the pleasure of staying with him in his apartment in the Palermo area. Buenos Aires is an impressive city, with so many places to wander and explore. We had a couple of days there before heading up to see the famous Iguazu Falls. But we will be back in Buenos Aires to explore and soak up the atmosphere!

Iguazu Falls are amazing. The bus ride from Buenos Aires was 17 hours but everything we had heard about the overnight buses was true. Great big seats, full cama, so easy enough to sleep on, dinner, wine, movies. We arrived in Puerto Iguazu to hot humid weather, and had the afternoon planning what we where going to do, which wasn’t hard, as all you have to do is catch a bus to the falls. A short walk from town takes you to the triple frontier of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, all separated by river.

The water falls are spectacular, there is an incredible amount of water, and it is hard to describe the atmosphere in words. The ‘Devils Throat’ is the main water fall, we managed to time our day well, and were amongst the first few people at the lookout point in the morning. Later in the day we returned to the same place, and the platform was chocka block full of people. There are enough trails and waterfalls to keep you there all day, and some interesting wildlife and birds. We will let the photos explain themselves.

Garganta del Diablo (Devils Throat)

Now we are back in Buenos Aires, and will have the chance to explore the city as we count down the final 2 weeks left of our travels!