Spanish would
have been a useful language to have in my tool-belt for my time in South
America.
I know
that sounds obvious but I’ve travelled before to other places where I didn’t speak
the language and I managed just fine.
And I am managing just fine. But
it would have made things SOOOOO much easier and probably a bit more fun, as well if I could speak Spanish. Unlike in Israel, where even when I speak
Hebrew to people and they hear my accent so they speak back to me in English (yes,
that still happens to me, even after 3 years of living there), here in
Argentina, even when I tell people I don’t speak Spanish (in English sometimes
even, mind you) they say “Ah, Okay…” And yet continue to then speak to me in Spanish.
As a result of that, as well as just
being surrounded by it, my Spanish understanding has certainly improved. Most of what I am understanding is just
English with an “ito” at the end, or some other suffix, so it’s kind of
cheating. But I’m getting my numbers
down pat. And the other day when I went
to buy my next bus ticket in super broken Spanglish, the teller even asked me
how to say “mil” in English and I was able to answer him (it means a thousand).
I’ve
just spent the last week in Argentina’s 2nd largest city called
Cordoba. It’s a nice city. In truth I had terribly high expectations
coming from recommendations from home and I didn’t quite get to the top. I stayed here so that I could be with Chabad
both for the first and last days of Pesach.
I wasn’t drawn towards spending either of those alone or back in Buenos
Aires so Cordoba it was for the week. I
had a nice time. Nice. Not amazing and parts were actually pretty
enjoyable. If it hadn’t been Pesach, I
wouldn’t have stayed here more than maybe a couple of days. Being at Chabad was
a new kind of experience for me. Firstly,
the family isn’t Israeli. The couple is
American but have been living here for the last 26 years so for all intents and
purposes, they are Argentine and speak English – as do their 10 kids (9 of whom
were here). Other than them, people in
the community didn’t really speak English.
Some spoke some Hebrew which was nice.
But even the kids spoke Spanish amongst themselves. This left me with a lot of time to sit back
and observe and listen. I’ve actually refined my
creepy observing skills. I usually have
a pretty astute attention to detail, but all this time of being unable to
converse in the local language has really sharpened that skill. I feel like I invaded some personal emotional
space by taking in the details that I did – but what else was I supposed to do
while everyone else was speaking a language that I couldn’t speak? Normally I’m
pretty good about starting conversation with strangers – but you can’t do that when
the language is not something you have in common. But by the end of the second days, even the
non-English speaking people warmed up to me and kissed me goodbye on the cheek
even though they never really said hello to begin with. The quiet time allowed me to rest up, recover
from a weird and annoying stomach virus (also not so fun) and read a whole
book – an unexpectedly interesting find from a Hostel shelf.
I feel
like I’ve seen most of what Cordoba as a city has to offer. I spent A LOT of time walking around, seeing
the different parks, the landmarks, the river, the architecture. When you go to a Hostel, they give you a map of
the main part of the city and it often highlights what there is to see. I took a tour of one of the local
Universities (highly recommended by lonely planet – and that did actually live
up to its expectation! All for the grandiose price of about 90 US cents! In ENGLISH
to boot!) and that was not only enjoyable but it allowed me to meet some other
travelers who I spent the rest of the evening with. As it is off season, there are far fewer
travelers around. Even for the Seder
Night, Chabad used to get numbers in the hundreds signing up! This year I think they topped off at about
60. The Israeli table consisted of about
10 people – the rest were all locals. The family here explained to me that
hundreds of Israelis used to come to Cordoba because it used to be the only
place in Argentina to go skydiving.
However, so many other places have opened up around the country that
there is no other special reason for them to make it over to this city so they
stopped coming by the bus-load. It’s interesting how one thing can influence
another like that. On this off season
there were few people staying in the hostels as well. Once again, I had an 8 person dorm room to myself for two nights. I did meet a few interesting people,
though. I had a really great long
conversation with someone that re-opened my eyes to what happens when you
travel. It was thought provoking to get a look into the perception of someone who was new to this way of life, was also from the
United States, and was older – around my age – yes, I’m in the older category
of people I am finding traveling in this part of the world. We spent hours discussing the influences from
our regular lives and our traveling lives, and the routines of “home” and how
breaking free from them can be eye opening.
These are the moments I cherish when I travel. This guy is essentially a stranger and in all
likelihood I will never see him again and yet the exchange of words we had was
quite a bit more impactful then most of the conversations I’ve had with people
who I have known for longer and generally see on a more regular basis. Of course I have meaningful conversations
with friends for sure, but a stranger in comparison to usual acquaintances…. Interesting. I also met these two German girls with who I
shared a room for an evening. We spent
one day walking around together and at one of the many moments when we marked
ourselves as tourists by pulling out a map (I think my neon yellow day pack
also usually gives me away… as do my shoresh sandals… and probably a few other
traits/characteristics) an older gentleman approached us in English and asked
us where we are from. I said I was from
Israel and the girls said they were from Germany. He immediately identified himself as Jewish
and preceded, un-instigated to declare that it was amazing that in this day and
age a Jewish girl and a German girl could interact socially, free of religious
divides - I fully agreed with that and it would have been nice if he stopped
there. But he didn’t. He then went on to
explain the atrocities of Hitler and his lack of understanding of how so many
Germans went along with the nonsense and so on and so on. It was a pretty awkward encounter. After he walked away I tried to smooth it out
by saying that some old people just feel like they need to share their opinions
and be heard and the girls took it pretty well in stride (well, one of them did
– the other was kind of taken aback).
And just as I thought we were moving past it, the guy came back and
started talking again! This time when he was done, we decided to walk
away. Just another interesting encounter
on the streets of Argentina.
I’ve
come to realize that in general I prefer the smaller cities and the “suburbs” to
these cities when I travel. Argentina
has many beautiful mountains and lakes and combinations of the two. There is something about clouds sitting low
on mountain tops that really gets me. I
think it reminds me of New Zealand which was the first place to which I
traveled and wanted to return to because of its physical beauty. I think Argentina also has a beautiful
landscape. In my attempt to break away a
bit from the city and go on an adventure, one day during the week I decided to
head out to a nearby National Park to see a natural breeding ground for Condor
Vultures. I took the two hour bus ride
out there by myself (mind you I found my way around the bus terminal by myself,
talking to people by myself, very awkwardly and almost unsuccessfully buying a
bus ticket by myself) after waking up very early in the morning – everyone recommended
to get a good and early start to the day – and on the way I started to really
appreciate the view. The mountains were
gorgeous. And there were these low
sitting clouds that added to the picturesque scene. We made a pit stop on the way and I realized
there was quite a drastic temperature change… thank God I had brought my little
rain jacket as another layer. The clouds
and the weather change should have given me a hint that something was off, but
they didn’t. Not even when we turned a
bend on the road and seemed to be in an actual cloud did I realize this wasn’t
great. I did have the thought that it might
be difficult to see the birds but at least I would enjoy the few hour hike on
the way. However, when I got off the
bus, I could barely see 20 feet in front of me.
I walked over to the entrance to the park and the gate was actually
closed. There was a park ranger who was
in his car nearby (thank God he spoke English!) and he explained that due to
the weather the trails were closed and there was no entering the park today…
gotta go home. So basically about 15
minutes after I had gotten off the bus that drove me there in 2 hours, I was
back in the opposite direction on another bus heading right back to where I
came from. So that was a bust. At least I enjoyed the view on the way there
and back, right? Man plans – God laughs. When I got back to the bus station I actually
walked a different way home which shed some light on the city for me. It seems to be that there are different
districts. I walked through a number of
consecutive blocks that has stores that only sold shoes. Another set of blocks that only sold
clothing. Another set that only sold
electronics. Another with
Motorcycles. Jewelry. It was interesting to see this divide and it
gave me a different perspective of the city that I hadent yet seen. ‘
What
else does Cordoba have to offer? Other
than the many different green parks (or make actually because of them!) my
allergies have come to life here. For
the first few days I had to wear my glasses because my eyes were soooo
itchy. Additionally, I feel like the
entire city is infested with mosquitos!
I hadn’t been touched by one until I came here and now my body has been eaten
up! I finally bought some OFF but
reapplication is brutally necessary… I’m practicing bug-safety, right
Andrew? In truth these are minor
disturbances and Cordoba really is a nice city.
Two other things to note which are not specific just to Cordoba but to Argentina in general. One is that people from Argentina travel around Argentina. I like it and I think it is refreshing. This is a beautiful country that has a lot to offer and the locals are taking advantage if it. Secondly, I had this thought and I didn't specifically share it with anyone, but then a girl I was walking around town with voiced it outloud: all the women wear major platform shoes! I've seen it since having arrived in Argentina and I wasn't sure if this is the style in the world these days (I've never been accused of being totally up on popular fashion trends) or if it was just here, but its all you see on the feet of the women and on the shelves of local stores. And we're not just talking about a little heel - we're talking major 4-5 inch platforms - old school Steve Madden style - on everything from fancy shoes, to sneakers to flip flops. Unbelievable...
I’ve enjoyed my time here in Cordoba and will be happy to move on once again.Tomorrow
I take what will be my longest bus ride yet – a whopping 22 hours from Cordoba
to the Iguazu Falls. This will be my
last stop in Argentina before heading into BRAZIL!!! Peace out for now – Pesach is over and I just
broke my chametz-fast on a delicious slice of Pizza… yum!
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