Cordoba, Argentina

“Let’s go somewhere together,” is not something you expect to hear from the mouths of four people who live together, eat together, play together and sleep together. But that sentence was the beginning of a trip that solidified friendships, created inside jokes and fostered a feeling of local family for me.

Who: Samm (Chicago), Jake (Wisconsin), Kelly (my college friend), Megan (Chicago) and myself
What: A weekend trip together before Samm and Jake returned home.
Where: Cordoba, Argentina
When: July 16-18
Why: Because spending every waking (and sleeping) moment together in Buenos Aires just wasn’t enough – we wanted to do it somewhere new.

We decided on Cordoba as the destination for our little family vacation because it was close and affordable. Samm, Jake and Kelly requested the weekend off from the bar and Megan called in sick with a fake case of scabies (at least she’s original). Like many of our trips, we didn’t really know what to expect from Cordoba nor did we care to do any research. All we needed to know was that it would take about 12 hours by bus to get there and we were all going together. The plan was that there was no plan.

We booked our hostel a couple hours before going to the bus station…the first time. Unfortunately, an oddly common bus strike delayed our departure a few hours – forcing us to load our backpacks back into cabs, return home, order empanadas, sleep for a couple hours and try again around 6 a.m.

We spent our first day/night in Cordoba much like our typical days/nights in Buenos Aires. We sat at a restaurant eating empanadas, drinking Quilmes and playing cards. And much like in Buenos Aires – our game of choice started as Kings and progressed to simply “never have I ever” and “truth or dare.” We followed the hostel band to a local club/bar that night where we continued to socialize with…well, ourselves. After Jake convinced us all that this club would be a “great place for a DJ” we went home, climbed into our bunk beds and went to bed giggling with each other.

Jake @ Studio Theatre

There are so many moments that I could write to portray how entertaining and fabulous my friends are. There are so many memories that I hold dear and will reflect on with laughter and a full heart. But this Saturday in Cordoba, Argentina may go down in history as the most I have ever laughed in one day.

The day started around noon when we stumbled upon Superpark – a rundown theme park devoid of visitors and regulations. Since we had no plan and nowhere to be, we rode as many rides as possible. We screamed sarcastically on the slowest children’s rollercoaster ever made, scream threats as we rammed each other in bumper cars, screamed from disgust at the odd sights in the haunted house and screamed frantically on the Terminator. The Terminator is one of those tomahawk rides found at most state fairs that flip you upside-down - but it’s a little different in Argentina. My usual theme park pep talk of “they wouldn’t let people ride this if it was dangerous” was negated by the scary realization that Argentina doesn’t have the same regulations as the States. My hands clenched the rickety buckles barely holding me inside the rusty cage as loose change fell from my purse (which they let me carry on the ride!) and jingled to the ground about 80 feet below me.

slowest rollercoaster ever

Terminator - the ride

We eventually tore ourselves away from Superpark to explore the rest of Cordoba. We wandered through beautiful parks and pleasant city streets – taking pictures and picking up stray dogs along the way. Samm loves dogs and can’t walk passed one without petting it, so we made canine friends all over the city. There was one particular dog that we named Terminator and viewed as our loyal companion for most of the day. Without getting into the graphic details, I’ll just say that the friendship ended when Terminator picked up a dead pigeon on the sidewalk, chased us with it and then proceeded to eat it!

Terminator - the dog

Megan, Samm, Kelly, Jake and Terminator

Terminator chasing Megan with pigeon in mouth

I could write pages about playing in parks, running from Terminator, laughing over meals/beers and 3Ds bags, joking about running out on our Mexican dinner bill, disturbing pigeon experiences and sharing bottles of wine and heart-to-hearts on the bus ride home. I saw beauty and history in the churches and monuments of Cordoba – but the most important thing I can write is this: my most treasured memories of Cordoba are of the people I walked the streets with; not the streets I walked.

Man selling food in the park

"Memoria - Verdad - Justicia"

Memorial to commemorate some of the 30,000 people abducted during Argentina's "Dirty Wars"

Inglesia Catedral

Megan throwing a coin into the fountain in front of the Cordoba Supreme Court.