The Central Sierras in Cordoba

Our overnight bus ride to Cordoba wasn’t too bad. Cordoba is the name of the province and the capital city. It is a large city and metro area with a couple of million people living there. We got to the Hertz office as they opened. As usual they were very efficient and we were off in no time with our free upgrade to a Fiat. We were coming here to see the central part of Argentina. So far our travels have taken us from the SW to the W and then to the NW. We had gone to Iguazu in the NE in February and, of course, Buenos Aires is in the East. We decided to start with a town about 35 kilometers outside of Cordoba called Alta Gracia.

When we left Cordoba we found ourselves quickly in the countryside (the campo). It was a very rolling terrain which was very green, although a lot of trees were losing their leaves. We seemed to be in cattle country. Off to the west we could see the Central Sierras, this mountain range runs down the middle of the country. These mountains are older than the Andes and not nearly as high. The highest might be 3000 meters. When we turned off the highway at Alta Gracia we found a very long commercial district leading to the town center. On the hill beyond the main business district sits a Catholic church which was part of the Jesuit Estancia that started this town.

The Jesuits order of priests played a large part in the early settlement of Argentina and in this central part of the country there are the remains of many of these estancias. This one is a museum. While the original estancia was many acres, the museum amounts to what was the house, yard and the attached church. They have done a very good job of developing exhibits depicting what life and the living conditions were like in the early days in Argentina. The house and courtyard had a large wall around them with the church being part of the enclosure.

The Jesuits had started farming in the area and were known to have used slaves to do the main jobs on the estancia. Overtime they converted the local Indians to Catholicism and enlisted them as workers at the estancia. When the Spanish brought cattle, the estancias got very large with the cattle, fields for crops, orchards for fruit and vineyards for grapes for their wine. At one point the Spanish threw out the Jesuits and the estancia was bought by an Argentine family. They ran it until the city surrounded it and then it was sold to the government.

The other interesting thing about Alta Gracia was that it was the boyhood home of Ernesto Che Guevara. Jane and I didn’t know much of anything about Che, except that he is very popular here in Argentina. We found the museum in a residential neighborhood. It is in a very ordinary home which was a property his family had rented. They had come here from Buenos Aires because of Che’s asthma. It has artifacts from his early years of his life and a lot of pictures and clothes from his later years. He played a large role in the revolution in Cuba working with Fidel. Then later he held several key government posts in Cuba. He also traveled to many countries as an ambassador for the Cuban government. He left Cuba to work as consultant to other revolutions and was eventually killed in Bolivia. The museum got a lot of publicity when in 2006 Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez made a joint visit. Great company huh??

We were staying in Carlos Paz a town situated on a large lake in the middle of this mountain area. This town is a tourist haven, but very few are around during this late fall period. We were booked into a great B&B which was a very old and large home with a restaurant on the ground floor. The weather was rainy and cold during our four days in the area. Three of our four nights we ate in the restaurant at the B&B right in front of the fireplace. It was a very cozy place with good food, wine and a lot of interesting art. The chef would come out and discuss our meal with us and modify it to whatever we wanted.

For the next three days we drove in different directions each day looking for interesting places. Jane gave out and let me do the third day by myself because it was going to be a mountain drive over the Sierras to see what the central valley beyond looked like.

The first day we went about 130 kilometers to La Cumbrecito, a small village in the mountains. 130 kms is about 80 miles, which doesn’t seem like much, but when it is all two lanes on winding mountain roads leading to a stretch of gravel road it does take a lot of time. The village is tucked in a gorge right near the top of this mountain range. They allow no cars in the village so you park in a lot by a creek at the base of the village. After walking across the bridge there are small shops and restaurants tucked amidst the pine trees just waiting for all the tourists. It is very much like a small Swiss village. The rain came and being this high it turned to snow. The people that were there were all taking pictures. The village had a picturesque church and a pond and waterfall. We spent most of our time in a cozy inn having lunch and staying warm near the fire.

Our next stop was Villa General Belgrano which is a town that was settled by a group of Germans that came off of a WWII transport ship that was sunk near Buenos Aires. They have tried to keep the German and mountain motif throughout the village. Again this is a place visited by tourists most months of the year. We liked the looks of it but it was time to get back to the fireplace.

The next day we went north driving through numerous communities headed for an area where there are many artesans living and selling their goods. Many were located on some back roads around Falda, La Cumbre and Los Coccos, three consecutive towns. This is also an area for vacation homes. Again there was very rolling terrain with the mountains in the distance. We stopped at many of the shops always trying to think what we might squeeze into our already full luggage. Many of the shops were nice places, with nice people and beautiful things.

And the third day I did drive out of Carlos Paz and over a mountain pass into the central valley. The rain the two previous days had been snow at the top of the valley making me feel right at home, Wisconsin boy that I am. The land between Carlos Paz and the pass was all cattle grazing land. Great rolling hills and a road that wound back and forth and finally up and over. Quite a nice drive. The far side was much steeper and it made for a steep descent into the valley. One main road runs down the middle of the valley having many small communities along it. The valley is quite wooded and surprisingly green with many trees that must keep their leaves all year. All the communities are very small. Houses are sprinkled throughout the countryside here, more than in most areas. I picked up a hitchhiker and she told me a lot of retired people live in these remote houses. I did follow the road far enough to go to a reservoir lake and its dam, which was pretty and interesting. Not much excitement here.

For our last day of travel, we looked around Carlos Paz and then headed into Cordoba to catch our late bus to Buenos Aires. Traveling with all of these bags is a pain. We put them in storage at the bus station and went walking in this large city which has many tall apartment buildings lining the streets. From our short visit it looked like a lot of relatively new housing and most of it quite nice. When you have four hours to wait for a bus, I believe in heading to the cinema. We found one in a very large mall in the middle of town. It was a beautiful four story mall dominated by small shops and, of course, the food court. After food court delights, we caught Julia Roberts’ new movie, “Duplicity”. We returned to the bus station to easily meet our 11:15pm departure to Buenos Aires, the city that doesn’t sleep.

We came to see the center of the country and it is different. There is more grass and there are more trees. It is much more undulating terrain and the mountains are not dramatic but powerful. Living here isn’t as harsh as in the desert or in a mountain gorge of the NW and sometimes the lushness is awe inspiring. Argentina is a country of many faces.