We spend a day in Córdoba, Argentina’s second city, exploring the different areas of the city on foot, going between colonial heritage and trendy bars.
We arrived in Córdoba after a long journey involving multiple buses to find that the pictures of the hostel we’d booked had been taken by a skilled photographer, choosing angles to hide that this place was a bit rough around the edges. Still, having spent more time on a bus than is deemed safe for your sanity, we were happy to be able to dump our bags in the room and go find something to eat.
Despite the Argentinian habit of eating quite late – 20h30 is not an exceptional time for restaurants to open – we found many places were already packing up at 23h00. Maybe Córdoba doesn’t follow suit here because it has a more temperate climate, and people don’t have siesta as commonly as it is further east. Whatever the reason, we still managed to find a place to gulp down a couple of pints – we like to call this rehydrating – and have a pizza. Pizzas around here are more like Focaccia bread with toppings, by the way. Not bad at all, just a bit different.
Along the way, we’d caught a glimpse of the historic city centre, spotting a couple of colonial buildings that were nicely lit up, in an area that mostly did not allow cars.
The next morning, thankful that we’d brought a couple of eye masks with us to counter the light of the hallway shining into our room, we ate a fairly basic breakfast and got out the door to explore the city.
Córdoba is Argentina’s second most populous city, but the historic centre can easily be covered in a single day on foot. There were 2 areas that we liked.
First, the oldest remaining part of the city, with Plaza San Martin at its core. The cathedral is here, which is peculiar in that it took a couple of hundred years to build, during which several different styles became popular. The end result is an odd mix of roman, gothic and baroque styles all blended into one building. The interior is more consistent, being ornately decorated all over.
A few blocks away, there is the settlement of the Jesuits that originally came to convert this area to Christianity. The outside isn’t particularly interesting, but the church is worth stepping into, as the ceiling is made out of beautiful dark cedar wood.
The second area is sometimes referred to as Nueva Córdoba, and is where many of the students and younger people of the city like to hang out, particularly around Paseo del Buen Pastor. The name would suggest otherwise, but this is apparently a former women’s prison that has been repurposed to house a number of trendy bars and restaurants. Antares was our favourite among these.
The most colourful church we’ve seen to date can be seen from Antares’ roof terrace, and is a particularly nice sight at night, when it is all lit up. During the day, we could not get close to the building as there is a fence around it and the gates were locked, but at night, the gates were open and there seemed to be some kind of event going on. Some tourists were taking advantage of the situation to have a quick look inside the church, and we followed suit. Inside, it was clear that some kind of ceremony was about to start, and going by the atmosphere inside, and dress off the audience, we figured it was a wedding rather than a funeral. As we made our way back out through one of the side entrances, a large black car arrived, and out came a woman, not in a coffin but in a large white dress, so it was definitely a wedding.
Our evening meal was chosen with 2 goals in mind – to fill us up, and to balance our budget, which had been getting out of hand with fairly expensive bus travel and accommodation the previous days. And so it came to pass that I had an OK lomito with some of the worst chips ever, and Heather had green pasta with sauce from a jar, in a restaurant that had printed new menus – not for its 50th anniversary, but for its 51st. At least they had a card machine that worked.