missing my dog friend oreja
hey, whatsup, hello!
the past month was full of crazy adventure including two extremely ~lavish~ trips. first of all, argentina is HUGE!! 1.074 million mi² which is almost 7 times the size of california and almost 1/3 of the contiguous united states. lotta ground to cover in the next few months (literally).
cerro tres picos
eager to get out of the city for a weekend, 3 friends and i decided to hop on an overnight bus to tornquist, a small town on the southern edge of the province of buenos aires, with hopes of summiting cerro tres picos, the highest point in the province (ok to clarify its only 4,000 ft but still really cool). despite the limited (non-existent) information available on the internet about this area, we found our way to the route rather seamlessly.
the hike in was beautiful. it began on a private estancia and traversed through its farmland and pastures before entering the “mountains.” the highlight of this hike, however, was our inadvertent adoption of a dog named oreja (which literally translates to ‘ear’) who guided us through the 6 hour hike to the first campsite, shepherding horses and cows away from the path and ensuring us a safe journey. he was a truly incredible perrito.
we spent 2 nights camping in an amazing cave and played hearts in all of our spare time.
the day we hiked to the top of the three peaks was soOoOo windy. like i was blown over kinda windy. however, we made it up without a problem and the summit was dopee.
córdoba
this past weekend i went on a trip exploring argentina’s second biggest city, córdoba. the jesuit missions, spanish architecture, dry climate and chaparral landscape reminded me a lot of home.
the first day we toured the city itself, including the second oldest university in south america. we also saw numerous plazas, spanish cathedrals, and a jesuit mission that was very similar to those in california.
next we went to alta gracia, a smaller city within the córdoba province, to see a colonial estancia and the childhood home of ernesto ‘che’ guevara. this was cool especially because my only prior knowledge of guevara was from watching motorcycle diaries my sophomore year of highschool.
on the third day we had a chance to swim in río san antonio at a favorite spot from our coordinator’s childhood. it was chilly and marvelous.
great vibes all around. nos vemos.