Alta Gracia

Sunday, Jan. 30

The air is so refreshing today. I am headed to the mountains again, so it may actually be cold there.

I have been trying to determine a schedule so I can make a reservation for Buenos Aires. It is just so difficult to plan. I have no idea whether I will stay 1 or 2 nights at each of the small places I will be visiting. It depends on how I like the place, how much there is to do there, the cost of the hotel I get there, and whether the weather cooperates. My best bet is that I will arrive in BA sometime between Feb. 9 and 11. I will have to wait a few more days before making a reservation to try to firm up the date. And when I finally do, it will mean that I lose the luxury of being flexible between here and there.
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It´s been a nice day. I am in the foothills of the mountains in a resort town called Alta Gracia. In old days, it had a resort hotel where welathy people from Buenos Aires came for the summer. It is also where Che Guevara lived most of his childhood.

When I arrived at the bus station in Córdoba, a very pretty young woman asked me to wait. Then she came out of the booth and walked me to a back platform where there were mini-buses. She stayed with me until the bus arrived.

None of the three employees at the tourist office here in Alta Gracia spoke English, but somehow we communicated. They suggested two hotels, and I got a room at the second one. Then they recommended a restaurant and I had luch there. They were jolly and their assistance worked without English.

My hotel, La Posada, is called an “apart-hotel.” In the U.S., it would be called suites hotel. The room has a living area with two sofas and a coffee table, and the bedroom has a double bed with a credenza and a lamp table. The TV on the credenza can be turned toward either the living area or the beedroom. The bath has its own hot water heater. And there is a small kitchenette just outside it, although there is no refrigerator.

Well, I splurged at lunch and finally had my authentic Argentinean dining experience. I went to Lo de Damian for parrilla (mixed grill). It is an all-you-can-eat place that was full of local people. One table was vacant when I entered at 1:50 p.m., and it was still completely full when I left at 3:00. There was a salad table and a dessert table, and meats were brought to the table by the waiter. The salad items were so good that I went twice to that table. The things I had were salami, two kinds of sliced dried ham, a mixed salad, potato salad, pickled white beans, pickled eggplant, pickled green bell pepper, and pickled peppers and green beans. I also got what I thought was pickled artichokes, but it was either pickled octopus or pickled stomach. For my first (and only) piece of meat, they brought a huge steak that was 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick and about 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter. Even though they had cooked it well done (I would have preferred medium), it was tender with the taste of having been cooked over wood. A platter of freshly-cooked French fries came with it. I could have requested other meats, but I was too full. Instead, I went to the dessert table and got slices of two kinds of cake (a chocolate-cherry cake and a nut cake). I also got a candied fig in sauce. With the meal, I had half a bottle of wine and a small bottle of water. With a tip, the total price ws 27 pesos ($9.14 U.S.)

I visited two museums. Before lunch, I went to the home of Che Guevara. It is a nice simple home. There are many in town like it. I ws reminded of the home in One Hundred Years of Solitude because, like the home in the book, extra rooms had been added onto the back of the house over the years as they were needed for more persons and/or as new needs occurred (like needing a new laundry room). There was a nice video using their home movies and having English sub-titles. There were many photographs. There was a motorized bicycle like the one he used for the first of this two long journeys.

The other museum was the Jesuit Estancia which is the reason for the existence of the town. “Estancia” is the term for a ranch settlement. Ranches here were large affairs like those in South Texas. The rance headquarters included a home, a church, housing for the workers, a store, etc. As I understand it, there was a controversy between the Catholic Church and the Jesuits, and the church told the Jesuits they would have to support their on missionary work. The Jesuits, therefore, established many estancias in fertile regions so that the profits could be used to support their missions in the jungles. Alta Gracia was the headquarters for one of their estancias. Eventually, the Jesuits were disbanded by the church, and the estancias became privately owned. That´s why the official name of this one is Virrey Liniers.

The town is preparing for a festival that begins Tuesday. Tents are being put up in streets. A large stage has been built in the park. I am glad I arrived in advance, or I might not have ever gotten a room.
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It began to sprinkle and then rain as darkness came. I returned to my room. I had some plums I had bought, and I had those for dinner. Unfortunately, I chipped the bonding on one of my front teeth against one of the pits.

Walking: 22,379 steps (16,078 aerobic steps), 943 calories, 15.21 km (9 miles)