[J.] We left Cordoba yesterday morning after spending four
days in this city. And we really enjoyed walking around the streets, visiting
various museums and restaurants. Cordoba feels completely different compared to
Buenos Aires: much smaller, but still large enough and not as many skyscrapers
so that the streets are filled with more daylight; and it also felt slightly
cleaner, fresher in a way.
For whatever reason, it was difficult to find a proper
supermarket in this city. Cordoba seems to be full of little grocery stores
that offer more or less the same small amount of items. We were planning to buy
various ingredients for cooking our own food, but in the end we decided to go
out for dinner as we would have to stock up on a lot of basic ingredients and found
it to be a mission to find those without knowing yet where to go for what kind
of specific ingredient needed. However, it was worth the various restaurants we
visited and we were always walking home with bellies full of amazing food.
We also used our time in Cordoba to stock up on sleeping
bags. Our hosts-to-be at the olive farm in San Juan informed us in advance that
we would need to bring blankets or sleeping bags for the time of our stay as
they would not provide such. We heard about this necessity before from other
farm we were in touch with as well… We decided to buy some sleeping bags as
they are generally lighter and smaller in volume than blankets. It turned out
to be a mission to find exactly those we wanted and we clearly got to know the
streets and alleys of Cordoba way better over the course of it (walking back
and forth comparing offers, always finding only one bag, not two as per our
desires in each shop, wanting to pay with credit card which resulted in more
than double the original price for paying cash, walking back and forth to find
a bank to withdraw money, and so on), but in the end we succeeded. And after
our first night in San Juan, the sleeping bags did not fail their first test.
We went to San Juan by bus. It was a long nine-hour
ride from Cordoba to San Juan, but although it was a long trip we enjoyed it a
lot, watching the various landscapes passing us by. Especially further west,
the landscape so reminded me of South Africa: Dry, small bushes and endless
views with some high mountain ridges in the far distance. How much I would love
to ride a motorbike along these empty dirt roads for days and days! Absolutely
stunning…
We arrived in San Juan in the early evening yesterday. We
did not know if we would get dinner at the farm, and therefore we walked a few
meters down the road from the bus station to find a pizza place. We found a
really nice one and had our fun with the waiters, us trying to express our
orders in Spanish and him trying to guess what we mean… haha, but it worked
out! Really glad that we took these Spanish lessons in Buenos Aires as English
speaking people are not really common outside of the big cities it seems.
Besides sharing one pizza, we also tried a “Lomo”, a lightly grilled sandwich
with thin-sliced grilled meat and vegetables, really delicious!
When we arrived at the farm, I was not too
sure in the beginning about our hosts. The
husband did not smile once when greeting us and showing us our little home for
the next two weeks. Nevertheless, he was really polite and the ice definitely
broke when his wife arrived shortly after, a very warm person.
Our home is a little cottage, with a basic kitchen but a lot
of space. We do not have hot water, but two fireplaces (oh, how my heart warmed
up immediately!!): One for the living area and one for heating up the shower. I
had some problems getting the fireplace for the living room going without smoking
the whole room yesterday, but this evening I got the perks of it. It seems that
every fireplace has its own character and you just have to be patient enough to
discover it… aaaah, how cosy and warm the room is now!
We spent our first day harvesting olives for 7.5 hours. It
never occurred to me that harvesting olives is such a time consuming exercise,
easy in terms of the labour you have to do, but still! – It’s like cherry
picking off the tree: you pick each olive on its on (more or less) and I
definitely increased my respect for good quality olive oil and why it can be so
expensive. We harvested approximately something around 100 kilograms today and
we were told that it needs 10 to 15 kilogram for one litre of olive oil. Maybe
we got those figures totally wrong but if true, the labour involved when
harvesting olives (without considering further processing, or watering the
plants) when not done mechanically really seems a lot!
Anyway, we enjoyed the whole sunny day and were accompanied
by three of the dogs our hosts own. Aaaaah, it is so lovely to finally have
some furry four-legged friends around us again. Creatures to scratch and ‘hug’
and just spent time with! We just so, so miss our two girls…
In the evening, we went grocery shopping to a close-by store
for dinner and it was amazing to hear people we have not met before greeting us
friendly on the streets and within the store as well. Life in a small town or in
the countryside seems so different to the anonymous life in the city…
Well, needless to say that after a full day out in the sun
and harvesting olives left us tired and exhausted in a really good way, with
bodies that are eager to lie down on the mattress. Ooooh, sleeping bags, my
dearest friends… here I come!
In the meantime…
1) For whatever reason, I lately got a bit lazy in taking
pictures, so I do not have not too many available from Cordoba. Will try to get
ahead of my game again pretty fast :)
2) It amazes me that besides the 15 kilograms each in our
backpacks and the very basic temporary home we currently have here in San Juan,
there is nothing else I would need right now. Of course, I miss family and
friends. And yes, a warm shower off the tab would be nice. Yes, a couch to
throw myself into is a tempting thought. And yes, an electric heater would
maybe give us easier access to warmth and a heated home. However, I have
everything I need right now, a tired body, a lovely dinner husband prepared,
internet access to write a post about the past days, a fireplace that leaves me
with rosy cheeks, and a whiskey on ice. Sometimes, a simple life can be so, so
good…
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