La Cumbre

The other day my Norwegian friend Emily and I decided to wake at dawn and take a bus to a town in the sierras of Cordoba called La Cumbre. The sun had yet to rise when I walked into the kitchen in the morning. I made sandwiches, cut fruit, and placed mate in my backpack, went outside and caught the bus to the terminal. La Cumbre is a two hour bus ride from the city. We decided to fill out thermos with water for mate. Note to self, scolding hot water on a bumpy bus ride is not recommended. Not only had we managed to spill mate all over the back of the bus but Emily sat on top of the pack of butter resulting in melted butter all over the seats and her pants. When the bus arrived at the terminal in La Cumbre we were anxious to get off before the driver noticed the mess we managed to make. We wanted to rent horses but after getting lost looking for the ranch and finding out it was 60 pesos an hour we concluded we were better off on foot. We headed back towards the town stopping by numerous restaurants asking if they could heat up the empanadas we had brought for our picnic. We ate lunch crossing the plaza on the riverside. I took out my notes to study for my geography test the next day but little concentration followed. We decided to go hike up the mountain to where a giant statue of Christ had been placed; similar to the one in San Palo Brazil (on smaller of scale obviously). You could see the entire town from where we stood. The houses all had a little English cottage look to them as a large population of Brits had immigrated here. We decided to continue hiking for about an hour when we came across another little river as well as some loose horses including a young foal. When the sun started to cast long shadows we decided we ought to start heading back towards the town. Back in town we came by a thrift store (something that almost NEVER exists in Argentina). We played around trying on Russian fur hats and leather bicker dresses. In the evening we took a bus back to Cordoba we ran into two Scottish girls and a young Irish backpacker. We all sat around sharing our traveling experiences in South America. It was the day I needed, fresh air, the country side, and good a friend.