Córdoba and Parque Nacional Quebrada del Condorito



Córdoba



Sometimes you really love a city; other times not so much. I didn’t like Córdoba. Maybe my expectations were too high or maybe I was just tired of big cities. Either way, I just never clicked with that city. 

Córdoba is the second largest city in Argentina and was awarded the title “Cultural Capital of the Americas” in 2006. According to Lonely Planet, and a man I sat next to on the plane from São Paulo to Buenos Aires, there are loads to see and do in this city. And to be honest there are a lot of nice colonial buildings and churches to look at and a number of museums and galleries to visit. I just wasn’t in the mood for any of that.

Colonial street in Córdoba

So, after almost two days of just wandering aimlessly around the centre of town and hanging out in the shade at a café drinking expensive lemonades, I booked a day hike to Parque Nacional Quebrada del Condorito to get away from the traffic and noise. The main reason I booked this tour, however, was that I wanted to see the condors for which this canyon is famous.

The two previous days in Córdoba had been warm and sunny, but of course on the day of the hike it was cold with a slight drizzle. I don’t know exactly what went through my head that morning (maybe it was a lack of sleep or maybe weather optimism) but for some reason I left for the hike without my rain coat. Bad mistake! The weather grew increasingly worse during the day to the point where the rain was literally beating down on our heads. As we more or less hiked within a raincloud all day we didn’t see any of the beautiful views of the canyon and surrounding mountains that we had expected. Even the condors were hiding.

"View" of the canyon from the lunch site

I don’t know if it was because our guide thought he should compensate for this lack of views and condors, but all of a sudden he went into Indiana Jones mode and guided us down a slippery mountainside to reach what he said was a very nice “covered” lunch site. I highly doubt that a lot of people go there for lunch, as it was a serious scramble through bushes, ferns and trees over slippery rocks. Furthermore, “the lunch site” turned out to be nothing more than a little cave with a cliff overhang. Luckily, the scramble back up was a lot less scary and after a few more hours of hiking in the rain we made it back to the van soaked to the bone.

Back at the hostel, I was treated to a warm shower, thé and popcorn by the “Hostel Mamma” before it was time to pack up (my now very wet clothes) and head to the bus terminal for my night bus to Mendoza.