Año Nuevo in Cordoba

Early in the morning Roger called, to say he would like to take us around the sights and give us a better view of the place.
Well we had our porridge and met him downstairs. After a few false starts we finally set off down the steps and towards town.
When Roger mentioned the bus, we thought he was joking, but he wanted us to see what the Cordoba busses were like. It was without doubt a fine bus, with quite luxurious seats, but I still think we could have walked in the time we waited. still this is no time to complain, he is showing us Cordoba after all.
In town we walked toward Plaza San Martin. Roger stopped to talk to the tourist police, who complimented him on his Spanish. They also told him that today (New Years Eve) is classified as a holiday and as such the tourist information and all the museums are closed.
It looked like being a fruitless day. Never the less we saw many of the sights from the outside and even the old hotel where he stayed on his first visit.
There was not much happening so we set off for Barrio Guemes, which is Cordoba’s equivalent of Palermo. We saw the café Arrabal, which is a famous tango spot. Arrabal was almost the only place open.
So we set off for another spot, whose name I cannot remember. There is a church here supposedly quite important, although non of us knew why. The area was full of bars and restaurants and some entertaining sculpture. There was also a musical fountain, but today is a holiday, so it was not working. (Even machines, it seems, do not work holidays.)
Our next stop was Parque Sarmiento, a lovely spot around a snaking lake. It was spoiled somewhat by the amount of litter in the water. We wandered around and managed to get lost. The snaking lake would not let us out. We decided that our guide was not worth his expensive fee and should refund us forthwith.
When we finally got out we found a nice open air bar and had an enjoyable burger each and shared a litre of beer. This is the life.
After this our guide managed to get us back. We hailed a taxi. I think this is cheating, I am sure Livingston never hailed a cab in his search for the Nile.
We are off to Tito and Carmen’s house for new years celebration. We met Carmen, a friend of Mirta in 2008, she came with us to Tigre.
The house was full of her family, but they all welcomed us, as if we were always part of them. The array of food was unbelievable. We had more pork, goat, veal, lashings of salad and of course muchos vino.
Tito seemed embarrassed when I said that Viv did not like wine and sent his son out to buy some beer.
Everything went well until midnight. They had the obligatory fireworks,(Fuegos artificiales) then out came the champagne.
Viv seemed to quite like the champagne, but, I don’t think she was quite prepared for the effect.
Everyone was quite worried when we said we would walk home “Es peligroso” they all said, but a walk in the fresh air was just what she needed.
We got home without incident. Well apart from the occasional stop for Viv to get her bearings back.
I have to thank Tito and Carmen for a great night, and hope that they have forgiven us for leaving early.
Gods fireworks knock spots of the Fuegos Artificiales. Later in the night we had the mother of all storms. One lightening strike was so close I felt the building shake and I could hear not delay in the thunder clap.
Storms don’t usually bother me, but that one scared the hell out of me.