Three Weeks in Alta Gracia

After I arrived back in Argentina from Uruguay, I rented another car. Andrew and I had returned the large van in Buenos Aires because we didn't think that it was necessary to have a car that seated 11 while he was gone. Unfortunately the only cars available in Cordoba that weren't exorbitantly priced had five seats, and even with Andrew gone for a month, there were still 7 of us and our all of our luggage. This meant that we now found ourselves limited in our ability to travel. We had been planning, at some point during our trip, to study Spanish for three more weeks, and so I located a Spanish school in Cordoba. Since the school was unable to house a group of our size and we really didn't want to stay in a big city, we opted to rent another cabaña, this time in Alta Gracia. We found one on a lovely stream, close to a big park and moved in.

Since Alta Gracia is about 30 kilometers from Cordoba, we had to drive in for class in our minuscule car. This forced me to submit to what I viewed as the very unsafe but extremely common Argentinean practice of piling lots of people into small cars without seat belts. I wasn't happy with this plan, but try as I might, I just couldn't locate a larger car that we could afford. The price almost doubled if you wanted a car that fit seven people.


Making the best of our little car

The town of Alta Gracia itself wasn't particularly remarkable. It is a World Heritage site because of the Jesuit Estancia in the center of town.


An unremarkable picture of back of the Jesuit Estancia's church in Alta Gracia

But the real draw of Alta Gracia for us was the people we met there. With the exception of the beautiful Mass we attended at the monastery in Merlo, we hadn't been impressed by our experiences with the Catholic churches in Uruguay, or in Lujan for that matter (priests changing the words of the liturgy, guitars playing out-of-tune cheesy songs, and just a general lack of reverence and enthusiasm on the part of the people). There was a church in Alta Gracia with a sung Latin Mass - something that some of us had never experienced before - so we decided to go. It was not a large church, but it was filled to capacity with with lots of vibrant, large families and many young adults. The music was celestial, and I for one felt like I had died and gone to heaven. After Mass everyone came up to meet us and lots of besos were exchanged.

We were invited to numerous people's homes, but ultimately, we accepted an invitation to the home of the grandma of some of the people there. The house was filled with her adult children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Later in the afternoon, Chris was invited to play soccer with a bunch of the boys, Elli had a new found friend named Rosario to play with, and the older girls were invited to go to the river with the teens and young adults. The girls were gone for hours, and their arrival was heralded by the sound of Argentine folk music complete with guitars. Two cars and one truck pulled up completely filled with young people. The music was coming from the back of the truck where there were quite a few people with guitars playing and singing at full volume (some of these same people were cantors and had the most amazing voices.) It was a beautiful and charming scene.


Some of the group arriving back from the river

Thus began our sojourn in Alta Gracia. The next three weeks were spent studying Spanish and getting lots of practice speaking Spanish with all of our new found friends who generously opened up their homes and hearts to our family.


Elli with some of her new friends

Chris and his friend Jose - They enjoyed the bike course at the local park

During the next three weeks, because of our small car, we limited ourselves to site seeing in Cordoba and visits to various places close to our cabaña. The one exception was a day trip we took to San Carlos Paz, a city on a large lake that our tour book had recommended avoiding. Probably because it was not yet summer, we actually found the place relatively quiet and quite scenic. We stopped at a lakeside heladaria and bought ourselves some ice-cream cones which we ate overlooking the lake. Then we did some exploring. The town's architecture was quite charming overall, with one notable exception, one of the local Catholic churches! We had thought that the new cathedral in Los Angeles was a monstrosity, but this one was in our opinion, was even uglier.


What on earth was the architect thinking?

Enjoying ice cream by the lake in San Carlos Paz

We weren't initially impressed with the city of Cordoba, but once we found a parking place and explored the center of town where the school was located, we were impressed with some of the beautiful old architecture (there are some absolutely amazing churches there) and were charmed by the design of the downtown district with it numerous pedestrian only areas overshadowed by canopies of flowering trees, and filled with a plenitude of interesting shops.


One of many amazing churches, but sadly the only one I have a picture of.

Our time in Alta Gracia passed quickly, and before we knew it, it was time for Andrew's return.