Iguazu Photos
I arrived in Cordoba yesterday and it was a beautiful day which was unfortunately consumed by airplane delays. The ride into the city had me a bit concerned because it took forty-five minutes (a whopping $8 taxi ride) with most of it in the very flat countryside (lloks a lot like Sacramento) and through rather boring town streets. But during the last few minutes we finally got into a real city and things looked up. I walked around last night and found it to be a great place. The three things I like most is that it is not a verticle city (hence why the long ride from the airport), it has a lot of walking-only streets and it has old churches and other buildings. This is the first place in Argentina where the colonial churches are numerous and still here. After visiting the tourist office and getting hooked up for a tour and a trek outside of the city for Friday and Saturday, I went into the cathedral ajacent to the beautiful San Martin plaza. It was starting to rain and the church looked like a good refuge.
Well, I walked into a packed church where an Easter Week mass was taking place. I found a place to stand to the side in the standing-room-only cathedral. I was looking at the unbelievable plaster and paint work on the walls and ceilings and listening to a guitarist and choir before I realized almost everyone at the mass was dressed like a priest. In fact, they were all priests in the seats! I determined during eucharist that there were hundreds of priests and they must be from all of the Cordoba churches and beyond. They were all dressed in white robes with their scarf or banner or whatever it is called over their necks and shoulders. While waiting for eucharist, they were quite chatty and laughing a lot. It was obvious many of them were good friends that had not seen each other in some time. The priest leading the mass had a red cap on and I assume he is the archbishop or maybe even the cardinal for this area. He gave each one of them a small gift and big hug as they came up to the altar. I obviously had walked into the mass for the priests to celebrate the Holy Week prior to their busy weekend. I enjoyed the mass, the first one I had been to in many, many years. There were also a number of nuns in the crowd, but all of them were standing. I guess the seats were only for the priests. I guess that makes sense since they are the ones always giving the masses and this was for them. At the end, the priests whipped off their scarves and robes and I laughed because many of them were in normal street clothes with cellphones attached to their belts.
It rained hard all day. This is three or four days of rain in the past week and, of course, a couple of days of travel when it was nice. I guess the odds have caught up to me. We’re suppose to have one more tomorrow and then some hot weather – good. I like Cordoba enough that I decided to stay here for a few days. I’ll head north to Tucuman and then on to Salta via bus when I am done here. I have decided to skip Rosario because I quite frankly can’t imagine a place having women that are that much more beautiful than the rest of Argentina including here in Cordoba. I have about seven more weeks in Latin America and I am trying to time things right so that I finish Peru in mid-May and have some time to do something else before getting back to California.
Follow this link to photos of Iguazu Falls taken on a beautiful day and full moon night…
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/vagabondrick/album/576460762396623380
Tags: argentina, south america, Travel
vagabondrick
Rick,
We so appreciate reading your reflections of people, places and experiences. It sounds like you ran into Holy Thursday services where the priests get their water and oil blessed for Easter Vigil services. If you ever get to Washington state, you always have a place to stay (being so experienced with rain, this place should be very comfortable for you)!
T & C
Wow Rick: you sure lucked in at being allowed to stay at the mass for priests. And here’s my Happy Easter Happy Spring wishes. the best of everything to you