Cordoba's final epic

The last few weeks have been more than eventful.

We moved out of our house in the mountains of Cordoba. We said goodbye to our little house, to our almost daily strolls through the village, which took us 40 minutes one way.

The "shit, I forgot the eggs for the cake" moments, too bad, they'll have to wait until tomorrow.

The return to life was chaotic, as we were extremely overloaded, and following the advice of Flor, a friend we met at the hippie festival. We took a "shortcut", except that my suitcase was rolling and the paths were impassable, starting from a slope full of stones to a passage over a river until we found the little door leading to the bushes, where when you went inside you'd find the path leading to the bus stop.

Honestly, it was a real pain, but we were lucky enough to arrive 2 minutes before the bus (I don't know what the miracle was).

And so we headed for Carlos Paz to stay with Flor's family for a few days. We are welcomed like luxury guests. Flor's mom cooks up some really tasty food for us.
I even had the opportunity to take part in an unusual event, as her sister and her partner's sister announced a double birth to the whole family. What a wonderful family event!

It's also time to say goodbye to Anisah, who is returning to Europe for the Christmas holidays. We'll meet again in March.

After a lot of hard work, I finish the first version of the application, as well as the beginning of the documentation for the application. We're now entering the test phase, before implementing the final functionalities and starting to launch the application.

It's a good thing I finished there, because the next few weeks would be busy.

It's my turn to say goodbye to Flor's family, whom I'll be seeing again in a few days' time, and off we go for one hell of a week.

Indeed, it's a city-change mission, from San Marcos Sierras to Carlos Paz (4h bus ride). I'm now heading for Cordoba, 1 hour away, before embarking on a 12-hour bus journey to Mendoza.

Once in Mendoza, I stop for 2 nights in two different hostels.

I arrive at 9am at the first hostel, which tells me it's sold out, so I head for the other hostel owned by the same owner, but which came highly recommended. So I walk another 30 minutes with my suitcase and my big bag. I'm starting to get trained shoulders!

 I get in touch with the person who made the logo for us, just to have a chat in person, but unfortunately I miss her by a few hours because she's on her way out.

I spend the morning working, and next to me I hear a coach learning with the well-known David Laroche. Unfortunately, I won't have the chance to talk to him at length, but the few small discussions we had were very interesting.

I'll mainly be meeting two Frenchmen and an Argentinean.

I have a long chat with the Argentinean, who explains that he studies physiotherapy but is also very interested in Chinese medicine. I don't know much about it, apart from the fact that they put needles in places that have effects on other parts of the body that you'd never bet 10 euros on.

He tells me about Qi qong, and introduces me to Iron hand, a guy who, using Qi qong energy, creates a bubble around his hand with the energy depending on the material so that he can break it.

Well, from the look of his hand, I don't want to try it at all. But the theory is interesting.

After going through several topics, including a very interesting one called the 5 wounds of the soul. This deals with the idea that when the heart is wounded, it generally goes through these stages, adopting masks for each of these states.

• Rejection
• Abandonment
• Humiliation
• The betrayal
• Injustice

The rest of the evening will be spent with the two Frenchmen, during which we'll have some deep conversations about our personal wounds.

It's good to speak a little French

The next night is spent in the hostel where I originally wanted to go. I take part in an inter-hostel event to discover the squares of the city of Mendoza. Each has its own story to tell about Argentina.

I'll tell you all about it, but if you're really interested, you can Google it.

I have too much to write.

We end up in a bar, chatting with a Chilean and two Argentinians. We talk about the cultural differences between our countries, and I learn a lot about the enormous cultural differences between two neighboring countries.

I'm not too late, as I forgot to tell you. If you haven't noticed, I've been in Argentina for a while now. And I only have a few days left on my visa. So the next day it's off to Santiago de Chile. I took a little Airbnb to teach a class and leave for Argentina the next day.

3h bus ride later I arrived at the border where the wait was worse than at Disney in July. 3 hours to get through all the controls. There are 5 buses in front of us, so the flow of people isn't very high. But I've made a little group of friends and we swap stories while we wait.

I've just arrived in the capital, and I've realized that the more things go, the more I arrive like a tourist in a country.

I realize I have no internet connection, no money from home, I have an address and 3 screenshots of the metro station departure and arrival.

I scramble to find the metro, and realize I don't even know what currency they use here. And I have even less idea about the exchange rate.

I find a cash machine in the subway station. I take out 20,000 I don't know what, it costs me 8,000 I don't know what. I realize I'm being swindled, but I don't have much choice this time. That'll teach me.

Apparently I have enough je ne sais quoi to pay for the metro and come back.

In the subway, I look at the ads to try to see the prices and understand how much I have in my pocket.

Considering the price of a metro ticket, I think I have about the equivalent of 20 euros in a country with an equivalent budget in Europe.

I can get to the Airbnb without any difficulty at all, and I can imagine putting my parents through this when they come. And as much as I know my sister would laugh and have no problem. I think Dad with his experience would be pretty comfortable, but I'm not sure how Mom would react.

I settle in and make it my mission to go and eat sushi. Because it's hard to find fresh fish in Argentina as there's no sea nearby.

I wouldn't have taken the most exceptional thing but as I only have 20 euros with me. I potentially have no other means of payment for the next two days.

It turns out that my magic Wise foreign bank card works like a charm. I'm even posting a sponsored link because I think it's so worth it. If anyone is ever looking for this. https://wise.com/invite/ahpc/julienguillaumecyrils

So I pay with my phone and it goes to a very close rate with no surcharge.

I'm going home because I get up at 4 a.m., which is 4 hours from now to teach.

I had asked for a late check-out so I could have 1 hour's peace and quiet after my class.

I find myself in a small shopping mall, wandering around, looking for a place to get a massage. But unfortunately I won't find it.

On the other hand, I discovered a toys'r'us type store where I wasted an hour of my time.

I can even see a mother with her son on a dinosaur, straddling it like a child.

So of course I looked at the price, which was 5 euros for 5 minutes. I didn't have enough money with me to spend at the time. Otherwise I would have gone for a walk.

After a few games of chess on a bench thanks to the public wifi and an ice cream. I'm off to catch the bus back to Mendoza.

I cross the border again, this time outside at an altitude of 3,000 metres, so it's a bit chilly.

I give an address and my passport. And here we are, welcome back for 3 months in Argentina.

We emerge from the bus to have our luggage checked. Everyone goes through the gantry, everyone rings the bell. Everyone gets back on the bus.

I feel as if I've taken part in a hidden camera show. Because, from my point of view, I got off the bus to walk around 30m and back.

Back to Mendoza, last night in a hostel before moving into my apartment.

I arrive at 10 a.m. and check-in is at 1 p.m. Luckily, thanks to my first visit, the volunteers go out of their way to make my bed for me. Unfortunately this isn't possible, and I collapse into the hammock for 1 hour before a hand gently wakes me up to tell me that my bed is ready.

I collapse for 6 hours straight before waking up at 6pm.

In the evening I chat with two Germans, one 19 and the other in his thirties. And it turns out that both of us were writing on our travels.

She was writing a detective story.

He was writing a book about his trip. His life's goal was to visit every country in the world.

By the age of 19, he had already done 23. And in his book, he seeks to share his story to encourage young people to travel even with very little money!

He talks about his way of traveling. And it's very rare for me to meet people who started traveling before me and who understand the pleasure of the unknown.

We finish with a jenga and a dice game.

Today I'm moving into my apartment, where I'll be spending two weeks working on the application and giving lessons, before setting off on an adventure in the Andes. I've met an Esteban who lives here, so maybe I'll also find the Cities of Gold...

Charlotte I count on tao to have the ref