San Valentín in Alta Gracia (cuidado, it's a long one)

We took a little day trip yesterday to Alta Gracia- it's about an hour's bus ride away from Cordoba.  There was an old Jesuit estancia and a chapel.  We went inside and saw a large crowd of people with two at the front- we were able to see the end of their marriage ceremony.

We waited outside to doors and Amanda snapped this photo as the happy couple made their way outside.  We went to Alta Gracia with two other girls from our language school- until one of them said, "How sweet, they were married on Valentine's day!" I had forgotten all about the holiday.

I loved how the photographers followed them and took the photos as they made their way out- there wasn't really any posing.  Whenever I've been waiting outside for couples to come out of the temple, its been followed by family shots, friend shots, bride's maid shots, groom shots and a million other combinations- not that there's anything wrong with that.  As soon as people started throwing rice, I hopefully asked Amanda, "do they let you do that outside the temple?" We both kind of doubted it.  The couple didn't stick around long; within 10 minutes they were in their getaway car driving off.  I bet they had a fantastic party later with friends and family.

Alta Gracia was a really charming and quiet little town... the perfect place for a simple wedding with your friends and family in attendance.

We next headed over to Ernesto Che Guevara's childhood house.  He was born in Rosario in the Santa Fe Province of Argentina; his family moved to Alta Gracia when he was a child because he had really severe asthma and the doctors thought the air in Alta Gracia would help.

Che Guevara met Fidel Castro in Mexico, and then later agreed to join his 26th of July movement by helping invade Cuba and overthrow Fulgencio Batista; the two had a long-lasting relationship.  "To some Che Guevara is a hero that fought for freedom; to others he is the spokesperson of a failed ideology, and a ruthless executioner who didn't afford others the legal process" (wikipedia, because where else do you research stuff?).  

The image above (turned into a monograph) has become a pop culture symbol (outside of Latin America) and is often seen on shirts, hats, bags and whatever else you can think of.  To many it's a symbol of dissent, rebellion, political awareness, or civil disobedience and less a representation of Che Guevara's politics/ideology.  

Che Guevara's house:

Amanda and I broke away from the other two girls that went with us because I wanted to go to the Manuel de Falla museum and I could tell the other two girls didn't care about going one little bit.  Amanda hadn't really heard of Manuel de Falla but was upbeat and happy to go with me- that's one thing I appreciate about her, she's always upbeat and ready to go try anything.

Manuel de Falla was a composer from Cadiz, Spain.  After the Spanish Civil War ended, Manuel de Falla moved to Alta Gracia where he died in 1946- I'm pretty sure he moved there (at least in part) for health reasons.  His house (now a museum) was a few blocks away from Che Guevara's.  

Manuel de Falla wrote operas, symphonies, piano concertos and... GUITAR MUSIC!  I think a lot of the classical guitar music has been transcribed from other instruments but whatever, it still counts.  In the classical guitar world there is a large competition through the Guitar Federation of America- winners of this competition and other international competitions come through Salt Lake City every few months and play recitals (or concertos with the Utah Symphony).  I always try to make it to these concerts- I LOVE going.  Anyway, these world- class guitarists play pieces by Manuel de Falla all the time; they are pieces I have heard over and over and still enjoy listening to.  One day when I'm a master guitarist I will play them.

So we weren't supposed to take pictures inside but...

I absolutely had to...

Look! A piece composed JUST for the classical guitar... an homage to Claude Debussy.

I may as well just come out and say it: I enjoyed the Manuel de Falla museum WAY more than the Che Guevara museum even though the Guevara museum is more popular (we were the only ones at the de Falla museum).

After the Maneul de Falla museum we went back to the Jesuit estancia to look around.

There was a really neat and sophisticated irrigation system (which I can't show you because they wouldn't let us take pictures inside- don't know why).  This estancia was built in the 17th century and offered economical support to the Colegio Máximo which is now known as the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba- the oldest school in Argentina, and second oldest school in South America.  

The other two girls we were with wanted to meet up at a parilla after we were done looking around; I'm glad it wasn't open because I wasn't that hungry and didn't want to strap on the feed bag just then.  The other two girls bought some nasty sandwich at a kiosk but I'm glad I held out because there was a salami (en español: salame) vendor across the street.

It was amazing... you can tell by the way my eyes are glazed over.

I even made friends with Luciana- the vendor that sold us the salame.  She's from Córdoba but lives with her grandparents in Alta Gracia- she's got a lot of family in Alta Gracia.  Her favorite movie is The Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger.  

The only downer to the trip was that one of the girls had a bad attitude towards the end of the day.  We couldn't find the bus depot and ended up walking at least 45 minutes out of the way- in her defense it was hot and humid and she was probably tired- but when you're in a foreign country and don't speak the language very well, you're going to walk in circles and get lost.  You just are.  She said something pretty nasty that totally embarrassed me because a local family was walking by and heard; at first I didn't quite believe what she had said but then I asked Amanda later and it turns out I heard right.  She might as well have stamped "Ugly American Tourist" on her forehead- ours as well because we were with her!  That's the last trip I do with ANYONE from the language school; at least with Amanda I know she's got class and wouldn't act like that.  It didn't occur to me ahead of time that something like this might happen.  Live and learn.

Other than the incident mentioned above, we had a really fun day.