First four days in Cordoba

Before I begin I have to apologise for the lack of pictures, I promise they will be on the way soon.

I have been in Cordoba for 4 days now. What a city! First impressions were that it feels a lot like Barcelona or Madrid. However, it is ridiculously hot here, almost unbearable when I have to wear trousers to work. At the moment it's averaging around 30 degrees, it's meant to get hotter next week...
One lasting impression I will have is the buses. As people will know, I avoid buses at every opportunity. Here, that is unavoidable. I will never be complaining about buses in the UK again. Every journey is an absolute nightmare, especially as the roads are jammed with pot-holes

The family I am staying with are very nice and accommodating. They cannot speak any English though, which means my Spanish has been pushed to the max. I am also living with an Australian girl who is on the same Project as me. She speaks no Spanish and watching her try to communicate is hilarious.

Before I arrived I had very little idea what my job was going to entail. I found out pretty quickly that I'm going to be working at a correctional facility for teenage boys. Most of the crimes they have committed are trivial things. However, as you can imagine I was pretty terrified for my first visit, especially as I was told to leave any valuable items at home as they will most likely nab them. On Monday I am visiting their houses in the slums of Cordoba. The aim is to get to know their families and build up a connection with them.

I also have to write 2 essays while I am here on human rights issues in Argentina. For some reason my Project Coordinator thinks I am really interested in military governments in Argentina. I am not. However, to keep up the facade I am writing my first essay on the Dirty War in the 70s in Argentina. It is most famous for the forced disappearances of up to 30,000 dissidents. It is well worth a look on Wikipedia as in the UK we know very little about what went on.

This weekend I am off to a Wine Festival in Mendoza with the Australian girl I am living with. There is a bike tour which we will take. I think that by the end I am going to be too sloshed to be riding a bike though! I will make sure I take lots of pictures.

Will be blogging again in a few days :)

Introduction

So today is the day I finally leave to go to Argentina, I have been looking forward to this day for a long time. I finished packing this morning, three and a half months worth of packing is extremely heavy!

I thought I would give you all a brief itinerary of my trip so you can keep track of where I'm off to next.

For my first month I will be living in a city called Cordoba in Argentina, working with a Human Rights Group called Projects Abroad.
For the next two and a half months I will be travelling with two mates called Tom and Ed (they will be contributing to the blog when we start our travels). Our travel plans are still pretty sketchy but our basic plan is to start in Rio, pass into Argentina via the Iguazu Falls and then make our way down into Patagonia in the South of Argentina. Then we will be travelling up the whole length of Chile on buses, stopping off at cities along the way.
Then our plan is to spend some time in Bolivia, visiting the Salt Flats and the infamous Death Road (as seen on Top Gear), which we will be cycling 30 miles of. Our final country is Peru where we will be taking on the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog. I will be trying to update it as regularly as possible, however it does rely on the availability of wi-fi.