Page 189 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Argentina

C ÓRDOBA AND THE ANDEAN NOR THWEST  187

3 Villa General
Belgrano
Road map B2. 55 miles (89km) SW
of Córdoba. * 5,000. @ n Julio A.
Roca 168, (03546) 461-215.
Open 8:30am–8:30pm daily. _
Oktoberfest Beer Festival (Oct).
∑ vgb.gov.ar/turismovgb
Founded in the 1930s, Villa
General Belgrano is one of
Argentina’s top holiday resorts.
A significant percentage of the A pleasant midsummer view of the meandering Río Cosquín
population is descended from
the surviving crew of the circling majestically overhead. the river of the same name
Admiral Graf Spee, the German Numerous trails, some ardu ous and in the shadow of the
pocket battleship scuttled and slippery, wind 4,150-ft (1,260-m) El Pan de
off the Uruguayan coast in down the steep Azúcar. The summit of this
1939. A monument to the canyon and alongside sugar-loaf mountain affords
crew stands in Plazoleta the river at the bottom. great views of the sierras. It
Graf Spee. There is a wide variety can be reached by aerosilla
The town’s main of flora and fauna that can (chairlift) from the well-
thoroughfare, Avenida be found along the way, signposted lower station
Julio Roca, is lined with including giant ferns and located at the foot of the hill.
beer cellars and souvenir rare white gentians, wild Cosquín’s fame rests on its
shops; the former cats, foxes, indigenous unofficial status as Argentina’s
purveying authentic The majestic rodents, and several folklore capital. The Festival
German food and drink, condor types of snake, none of Nacional de Folklore, held
the latter, an assortment which are venomous. annually in January in Plaza
of tourist merchandise. With Próspero Molina, draws many
its chocolate shops, Lutheran folk and classical musicians,
chapels, and strains of oom-pah 5 Cosquín dance troupes, and fans from
music, Villa Belgrano still Road map B2. 40 miles (63 km) NW of around Argentina and beyond.
preserves a vibrant Germanic Córdoba. * 19,000. @ n Cosquín The town’s best year-round
atmosphere, especially when San Martín 590, (03541) 454-644. _ visitor attraction is Museo
it explodes into life in October Festival Nacional de Folklore (Jan). Camín Cosquín, on the RN38,
with the increasingly popular ∑ cosquinturismo.gob.ar which displays local archaeo-
annual beer festival. logical and paleontological
Dating back to colonial times, finds, including fossils,
4 Parque Nacional Cosquín is one of the oldest semiprecious stones, jewelry,
Quebrada del settlements in the region. This and ceramics crafted by the
town is built on the banks of
area’s pre-Hispanic inhabitants.
Condorito
Road map B2. 53 miles (85 km) SW of The Boyhood of Ernesto Guevara
Córdoba. @ n Fundación Cóndor,
(03541) 433-371. Open 24hrs daily It was because four-year-old Ernesto
(visitor center: 9am–4pm Mon–Fri, Guevara suffered from asthma that his
8am–8pm Sat, Sun, & hols). 8 call family left behind the muggy climate of
ahead. -  by prior arrangement. Rosario for the drier air of Alta Gracia in
∑ condoritoapn.com.ar 1932. Although he never shook off the
asthma, his childhood was both happy
Covering an area of 16 sq miles and active and he excelled at sports. The
(41 sq km), Parque Nacional young Ernesto’s mind was no less agile. He
Quebrada del Condorito is one competed in local chess tournaments from
a young age and plundered his father’s
of the few places in the world library for literary treasures ranging from
where condors can be seen in The revolutionary Che as a Jack London to Sigmund Freud. For the
their natural habitat. The park young man adult Che, life would only become richer.
surrounds a deep, misty gorge He left Córdoba to study medicine at the University of Buenos
that cuts through the hills of Aires in 1947, before embarking on the first of his well-chronicled
the Pampa de Achala. The cross-country journeys in 1949. His radicalism dates from here; the
ravines form an ideal breed ing restlessness and travel-hunger of a boy who read London and Verne
ground for condors, and adult long before he touched Marx and Trotsky was already present.
birds with wing spans of
over 10 ft (3 m) can be seen

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