On Thursday Graciela and I went to a nearby barrio called Jardín Espinoza to visit a friend. This neighborhood is very exclusive and is home to most of Córdoba's professional fútbol players. La cancha/field, where home games are played, is also in Jardín. I had such a good time listening to these women talk because they are hilarious and gossipy. Laura is Graciela's sister in-law/noella and she is a professional pianist. Graciela sang while Laura played- lovely!

Plans for this weekend were to visit Las Sierras Chicas in a small pueblo called Tanti near Carlos Paz. We took a bus out of the city early Saturday.

I think I had one of the BEST days of my life on yesterday. Mika, Rinna, Dories, and I arrived one day after the rest of the girls. Our hostel was more of a hotel with a few casitas on the property. If you visit Tanti stay at this place, Posado del Bosque, it's 40 pesos a night and includes a great desayuno/breakfast. This pueblo has a very small town feel and is located in Las Sierras Chicas- mountains, rivers, etc. First, we went to find the waterfalls and go swimming. Words cannot describe how beautiful this place was. We followed the river until we found the main waterfall and then laid out and swam for the morning. We came back to the hotel at 2 to go on the afternoon excursion. Fernando, one of our guides fit all 13 of us in his truck and we drove out into the more remote parts of Tanti. There were hardly any houses there but there was a huge statue dedicated to the last Indian that was killed during the Spanish inquisition of the pueblo.

This place that we went to was something out of a magazine, absolutely picture perfect rocks, rivers, mountains, little islands of rocks in the rivers, BEAUTIFUL. We went swimming again first and laid out on some of the rock islands, peaceful & perfect. Next was rock climbing which I found out that I really enjoy. Then we went horseback riding on some of the horses of the local boys who tried their best to ask us our ages and favorite colors- the only english that they had ever learned. After that we all went zip-lining off of a cliff and across the entire river to the other side. I have always wanted to try this and am so glad that I had the chance. Some of us went swimming in the river below the girls zip-lining above us, it was pretty awesome!

At the end of all our activities we ate a late lunch that a local woman had baked and brought over for us. Our guides were Santi (santiago) and Fernando and we drank mate with them back at the hotel. After a short siesta we got dinner in the center of Tanti and watched a whole wedding party drive by making a scene in the street. The last place we went to was a lounge called Grafiti- go here if you ever visit.

We woke up today to find one of the many stray dogs around trying to get into our hotel room and watched some more coverage of the earthquake that hit Chile over breakfast. If you're wondering we did not feel the quake here even though provinces nearby Córdoba were hit. God bless the people of Chile.

For now, adiós