We were in Cordoba for my birthday (April 10th, just so you know 
, and we decided to take a day trip out to a town called Alta Gracia. It’s a bit south of Cordoba, but only an hour-long bus ride away, so it was pretty easy to get to!
Alta Gracia is primarily known for having been the site of a prominent Jesuit ranch and the birthplace (and childhood home, as well as official museum) of Che Guevarra. Just so you know, we went to the Jesuit ranch (the town has moved so much that the ranchhouse is now surrounded by the town), but I didn’t see anything that struck my photographic fancy, so no photos of it 
.
By far the coolest thing that happened was that, coincidentally, we arrived in Alta Gracia on the day that the regional Gaucho Competition began. It started with a parade:
Here are some of the other gauchos we saw that morning during the parade:
But, the parade wasn’t all! We found out – after asking the local tourist office, which sits in this clocktower:
that the regional competition began that afternoon in town. So, we decided to walk around the town for a bit, seeing the Jesuit ranch and the Che Museum (more on that later). Then, we collectivo’d it up to the race field, where we saw this:
But that’s not all we saw! Gauchos young and old were preparing, practicing, and racing up and down a an oil-barrel-lined course. I got some great shots; this is one of my favorites:
I made 74 photos of the racing; play through this slideshow because there are some really amazing ones!
So, there are a few things you haven’t seen still. First, the Che Guevara Museum.
It was pretty interesting. Based in the family home that he grew up in, it contained a few family photos, replicas of his bicycle and motorcycle (La Poderosa II), and stories about his childhood and families. Here’s what some of it looked like:
Second, you haven’t seen much of Alta Gracia. This is what we saw as we walked around:
As always, you can click-through (even the slideshows!) and see the original images. (Tech note – I’ve switched to Picasa for photo hosting for the blog, and will slowly move all of our travel photos over. New posts will use Picasa, which enables these slideshows!)
