Mina Clavera

So I took a mini vacay this weekend with my friend Sarah from CC-CS and two German girls (Anna and Sojo) and a guy from Belgium (Pierre) whom we met at the tango class last Thursday. I actually did not know where we were going until I was at the bus terminal meeting up with them (Sarah couldn't remember the name of the village). Turns out it was Mina Clavera which is a town I passed through on my way to and from the farm in Quebrada de los Pozos! It was the same route and everything. What a coincidence. I had a great time getting to know them, but I have to say it wasn't the best way to practice my spanish considering we spoke in english the entire time (they were learning spanish in Cordoba but had only taken 2 weeks of classes). I had a test on Monday too...
But it was fun nonetheless. We found out quickly though that this town is BUMPING in the summer time and there were a TON of tourists on the main pedestrian street. The owner of the hostel we stayed at told us after the summer passes it gets pretty quiet there. I think that would be nice. The town is right along a river and so when we got there we hiked along these rocks beside the river for a while and went swimming more upstream from the town. The sport of choice at the river (especially for the macho Argentine men) was jumping off the rocks and cliffs into the river. We seriously thought we were going to witness death when this one especially confident man jumped from the HIGHEST cliff! Probably at least 200 feet! But I could be totally off I'm never good at guessing numbers.
We spent the whole day at the river and returned to town for helado and a makeshift dinner of bread, cheese, olives and wine (YUM)which we ate at the hostel while talking with other travelers and the owner. I have noticed (after talking about environmental issues with the owner) that the people in the countryside seem to be a bit more aware of environmental impacts than the people I have met in the city. I guess this could be presumed. Or maybe its just a coincidence that I have only visited hippie towns thus far.
After dinner we all had an in depth conversation about culture and language which I love talking about and getting different perspectives from different countries. Then we mustered up all the energy we had left and went out to a bar with live Brazilian music. I loved the music but we were not the liveliest bunch after our day of hiking so we didn't stay long. The next day we bussed it back to Cordoba while Sarah and I studied for our exam the next day.
So there we have it: my first weekend trip. I think next time I would like to do some camping in one of the national parks nearby. I mean I already have my tent with me and apparently you can just set up your tent anywhere you want and it doesn't cost anything. This worries me a bit with preserving the park but I have to say it would be nice to camp for free.