Argentine Adventures #13: Capybaras and visiting missionaries in Córdoba
The Ecoparque, almost missing another flight, delicious food, and an Argentine gap year program
Finally, the Ecoparque!
After my disappointing attempt two days before, I once again caught the bus to Plaza Italia—from a more central bus stop this time! On my way, I bought two medialunas (croissants). One was sweet and custardy, the other was savoury, wholemeal and with seeds. Unlike most pastries, it wasn’t too rich for me, so is my favourite so far!
This time, the Ecoparque was actually open. I’m so glad I went, even carrying my 7kg backpack for the flight later that day. My jaw dropped… there were capybaras1 everywhere! They freely run about, all over the place, in and out of habitats. Jon would have loved it so much! They look halfway between a rabbit and a cow. I even got a selfie with one!
After this, I took another bus to barrio chino (Chinatown). There was at least one person speaking in Mandarin! Like Melbourne, Buenos Aires is multicultural, but despite this, it’s highly monolingual; people tend to immigrate from other Spanish-speaking countries. I found an odd torta for lunch and walked to Parque Barrancas de Belgrano, where I read for a while.
Another airport scramble
That is, I read until I realised I should have left ten minutes ago. And then I took a while to decide if I should bus or Uber. I settled on the former, since it was so cheap and only slightly slower. However, this trip involved a transfer—two buses. The first one was fine, though I already felt anxious about catching my flight on time. But then I got very stuck trying to find my next bus! Turns out, I just had to wait a while.
I arrived at Buenos Aires Aeroparque about an hour and a quarter before my flight. It took a while to get through customs, so I’m glad I didn’t leave any later! As I stood in line to have my things checked, I was freaking out a bit, because I couldn’t read the flight information. Despite standing a few metres away, I couldn’t make out the sign at all!! Alas, my eyesight continues to decline… it’s scary.
Thank God, I found my gate, and they hadn’t started boarding yet. I got on the plane no problem, and the flight was short: just over an hour. I had an aisle seat, but could still admire the lights of Buenos Aires out the window.
Staying with missionaries in Córdoba
Martin kindly picked me up from the airport. It was cold! Córdoba is much smaller than BA: it’s a city of 1 million compared to the greater capital’s 13 million.
We drove back to their home in the south of the city. I put my things down, went to the bathroom, met Julie, then was invited to crash their date night! We went to a lovely wine bar/restaurant place. I don’t drink, but still enjoyed looking at many different label designs.
We also had excellent desserts! This is the first Argentine restaurant I’ve been to in my time here and everything was delicious.
Año Puente
We left for the seminary at about 8:15am the next morning. That didn’t leave me with a lot of time for sleep (dinner had been at 8:30pm, so we got back after 10pm)—but I got by. Again, I’m blessed to have a whole room to myself! My bed is one mattress on top of another, and it kind of bows in the middle so I feel wrapped up in a cocoon as I sleep. It was erganomically confusing.
Anyway, Año Puente was great! It’s a gap year program for young people all across Argentina. They start each day reading the Bible together—going through Ecclesiastes at the moment. (Same biblical book as that day with the CEP in Chile!)
Their main class was on the Now & Not Yet in the epistles. It was great to see a girl my age, Sol, being trained and teaching others in turn. Her name (meaning ‘sun’) is apt; she radiates joy and warmth. We had sandwiches that Martin picked up—mine was milenesa (similar to schnitzel). They were only $3.500 ($4AUD) and there was a lot of meat! Then I was the guest for lunch-time English practice. I showed some photos of people and places in Australia. They were intrigued to hear how ‘early’ we eat dinner!
A Brief Theology of Periods
Año Puente ran a women’s event that night, based on A Brief Theology of Periods (Yes, Really) by Rachel Jones. I’ve heard of the book; St Alf’s has run something similar. I helped prep food, then was the official fotógrafa.
So many women came! Sixty signed up, but over 70 were there. Sounds like many churches here are complementarian, but there’s unfortunately not much women’s ministry happening.
I quickly learned the word for pain, dolor. All of the women presenting did a fantastic job, especially Sol. She was nervous, but taught a great overview of biblical theology.
One of the girls with no English came and sat with me. I was very tired, but it was fun trying to communicate. It encouraged me in my Spanish, too!
The event finished at 9:30, but by the time we cleaned and packed and got home, it was 10:30. I had a quick dinner of soup and went straight to sleep.
Unfortunately, science has interfered with this observation. It seems the creatures I encountered were labelled with the same Spanish word as capybaras, but are some slightly smaller rodent. Still cute, though.
MAGNIFICENT almost Cappy photos!!