"This Club Gets Really Good From 7am to 10am"

I headed down to Cordoba with the two Swedish girls, Sanna and Madis, who I ended up traveling with off and on for the next several weeks. Cordoba is known as the cultural center of Argentina and everywhere you go you see signs for tango or salsa lessons, artistic cinemas, or literature readings. There were tons of plazas or parks within the city and there were also lots of people sitting on the grass, drinking their mate and studying. (Herbal mate is the national drink and served in a gourd with a metal straw. Hot water is stored in a thermos and is poured onto the herbs to be drunk. It has a very strong taste, a cross between green tea and coffee). It is also a big university town, seven in total, and the nightlife there represents that spirit. The city was comfortable to be in, not a lot of touristy things to do. It was here that I first saw the real Argentina... from sipping mate in the park, to the yummy pastry shops on every street corner, women and men practicing tango in parks at all hours of the day, clubs that are packed until 6am, and that reggaeton music and dancing.
The girls and I checked out the city, watched some tango, sipped quite a bit of mate, and danced to reggaeton (we loved Daddy Yankee) till all hours of the morning. We took a day trip to do some hiking at nearby waterfalls and saw a local independent film that was probably quite good if we were able to understand all of it. Without the pressures of being a tourist, we were able to take some time and just enjoy the city. They had an amazing local night market filled with independent artists work and we spent a couple hours prusing all the different art pieces available. On Saturday nights in the main plaza locals young and old come out to dance tango. Someone sets up speakers and plays music and the people just dance. I saw little kids dancing, instructors with their students, and elderly couples that you know wait all week to come out on Saturdays and show their stuff. No one is judged, no tourists, just people out having fun dancing the tango. It was beautiful.

We made friends with some people that worked at the hostel and they invited us to their home for a traditional Argentina dinner which was lots of fun. They brought us to lots of local clubs and bars where I was able to practice my spanish, (and they practiced their english), with some universtity students in the area. Now in Cordoba people head out to clubs at 2-3am and those clubs close at 6am, but a whole other group of clubs open at 6 and they are PACKED. It is at one of these clubs that the famous line was uttered to me "Don't worry, this club get really good from 7am to 10am." That says it all. Argentina put Brazil to shame in the way of nightlife.