Cordoba

Cordoba is known for its UNESCO world-heritage site status and its many prestigious universities, particularly the O.G. of Argentine universities, the Jesuit University that was among the first in South America. This university was later shut down but then reopened a hundred years or so later, after the Spanish crown - which had kicked the Jesuits out of all of Latin America - no longer controlled the country.
In Argentina, it is also known for the beauty of its residents, if such a thing is even possible in that country (for those that don't know, Argentines are considered attractive despite their preference for the mullet haircut).

My personal response to Cordoba is disappointment: although there are some nice areas of historic buildings, most of the city is quite modern. This isn't to say that attending the university int he historic buildings wouldn't be spectacular, it's just that relative to the size of the city (1 million) a few building don't really weigh in heavily. As for the cordobesas - because i was only in town for a short while, and during the week, i really didn't get to meet any, since most of downtown is full of students who come from all over the country. Moreover, my argie friends tell me that what makes them sexy are their accent and inflection in speech. As a result, I think that special something is unlikely to be picked up on by foreigners. This reminded me of one of the many lessons gleaned from all those anthropology classes I took as part of my major: Sex and sexuality with all they entail are, like race, cultural constructs.

Also, the city sounded like it was in the middle of a civil war. There were constantly loud bangs that sounded like cannon shots. The reason for this was an ongoing protest by remis drivers, who blocked roads with their vehicles, burnt tires on the road, thew eggs at those remises that didn't join their protest, and burnt tires in the middle of intersections. They also besieged the municipal government's building so there was a constant stand-off between drivers and heavily armed riot police. That's when they weren't sitting on curbs drinking fernet and cola and verbally harassing the female traffic wardens.

For whatever Cordoba lacked otherwise, it made up for in the people I met. Principally, there were Paul, Frank and Kendal. Frank and Paul are British, Kendal is Australian, and Frank and Kendal are engaged. The two of them are travelling around the world from London on their way to Oz, where they will be married. Paul decided to join them for some time in Latin America as a way to spend time with them. Anyway, they are buena onda as they say in Argentina. The last evening in town, before catching our respective buses, we went out for a steak dinner. The food was delicious, and the steaks were huge - so large in fact that I couldn't finish mine or I would have missed my bus, which I just barely made as it was. I think this was the best steak I had in my entire time in Argentina. And as Frank pointed out regarding the size of our bife de chorizos (sirloin steaks): "It was about the size of a newborn baby...... roughly."