We didn’t have school this week. Why? We have no idea. However, that did not stop us from escaping the city and enjoying a few days of trees, microbreweries and ponies. Aka, living the life, gaucho style. Our destination was Villa General Belgrano, a small mountain town about two hours by bus from Cordoba. Before we left, Sarah did some online research and turned up a review that described the town as “Disneyland meets Nazis.” This turned out to be pretty much accurate and yet (this is the part where you don’t judge me) I loved it. Hokey German decor on every building? Get at me. Beer? Chocolate? Strudel? Um, why the hell not? Just because you’ve managed to fit a german milk maid on every single sign in town does not mean I can’t love you, VGB.

We stayed at a place called Albergue Rincon, which, and I say this at the risk of sounding like I’m writing a guidebook, may be the best hostel ever. It costs 45 pesos ($10) a night and for this you get a super cozy dorm bed, countless cool nooks to curl up in and the possibility that a horse might stick its head in the window while you’re eating breakfast. The atmosphere is completed with an outdoor kitchen and signs like “don’t let the street dogs follow you back from town as they will kill the ducks.” There is also real breakfast which is something that is hard to come by in Argentina. This includes homemade plain (!!) yogurt, fresh-out-of-the-oven pumpernickel bread (!!!) and peanut-butter (!!!!!). So, as you can tell, I’m sold.

The only downside was that our stay happened to coincide with a “midwife gathering” and apparently midwives like to get up at 5 am and make a lot of noise. Who knew, right? Still, breakfast was worth it.

We topped off our Villa General Belgrano experience by going horseback riding with a guy named Manuel who had no teeth and rode a donkey. I mean, could I make this shit up?

Also of interest, I lost my debit card and found a Nancy Drew novel. It turns out Nancy Drew is STILL awesome, albeit for other reasons, like lessons in how-not-to-write-dialogue (“They certainly ruined the Aztec civilization, which in many respects was far above that of their conquerors,” Nancy commented) and why-exclamation-marks-make-you-look-dumb (Suppose he used the nefarious machine tonight! He might blow up the rock at any minute!)