Everywhere it is 'dangerous'

In Cordoba we spend five days. The city is a bit too much for us, although we visit some beautiful churches. Our host Alexis from our second accommodation offers us to ride with him in his car for a day, as his mother works in a hostel 50 km outside of Cordoba and he helps her on this day. We accept the offer and spend a day at a river surrounded by green hills. We enjoy nature, swim in the river, and relax in our hammock. The day is humid and the next day it rains even more and we have difficulties crossing the water-filled streets. We continue our journey to Tucuman in the north of Argentina by bus, which takes us 9 hours.

We arrive in Tucuman when it is already dark. Our accommodation is 4 km away and we ask a group of elderly gentlemen if it is 'dangerous' to walk through Tucuman at night. The people are clear and tell us to take the bus or a taxi. However, in every city you need a different card to take the bus, which needs to be charged with money. Since it is late, we cannot buy one anymore. Luckily, an older gentleman gives us his bus ticket, which also has enough money for both of us. When we ask a young man at the bus stop which is the right bus line, he is shocked about the area we have to go and says that the way is too dangerous for us at night. A group of young policemen is also at the bus stop on their way home. The young man approaches the policemen, who confirm his statement. This is how one of the policemen accompanies us, gets on the bus with us, and takes us the 100 meters from the bus stop to the front door of our accommodation. We feel a bit uncomfortable about it, as the man is already off duty and we cannot estimate whether people are just panicking.

Bruno and Gabriel open the door for us and we thank the young policeman. The two hosts spend a lot of time with us and are interested in doing something with us. They share an apartment and Gabriel has studied Chinese medicine in Bolivia and has his own patient room in the house. We also meet their friend Ale, who is only a little older than us. All three of them represent the philosophy of working as little as necessary and overcoming the fear of the future or the unknown. We have very interesting conversations with them about Chinese medicine, happiness, poverty, and finding one's own path in life. Ale is a psychotherapist and has already written two books, one of which he gives us as a gift. We want to read it when we speak better Spanish. Ale has been surfing for a few years and since we also want to surf in Peru, he teaches us dry exercises with the board on a piece of drainpipe and breathing exercises, so we are already well prepared. Together with the three of them and a friend, we go on a trip to a small jungle where we discover 'Puma' tracks. In the evening, as a thank you to the others, we cook Jakob's father's special recipe again. This time we even succeed even better. We feel very comfortable with Bruno and Gabriel and are a bit sad that we cannot stay longer. But we have an appointment with Jan, who is building a small farm together with his mother Sonia near Santa Maria. They emigrated from Germany three months ago and Sonia is Argentinean by birth. We help with gardening and other tasks next week and in return we can camp in the garden and eat for free. On the bus ride from Tucuman to Santa Maria, we cross three climate zones in five hours. First, the green, foggy hills remind us of the landscape of Scotland, then the climate becomes very dry, like in a desert, and we see huge cacti. We are curious about how the week on the farm will be and what we will learn. The farm is located at an altitude of 2200 meters and we need to get used to that as well as the heat.