Jesuit Estancia and Che's House, in Alta Gracia

Main House of Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

Whilst in Cordoba, we took a day out to go to the to the Jesuit Estancia in Alta Gracia, one of five that were established in the areas surrounding Cordoba to provide supplies and income to their city headquarters. It was only about an hour away on the bus, so we could get away with leaving late morning, rather than having to set off at the crack of dawn.

When we got there, we checked in at the tourist information office, which was in the old clock tower, put up to mark the town's 350th anniversary, to pick up a map, and they also gave us the opening times of the places we were interested in visiting. This was helpful, because unlike in the big city of Cordoba, we were back in the land of siestas. As the Jesuit Estancia was going to be closing soon, we decided to take a stroll around the square, Plaza Manuel Solares, and then have an early lunch before starting on the tourist bits.

Clocktower, Alta Gracia

We opted for a parilla on the square called Trattoria Oro, which if I am honest, didn't really look too promising. The Italian sounding name, the rather uninspiring looking frontage, and an old fashioned and slightly ragged interior, all suggested that the food would be more about sustenance than enjoyment.

However, one thing that we have learnt in Argentina, is that the old phrase 'you shouldn't judge a book by its cover' could have been coined for restaurants here. As it turned out, not only could we get food choices that were good for our eating plan, it tasted great too.


After lunch, we had a little stroll alongside the Tajamar, a man-made lake that once acted as the reservoir and irrigation source for the Estancia.

Church of Our Lady of Mercy, Alta Gracia

The Estancia, or ranch, would have taken up much of the surrounding area, with both pastoral and arable farming, raising cattle and other animals, as well as growing crops of cereals and vegetables.


There would have been flour mills, and workshops, for trades like blacksmithing, textiles and carpentry, as well as accommodation for the 310 black African slaves and other workers that would have been here.

Church of Our Lady of Mercy, Alta Gracia

The land was given to Juan Nieto by the King of Spain in 1588, and was donated to the Jesuits in 1643 by Alonso Nieta de Herrera, the widow of Juan Nieto's daughter, when he joined the Order after her death. It remained with the Jesuits until their expulsion in 1767, after which it changed hands a number of times before 1868, when Manuel Solares bequeathed it to establish a town here.

Main House of Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

The Jesuit church, Our Lady of Mercy, is now a public church for the town, and the main house is the museum that we have come to see.


The museum has a number of rooms that are furnished as they would have been at various points throughout the building's history, not just from the Jesuit period. Indeed, whilst there is some information about the Jesuits, there is less focus on that than I had expected.

Villa Nydia, Casa de Che Museum, Alta Gracia

Aside from the Jesuit connection, Alta Gracia has a number of other museums, but we only had time for one more, and we opted to go to see the house that had once been home to Ernesto Guevara, or Che.


Ernesto came from a middle class background, and his parents moved to the town in 1932, when he was four years old, in the hope of helping his asthmatic condition.

Ernesto's room, Casa de Che Museum, Alta Gracia

He lived in Alta Gracia with his family, including his four younger siblings, for eleven years, after which the family moved to Cordoba, and then Che went to medical school in Buenos Aires.

During their time in Alta Gracia, they spent some of the years (1935-7 and 1939-43) in this house, Villa Nydia.

The kitchen, Casa de Che Museum, Alta Gracia

There are a number of exhibits from his childhood bedroom and the literature that he read, to tales of his exploits after leaving here, including is infamous motorcycle trips, where he first saw the inequalities in the countries of South America, leading to his eventual role in the overthrow of Cuba with Fidel and Raul Castro.

Che is obviously a hero to many people, even though many of them actually know very little about the man, his beliefs or his actions.

Ernesto as a boy, Casa de Che Museum, Alta Gracia

I personally have yet to learn enough about the man to make a decision about what I think of him overall, so it was interesting to gain a little more information about his childhood background and formative years.

The house, with its statue of little Ernesto sitting on the balcony, saw its visitor numbers rise dramatically from around 5000 a year, to around 100,000 a year after a couple of famous visitors were here in 2006. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez came here together on 22 July 2006, and the resulting coverage saw numbers boom. There was a steady trickle when we were there, but I suspect it is a little off the main tourist route for many people.

Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez visit the Casa de Che Museum, Alta Gracia

Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez visit the Casa de Che Museum, Alta Gracia

Family photos of Che, Casa de Che Museum, Alta Gracia

Photo of Che at medical school, Casa de Che Museum, Alta Gracia

Motorbike like that Che used on his trips, Casa de Che Museum, Alta Gracia

Church of Our Lady of Mercy, Alta Gracia

Main House of Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

Father Domingo Viera, Alta Gracia

Main House of Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

Main House of Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

Main House of Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

Main House of Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

Main House of Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

Main House of Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

View of Clocktower from Jesuit Estancia, Alta Gracia

Havana - and the second old car

The next afternoon the four of us hired one of the big old open top Cadillacs for a drive around the city. This car was in somewhat better shape than last nights, although Russell had for some reason picked a bright pink one!

We drove around the old town, seeing as we passed the old churches, the tree that tradition says people have to walk around on a particular day for luck, and the old town fortifications.

We drove along the Malecon and watched people getting wet as the waves splashed over the sea wall onto the pavement. It seemed to be part of the walk to get wet - perhaps because it is hot no one cares about a quick soaking.

Our first stop was the Hotel Nacional, which was USA built in the 1920s with art deco and arabic influences, and was tremendously popular as a casino and hangout for the rich and famous.  The Mafia bosses used this place for meetings.

After the revolution, the US management left and the hotel was state run.  This is one of the few places that you can see any kind of tribute to Fidel Castro as there is a display of pictures in the lobby here. It is interesting as most longstanding unelected leaders have statues of themselves everywhere, but Fidel has none of that. There is one plaque on a wall in Havana which celebrates him but that is it, and even that is small, understated and on a corner of a building.

We stopped for a while in the Plaza de la Revolucion, which is a huge (72,000 square metre) square that is surrounded by state buildings including the office that was Fidel's and is now used by his brother Raul. This is where the big parades happen. The main structure is a 109 metre high monument to Jose Marti, with rather dwarfs the 18 metre statue of him.

Two of the buildings have large faces on them. One is the Ministry of Communications building with the face of Camilo Cienfuegos, the other is the Ministry of the Interior building with Che Guevara. We had half expected that taking photos wouldn't be allowed, but in fact there was no problem at all.

We drove through a leafy area full of big old buildings, one of which was the British Embassy.  It looked quite impressive, but we were amused to see that it was next door to that of North Korea.  Not something that would happen in most countries.

Of course one country that does not have an embassy here is the USA.  But we were surprised to see that it does still have a presence in the form of the United States Interests Section.  But just in case the US should start to feel too comfortable here, Fidel Castro has created the huge Plaza de la Dignidad next to it with a large anti-imperialist stage where the columns bear the names of revolutionary heroes and North Americans who fight for social reform.  About five years ago, around seventy huge flagpoles were erected right in front of the building to hide the anti castro propaganda that President Bush in his usual diplomatic way, was issuing from there.  President Obama stopped it, but the flags remain.

Our last stop was rather less grand. The John Lennon park is small and leafy, with is a wooden bench where you can sit down next to a bronze John for a photo or a rather one sided chat if you feel so inclined. The writing on the ground is the Spanish of 'You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.'

The cadillac trip is a very touristy thing to do, but it was a bit of fun, and with four of us, the price isn't too bad.

After the trip we stopped off at the Hotel Park View and had some of their excellent small plate food and lovely cocktails. The hotel isn't cheap, but the food and drink in the ornate lobby is reasonably priced and very good. They also have a decent wifi connection - though you do have to pay for it.

Appetites satisfied, we went to a nice bar that Nic and I had found the day before. The Monserrate is a fairly small and understated bar, but the drinks are good and they have excellent live music all evening. Another good evening.