Rosario

We arrived late in Rosario late on a Saturday evening, both of us starving hungry, tired and irritable so priorities were to find the hostel, find food and then sleep. Arriving at the hostel, we dumped our bags and went out to find some food. On first impressions of the city I really didnt like it much, the buidlngs were tall old and shabby and all very close together, the poeple were all either ugly or drunk or both, people were urinating in the street and groups of young men singing in the street! To be honest it reminded me a little of Woking on a Saturday night just without the chavs! The most frustrating thing was that nothing was open for food, not even mcdonalds and we were starving! We ended up finding this almost warehouse like food place with high dirty walls and more ugly people and some nasty cheap fast food but anything would do we were so hungry! I longed to be back in Cordoba or Mendoza but I was still looking forward to exploring the city and finding out what if anything it had to offer! On return to the hostel we find that we are shatring with 2 other men, one of whom was a big fat bald guy who although nice offering me some of his beer on the roof terrace and telling me he loved Morissey and all British music (yes I know Morissey was Irish but you know what I mean), was at the same time rather scary and I wasnt looking forward to sharing a room with him! The beds were far from comfortable as well with blood stains on the sheets and awful pillows so the next day we decided that we’d change hostels from Louvre (the original) to Hostel Art de Rosario which was much better as we got a 2 person room with sky tv and air con for just 10 pesos more per night and nice fresh clean sheets and even 2 puffy pillows and wifi in the room with plenty of plug sockets made it all the more better.

Once checked in and settled, we headed out. For a little geography lesson, Rosario is not coastal but is situated on the banks of the Rio Parana, a large river and tributary to the Mar del Plata at the mouth of Atlantic so it has many beaches which are pleasant with artificially placed white sand. The sun was out so we walked around the city centre, down the pedestrian street and the main passage through the city called Cordoba. This had an impressive array of old historic buildings with classic old architecutre and many impressive domes and stone workings and as we walked we could see they possibly had to a larger extent more old historic buildings than any other city we had visited. The only trouble was that because they were so close together, the photos wouldnt do them justice as you had to take them close up and couldnt get the full extent of them. After a while walking around, we decided we’d go and watch Rosario as they were playing at home against San Lorenzo. This was a crunch match as Rosario hadnt won a game and San Lorenzo weren’t doing too well themsevles. The atmosphere was great and it was a nice ground. As the game wore on however it was 0-0 and people started getting frustrated. The away fans were the louder (well that’s how it seemed as we were right next to them) and there was this one guy who did not watch the match at all, he just stood at the fence winding up the home fans with hand signals and singing and dancing and just really enjoying himself. Lee and I found it very amusing to watch him as he was such a character and so highly animated that at times he was more entertatining than the actual game! As usual in Argentina, both sets of fans had their own bands and chants and the guys in the kop were literally bouncing up and down at both ends. After 90 minutes and 2 San Lorenzo players being sent off, the home fans were getting more and more annoyed that their team just couldnt break down 9 men but with what was almost the last kick of the game, a cross came in, the striker leapt and got a sweet head on the ball, it hit the bar, bounced down, back up again to the underside of the bar and in. The crowd went crazy, victory with the last kick of the game and their first win of the season! It was great fun being amongst that crowd then, with the stadium rocking, everyone singing and dancing around, the atmosphere was almost electric as Boca in the electric storm!

The next day we went to do the necessary, booking tickets for the bus etc and I went to see the famous monument I’d been told about which was pretty impressive, built in comemoration of the design and hoisting of the Argentine flag for the first time. It was a very high large concrete staute in front of a large concrete buidling with pillars a little like the Lincoln memorial but I’d been told it was better to see it at night so I decided I’d come back when it was dark. After that Lee and I decided we’d go to the park but he got rumbles and had to run back to the hostel so I went alone. The park was beautiful with lovely grassy areas, many different trees and birds and some lovely lakes with picturesque little bridges and Roman style pillars partially surrounding it. In the middle of all this was Newlands Old Boys (another Rosario football team and the bitter rivals of Rosario Centro who we had been to see). Dont think I’d ever know of a football stadium in such a nice place! After a stroll in the park I decided I’d walk down and see the plaza de Che Guevara which wasnt quite what I had imagined but there was a nice statue and plaque erected of him and some colourfully painted (I say painted but it could well have been grafitti) murals. That evening we decided to go to the monument and discovered that it really was worth seeing at night with beautiful ligting of both the monument and the statue in lovely blue and white refecting the colours of the flag and it was quite something to see it all lit up this way with a big burning flame in the centre. Certainly made for some good photos and looking on the back of the 10 peso note, you can see it. Now we’ve seen the monuments on the back of the 5 and 10 peso notes. Dont think there are monuments on any other notes but we’ve been to so many cities in Argentina, we’ve probably seen them if there are!

The next day we decided to head to the famous beaches (albeit arificial) at la florida, a place on the bank of the river to the north of the city. To get there we decided we’d hire some bikes and went on the long but picturesque ride along the river bank all the way from the monument in the south to the very north of the city towards it’s great big suspension bridge to the north of the city. The weather was very hot and it was quite a tiring ride even though it was all flat. Strangely at almost the same time, my chain came off which proved very difficult and messy to get back on and Lee got a puncture so we both had to stop for a good 10-15 minutes to sort of various problems out. Once back up and running, we finally got the beach and had a good lunch and got a good bit of sunbathing done until a big young group of English people came and sat next to us disturbing the peace. I dont normally slate my own kind but they were more annoying than loud mouthed americans! We’ve got to get a kayaks, where are the kayaks was repeated about 10 times by one of them, when am I going to get my Chinese was repated constantly by another and then they started singing (badly I might add)! After this Lee and I decided we’d had enough and headed back for the football. Chelsea v Inter in the champions league, Jose retuns! Unfortunately we played very badly and lost but the least said about that the better!

The next day we had time to kill as our bus wasnt til 5 in the afternoon so we decided we’d go to the modern art museum, an interesting looking building with towering colourful pillars but on arrival we found that it was closed due to some protest parade for the Docentes whoever they are so instead we thought we’d just go to the cinema. The film started at 1pm so we walked around Cordoba and actually ate in that terrible place we’d found the first night we’d arrived but the place was transformed, there were people everywhere, chairs and tables outside, beautiful sunshine and the food wasnt bad either! The place had definitely grown on both of us and Lee even ventured to say that it was his favourite city and he had seen the fittest birds yet here! I still wasnt in agreement although I was starting to apprecaite it as a nice city and would certainly take back the injustice of comapring it to Woking! The film was rather poor (predictable Mel Gibson film called the edge of darkness of something) although it did the job in passing a couple of hours. Still need to go and see Avatar!

So now we’re on the mammoth bus journey of around 18 hours to Iguazu falls, one of the worlds largest and most famous waterfalls! I can’t wait. This is where Lee and I will part so I’ll be alone in a hostel! How scary! I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Will be there for 16 days though which is a long time! Meeting my Dad in Cusco to climb Macchu Pichu which I can’t wait to do so flying to La Paz (the captial of Bolivia first to have a little time there and then got the bus from there to Cusco some way or other! All exciting but costly. Oh well, you only live once!