Parana

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While my time in Parana was short, it was probably one of my favorite cities I have seen so far. It's cleanliness and ability to maintain it's ability to maintain it's streets is unrivaled compared to other cities, whether similar sized or not. And when I thought Santa Fe was laid back, Parana (Santa Fe's sister city) was even more laid back. No one was in a hurry and the people stopping their cars to chat in the middle of the road reminded me of home.

When I first arrived in Parana on the 40 minute express bus from Santa Fe, I saw nothing in Parana that looked interesting to me. It had almost no political value, I saw no extremely old buildings, there was nothing that made it stand out from Rosario or Santa Fe. Even as I took a taxi to my hostel, I saw nothing that interested me. When my taxi arrived at my hostel location, I found that my tour book was incorrect on the address of where my hostel was. This lead me to an excursion throughout the city in search of an internet place where I could jump on the hostel website and find the true address. After obtaining the correct address, I continued on toward my hostel, which was only about 6 blocks from the internet cafe. As I walked up the street, an amazing sight met my eyes. The Plaza of the First of May. Two fountains, a statue of Don Jose de San Martin, as well as several old buildings and an extremely large and grand cathedral. Suddenly very excited, and very glad I came to Parana (a rarely toured city), I continued on and found my hostel, which was only a block from the plaza.

After checking in, I returned to the plaza and stayed there for a couple hours, taking in the beauty, taking pictures, reading all the descriptions of the buildings as well as figuring out when I would be able to get into the cathedral. Which apparently is closed on Saturday afternoons to clean and get ready for Sunday morning.

Later, I returned and had dinner near the plaza and, on my way back to the hostel, passed by the cathedral where a wedding had just taken place. Seeing the open doors and seeing my chance, I sneaked in and took a look around. I was fortunate enough to get in when I did as the two ladies in charge of the cathedral were just about to shut off the lights and lock up for the night. I was able to take several pictures though which made me happy. I'm only sorry to say that in comparison to how the cathedral looked outside, the inside was rather plain and dull. Though it is still the largest cathedral I've been in since arriving in Argentina, and the outside more than makes up for the lack of grandeur inside.

Well, as I write this right now, I am sitting in the Terminal de Omnibus de Parana waiting for my bus to arrive. Leaving back for Rosario in about a half hour. Going to be quite an interesting place today, Rosario. The city's two soccer teams are squaring off and people are expecting riots if the game doesn't seems fair (which no one ever thinks the games are fair). So I'm hoping that I get back and into my apartment before the game starts, and trust me when I say, I'm not leaving the apartment after I get back!

Cheers from Parana,

Erik

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Photos

Approaching the Plaza
Clock tower overlooking the Plaze de 1st of May