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Published: September 11th 2010
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Next stop, Rosario, birthplace of Che Guevera. So Rosario is a city about 4hrs from Buenos Aires, its the third biggest in Argentina but only has a population of 1million compared to BAs 13million. One of the main attractions of the city is the Monument to the Flag, which is a large tower built on the spot where General Belgrano first raised the Argentinean flag during the War of Independence. It's a really nice city, we loved the park that runs along the riverfront of the Rio Parana. All the way along you see groups of people sitting with friends drinking mate - more on that later.
From Rosario we travelled to Puerto Iguazú. 20 hours on a flashpacker bus cama style, translation; travelling in the lap of luxury. We were wined, dined and served champagne by our friendly waiter while they blasted out romantic latin music and teased us with english films but with spanish subtitles and the volume turned down completely. The cash fund took a fair beating for this purchase but there's no other way to travel, this is how they roll in Argentina.
Puerto Iguazú is packed with gringos so it was good
to not have to communicate with our pigeon spanglish so much. The next day we went to see the Iguazú Falls. We followed a trek which we thought gave a panoramic view of the falls but as we continued we discovered more and more waterfalls. There are 275 altogether, the big badass of the falls is the Garganta del Diablo (The Devil's Throat) The falls can be viewed from Argentina or Brazil, with Paraguay on the other side of the river. Everyone says you have to experience it from both the Argentine and Brazilian side (which gives an overall panoramic view) but after being so close and feeling the power on the Argentinian side we didn't feel the need to do the other, afterall there's really only so many angles you can look at the same waterfalls!
A beginner's guide to drinking Mate
Mate is a traditional Argentinian drink, similar to tea, but to a much a greater extent than even the biggest tea drinker in the UK could imagine. Mate drinkers, carry a thermos of hot water, yerba and the traditional mate gourd and metal straw (bombilla) with them at all times. I was
eager to taste it so when someone in the hostel offered me some I graciously accepted and pulled the metal straw over to my side. Error no.1 that messes up the arrangement of the yerba inside, you have to drink from the same side as the server. Feeling mega stupid I took a quick sup, said gracias, ready to make my quick exit. Error no.2 once you accept mate you have to drink the whole thing and make the sucking noise at the end with the straw to indicate it's empty. Ok, no problem, I liked it, finished it then sat like a moron asking if I should say gracias now? Error no.3 you don't thank the server until you do not want anymore mate. When you have had your fill you then say gracias. Makes sense I suppose but seriously, there's a lot of etiquette around drinking tea here!
I've ended up buying myself a mate and I'm going to bring the tradition back to Glasgow! Anyone up for mate drinking in Queens Park next summer?! I was very excited to make my first official cup, when someone broke the bad news: that I have to cure
my gourd before drinking out of it. This entails making mate as it is normally made, letting it sit for 24 hours so that the mate taste would settle in the cup, and so that the tea would not taste like wood, or the gourd. Give me a teabag anyday this is way too much hassle and now I've added a gourd, metal straw, a bag of yerba and a thermos to the rest of the crap I like to call a backpack.
One drink I won't be bringing back with me is Fernet. God its vile. Happy hour time in the hostel I bought 2 for 1 with coke as they drink it. It tastes like coke with chewing gum, coriander and nettles, I had to pour it into a plant on the terrace so as to not offend them and I was really surprised to see the plant was still alive the next day.
In our time in Argentina we've hardly put a dent in the country and leave shortly for Brazil. Did you know Argentina is the 8th largest country in the world, who knew!? And so, in the words of a wise
alien: ‘we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.’
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Graeme
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Sweet.. I'm all about the devil's throat \m/