Rosario

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So, within 24 hours of standing in the cold, looking at a massive glacier in Patagonia, we were dragging our backpacks through Rosario, 2000 kilometres and 30 odd degrees centigrade away. It was the biggest city we'd been to since Santiago and we liked it. We stayed 3 nights in a hostel with a balcony (so that Sarah could be nosey). The heat was almost unbearable but there were plenty of heladerias selling ice cream and loads of good bars selling cold beers. The city is famous amongst other things for being the birthplace of Che Guevara and a great football rivalry between Rosario Central and Newell's Old Boys.

On the second night we were there, there was a huge rally of thousands of people commemorating the 33rd anniversary of the 1976 military coup in Argentina. They eventually all gathered around the Monumento a la Bandera in the centre of the city and various leaders addressed the crowd and spoke of justice for the thousands of victims who were killed or disappeared over the next 8 years. It was interesting to be there and it felt safe but after the eighth mention of Las Malvinas (Falklands) we decided to retire to our balcony and watch the stragglers folding up their banners instead.

We had gone to Rosario unexpectedly and weren't exactly sure of where to head next. We were tempted to head north about 1000 kilometres to see the Iguazu Falls on the Argentine / Brazil border but thought it was a bus journey too far and would take over a day. When we found out at the bus station that it was only 17 hours by bus, we bought tickets straight away for the following day. The long distance buses in Argentina are fantastic and it is really easy to sleep in them especially if it is an overnight bus so the 18 hours went pretty quickly and we got off the bus at Puerto Iguazu ready to see another of South America's great natural wanders....

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Photos

Monumento Nacional a la Bandera
A monument to the first place the Argentine flag was raised

View from balcony
This ice cream parlour was open untill about 2am

Painting of Diego Maradona at home of Newell´s Old Boys
Apparently he only played 5 games for them. Must have made an impact.