Blogs from Santa Fe, Argentina, South America - page 5

I love Mendoza. I took the opportunity to visit the Argentine city in October of 2007, and it was one of the best South American experiences I have had. There is nothing quite like taking a long summer bike trip down its quaint streets, sipping the many wines that each local vineyard has to offer, not to mention the outrageous selection of outdoor adventures (I would personally recommend horseback riding through the Andes; it is incredible!). So it may seem weird that when given the opportunity to go a second time, I said no. Honestly, I wanted to go but was strapped for cash. Luckily, a less expensive prospect was presented; nearby town Rosario. Therefore, while my friends were dealing with possible bus strikes to Mendoza and fears of swine flu disputes, I was enjoying a ... read more

Rosario is a super town located 4 hours north of Buenos Aires and we headed there as it has a massive student population so we thought there would be some good music and bar action going on. Its the home of the Argentine flag which was designed by General Belgrano - the monument to the flag is amazing and everyone hangs out there at night.It is also the birthplace of Che Guevara so we wanted to check out where he grew up. As we arrived on Palm Sunday we headed to the main plaza as dusk fell as we wanted to see the plam Sunday procession. It was really lovely; all the town turned out with olive branches to watch the procession of Jesus on the donkey and all the kids dressed up to hold their ... read more

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. ... read more

Woke up late due to too much Salsa the night before. If not for that, then I was probably exhausted from using my hands and feet to talk to people. No one speaks English in those small towns I´m in, and my Spanish isn´t exactly um... fluent. However, if you need someone to get the bill, or the price of things ... I´m your girl. Rosario is a cute big town. It is set along a river, which makes it very pretty. On the riverbank is a humongous monument for the flag. It marks the birthplace of the Argintine flag. After seeing that, I once again underestimated the distance and walked the 20 blocks to a museum I thought would be worth visiting. It was supposed to educate me on the Inca Tribe and their reign ... read more

Day 679 (06.02.09) Today we were headed from Buenos Aires to Rosario, a few hours to the north. We´d planned a day or so in Rosario to break up the long journey to Iguazu where we´d cross over to Brazil in our journey over to Rio for carnaval in a couple of weeks time. All the way through South America we´d wondered about the size of the bus station in BA, imagining it to be of epic proportions as in every town we´d been to so far, in every country, it seemed that you could catch a bus to Argentina´s capital city. When we´d arrived a few days before we hadn´t been disappointed by its massiveness, and back there once again we searched the multiple ticket desks for the next bus to Rosario and accidentally managed ... read more