Rosario - stair rods, taxis and the supermarket

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When it rains here it really means it. Proper thunderstorming, set for the day, so I was very happy to be picked up. Breakfast was very good, except for the sadness of the bread, which wasn’t at all fresh. I made a sandwich to take away on principle, which may do for dinner, as in Argentina they give you lunch at work every day. After googling mate, the national tea they are all mad about and deciding to ignore the warnings of its carcinogenic properties (after prolonged use) I gave it a go. It’s not terrible. A slightly herbal smokey taste, but I guess when you get it in the special cups and made of real herbs it’s different. Maybe I’ll try that too.

A taxi picked me up for work. The driver was encased in plastic, which meant that half of the back seat couldn’t be used at all, cutting down drastically on passenger numbers. My companion said it was to protect him from being attacked by said passengers. See pic. I totally lost track of the route again in the one way system. It looks so straight forward but is a nightmare in a vehicle. After work (and it rained stair rods all day) walking was impossible, it was so wet, so they called me another taxi. This one gave me back my change without question. I could hardly get the 3 metres to the hotel door without being soaked.

Eventually it slowed down enough for me to splash round to the nearest supermarket, Coto. It had clothes etc as well as many things I couldn’t really identify. There was a lot of wine, beer mainly in the hugest bottles and a lot of meat. It wasn’t particularly clean looking. I got a few things and forgot the milk, which is why I’d really gone. The queues were very long and people were either paying with their phones or showing coupons on it. It took forever. The checkouts have piles of child-attracting unhealthy snacks next to them. There was plenty of time to browse.

Today has started much brighter, with lovely sunny weather forecast for the rest of my stay. I was picked up again by taxi for work and had a marvellous day, being treated like royalty. And you get kissed a lot. Often in Spain they just flap their hand vaguely in the direction of the nearest bar, here they treat you to steak in nice restaurants. Today’s choice had football shirts signed by famous players on the wall. It was a parilla (barbequeued meat place). The pronunciation is parisha, double l is sh, unlike in Spain. My Argentinian colleagues also annotated my useless map with info about the boat trips and shopping streets. I walked home, successfully at last. Some of the route even looked familiar. It was great to be in the sunshine.

I think the main problem here is that it is really enclosed and there are no views. Most buildings are about 4 storeys high and the roads are narrow so it’s quite claustrophobic. Maybe it will be better down by the river, maybe tomorrow.

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Photos

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Sign explaining why the taxi driver is in a popemobile

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Staking out the breakfast buffet, waiting for the late arrival of the scrambled egg

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Nice green view, better with no rain.

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A pariilla (pronounced parisha)