Crocodile shoes and leather boots in Rosario

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We decided to stop in Rosario as the Lonely Planet described it as a miniature Buenos Aires, it has lots of beautiful architecture and good nightlife to boot. It´s also the birth place of Che Guevara so has it´s fair share of history too.

We got there in the morning after another night spent on a bus, this time however we had opted to pay the extra couple of pounds for "cama" seats which means bed. This proved to be a good move, the seats were huge and there was enough leg room to stretch right out and get a good nights sleep. We even got fed and watered, although the dish of the day was a slightly dubious looking grey chicken and pasta combo washed down with cold red wine.

Once we´d found our hostel and checked in we dropped off our bags and went for an explore. We stumbled across a nice cafe in a really old building, it felt very European. We definitely felt the change in temperature compared to Brazil so we both had a hot chocolate and shared a delicious warm chocolate brownie. We spent the rest of the day just pottering about and getting our bearings and that night went to a Thai restaurant which made a nice change from the meat feasts we´d been eating so far.

On our second day we went to see some sights. We went to the Cathedral and then went the Monumento Nacional a la Bandera which is a huge monument built close to the bank of the Parana River. It was inaugurated on 20 June 1957, the anniversary of the death of Manuel Belgrano, creator of the Argentine flag, who raised it for the first time on the opposite shore of the river on 27 February 1812.

The complex has a total area of about 10,000 square metres, and was built mostly using stone from the Andes. Part of the monument is a 70 metre tall tower which houses Manuel Belgrano´s crypt in its base. We took the lift up to the top which had some good views across the city and the river.

In the evening we decided to have a night out and tried to find a cool sounding club that was listed in our Lonely Planet guide. It was described as an authentic argentinian folk club with live music, lots of stomping around and lots of vino. As usual though we couldn´t find it so we went to a bar called Rock&Fellars which is like the South American version of the Hard Rock Cafe. The walls were adorned with photographs of legendary musicians such as John Lennon, Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan and in middle of all these heroes was a snap of the one and only Jimmy Nail, quite strange.

Not much to say about the next day. We spent it trying to find a pair of grey leather boots for Lil, we hiked up and down the main street for hours and just when we thought all hope was lost we found the perfect pair. Exciting stuff.

We´d decided to go to Uruguay next for a few days before going to Buenos Aires. The bus wasn´t until late so we spent our final day just relaxing at the hostel and Lil watched Spain win Euro 2008.

Rosario was really cool, it had a good vibe and it was great to sit in the old cafes and watch the world go by.

Next stop Montevideo.

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