Last days in Rosario

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Not much to say about during the day. Went to the Museum of Contemporary Arts-closed, to the ‘Garden for Kids’ (rides and shows)-closed, Pichincha (area of note)-yawn. The architecture is magnificent though, and if we could stay longer, we would’ve. There’s a fair bit we’d liked to have seen or done, like taking the boat across to the Island or see the north of the city. Now though, we were looking forward to going to the meeting on Wednesday night.
One brother, Lalo, in his 50‘s, accosted Callum straight away. (everyone loves Callum, with his blonde locks) He spoke a little English, and loved to hear Callum talk about being able to play the keyboard and the different music he liked. Though he’d never heard of Powderfinger or silverchair, he loved listening to Cal, then explaining how he loves jazz. Then he turned on me. After help from his wife, Liliana, who spoke English well, he convinced me to give an answer in the Bible Highlights. So we decided on a scripture and I wrote a simple answer for his wife to translate. After the meeting a couple of fleshly brothers organised to meet at a sports bar to watch a football match. Unfortunately, more couldn’t come as kickoff was 4:10 and most were still working then. They couldn’t speak a scrap of English, but who cares, it’s the only way to have a good laugh at yourself. We left the meeting with Oscar and his family. He’s from London, and been here for 10 years, married a local, Mariana, and has young 2 boys, who loved Callum. Another family came too, Rosa, Pablo and Sheila. (sorry for the spelling, sounds the same tho) After pizza and beers, we had fantastic conversation about different the cultures and could’ve kept going, until Callum needed to go to bed at 1:30am. Pablo dropped us off, and hugged Callum with real brotherly affection. A wonderful young man.
Then next day we didn’t do much, tried to sleep in the arvo for the anticipated night coming up. We met Sergio, Ezekial and Florides (spelling??) and Ricardo. There’s 11 kids in the family! Half go for Boca, the other, for the other major team, River Plate. Today’s game was Boca vs. the local team here, Newell Old Boys. The bar was packed, with armed security. Ezekial told me before the game to keep it low because of the rivalry. But when Boca scored in the first 5 minutes, you should’ve seen the handful of Boca fans. Our table erupted! The game was 2-2 for a while, but when Boca scored again twice, well…about 10 fans out of 200 could’ve brought the roof down. Awesome! Two of the brothers with us went nuts, as you would. Two boys on the next table, about 13 yrs, were crying at the end, such is the passion. Boo hoo, wrong team suckers! I’ve been to a Boca Jrs game, so naturally their my team now…and the winning team at that. What a fantastic atmosphere. We went to their place to meet the rest of the family, and watch a River Plate game. They work as bakers and have the bakery out the back and they bake the bread traditionally in a massive oven. We ate and drank so much at the bar, but they still wanted to lay it on. The hospitality is extraordinary. Oscar and Mariana came at 9:30, and after an hour or so, we went to their place for dinner. Well they hadn’t eaten, so… After another 1:30 night, we headed home. It’s not so bizarre to stay up that late, I know, but the kids do too. They just get used to it. Then they’re up early for school!
That was our last night in Rosario. We took the bus to BA and hit the same hotel as before for one night, The Hotel Waldorf, I should give it a plug - it was pretty good for a 3 star hotel.

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