Blogs from Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, South America - page 10

So yesterday, which was Friday I think, instead of taking the bus to Rosario as we had planned, we rode with Fabio. No, not the "I Can't Beleive It's Not Butter" guy, an Italian friend of Giovanna's. He rented a car and was driving here anyway, so we hitched a ride. We are staying at a hostel in Rosario that is owned by a friend of Fabian - the Argentinian who is staying at the hostel in Buenos Aires. We arrived just in time to scurry over to the Rosario Central game at 7pm. We made it just after kick-off and watched Rosario defeat Quilmes 4-2. These teams are in the top division of soccer in Argentina, the same as Bocas and River, so the level of play was pretty good. It was pretty incredible to ... read more

On arrival to Argentina we ended up spending an unplanned two nights in the city of Buenos Aires. The first night, due to a lack available rooms in the city, in a very posh and expensive hotel - the Argenta Tower. This ended up being quite beneficial however as Vicki picked up a spot of food poisoning in Rio de Janeiro (damn buffets....shouldn't have been so stupid!) and the hotel offered what turned out to be a free doctors service. Unfortunately the doctor didn't speak english so the porter had to translate. From Paul's point of view this was a highly amusing conversational chain! Not sure it was the highlight of the porters day though. Anyway, pills and a diet of rice and water were prescribed for the next few days. On the second night we ... read more

So is Rosario the perfect Argentine city, as my Lonely Planet explicitly and boldly stated? Probablemente, sí. What makes Rosario so fantastic? Well, like I've been saying all along, it's safe, clean, has style, has beautiful people, ad naseum. What makes Argentina's third-largest city fantastic is the way that it interwines urban chique with sunlight and greenspaces. Additionally, if you love modern art, you'll find plenty of it in Rosario. In one day I visited two modern art museums, visited a graphic design exposition, and attended the opening of another graphic/package/product/clothing design expo. Additionally, the city is home to two rather important historical sites (depending on your perspective). First, it is home to the house where Ernesto 'Che' Guevara first lived (although only for a very short time). The second is the Monumento de la Bandera, ... read more

Right, here are some photos from rosario where we did 'rappel'. that was quality (thanks leo!). I'm sure I thought I was spiderman there for a while but edel soon put me back in my box. After rosario we went to posadas (not intentionally- its in another blog) and on to puerto Iguazu (also in another blog). From there we went to corrientes and spoted the murals (nice, huh?). Didnt do much there besides actually, coz it was just a day trip and we were waiting on a connecting overnight bus to salta, but heres a story........ 'after a particularly uncomfortable overnight bus trip from Iguazu, during which the bus got stopped by the police because they saw the pair of us sitting at the front (whats going on with that like! They insisted on checking ... read more

Well, today was the first game for Argentina in the World Cup and man is it good to be in a fútbol crazy nation! People keep asking me if I'm going for the U.S. or for Argentina and unfortunately I have to tell them that I'm going for Argentina since I don't think that the U.S. really has a chance. However, as I read in one of the fútbol reviews, every World Cup the U.S. plays less soccer and more fútbol (rough translation)! I don't know though, I think that we'll have to wait and see when the U.S. plays their first game on Monday. Anyway, Argentina (for the grand majority in the U.S. who do not follow the World Cup) won their match against Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast or Costa de Marfil, take your pick ... read more