Riviera Palace Rosario

... in a really large city but it was great all the same. Bit of a jungle feel to it with the muddy and slightly warm water but it was wonderful to feel safe in the city and be able to relax a bit. In the sun. Out of altitude. Amazing! Didn't end up doing a whole pile in the city except wander around and marvel at the Europeanness of it all, take the ferry over to the beach and sample some more Argentian vino! After the intensness of ...

... Rosario, grabbing a drink at sunset along the river is Che´s got a cool statue and small plaza dedicated to him, as he was born in Rosario. The artist collected keys from advocates of the monument all over the world. He then erected the largest Bronze statue in the world by melting these keys together, some of which you can see embedded in the sculpture. It´s pretty cool, although located a bit away from the city´s central.

... to get out. The campo, or countryside, is amazingly peaceful and tranquil, and feels about a million miles away, though it was only a 4 hour bus ride (a surprisingly nice one, with leather semi-cama seats and tv screens). We arrived in the small town of Wheelwright and were immediatly whisked away by our new host families. I was taken in by a wonderful woman named Silvia, who lives alone in her family´s home in Wheelwright with a dog named Mora, who we ...

... and effortlessly) -smiling faces -customer service (because there´s NONE here) -any employees that want to talk to their clients -rain -green grass (product of the lack of rain for the past 7 months) -clean air (there´s so much smoke here because people are illegally burning the island in the river very near to here... and there are ashes and smoke every single morning and it´s hard to breathe) -milk -English books (didn´t bring any) -eating ...

... bringing their coffee cups and coffee pots around with them everywhere they go. Looks weird to us, but it´s normal to them. We went shopping down Córdoba the other day, the main shopping centre in Rosario. Córdoba is a pedestrian street where they have a gazillion malls (or ¨shoppings¨) and little stores. Many people set up their music along the street, and there was some famous author doing a booksigning in a bookstore, and ...

... blocks from where we were staying. We all ordered a drink (and only one, as we´d already had as much free wine as we could handle) with 3 other people (whose names actuall¨y escape me at the moment). As terrible a bowler I am, my ¨team¨ won. By about 3 points. I bowled like a 45 the whole game. Yikes. It was fun, though, to get to talk to people. It´s funny how, in a room of 50 people, you can seek out the people most like you. I ...

... hanging with friends. We drink and do whatever and decide to go to MDM (pronounced Madame) which is the largest club in all of South America. I can`t wait to see this place. The place is humongous and immaculate. I don`t know how many people it can hold, maybe 8,000 or so. The thing is there are rooms that aren`t being used so who knows how big this place actually is. There is an outside part which is simply awesome but I must admit the ...

... rider. They weren't always able to jump on the horse on the first try. The one after that was hilarious, basically a race with one rider on a horse pulling another gaucho who was lying on a leather sled. Like waterskiing using a horse. After that we had something like an American rodeo with the gauchos needing to stay on a bucking horse. Then there were some fireworks. And then an event where two gauchos would ride side by side with a cow in between ...

... chicken gizzards!! Strange for a vegetarian restaurant, don´t you think?? We only had a couple of days in Rosario but it turned out to be a rather memorable time. Darren got his hair cut and had his beard shaved and since it was 7 months between haircuts he decided to document the event. This proved to be rather funny as the barber had limited English and our Spanish didn´t really extend to haircuts and ...

... carvings of people and items.... raised on platforms.. these meaningful scenes have multiple significance....in conjunction with the christian displays are murals and wooden plaques devoted to the indigenous Mapuche people, repressed by the Spanish conquistadores.. and also general info on the repression of the Argentine people and culture.. mention of the 2001 economic strife (peso/economy crash)..... 2 local figureheads with numerous mentions are Laura ...