Thursday, March 13
Slowly I have to make my way back to Buenos Aires as my return flight is March 21--or is it??
The situation is in a state of flux as our scheduled move to Victoria, British Columbia from Ottawa, Ontario during the week of March 21 has been put on hold. Barbara is unable to finish her college program in Brantford, ON due to a teacher strike which has hit the entire province of Ontario. Before we can go to Victoria her college program must be finished and the labour situation is at a stalemate with no negotiations taking place.
With this in mind, I would like to extend my stay here in Argentina for another three or four weeks but it all depends on whether I can change the date on my ticket which I booked through Visa Aeropoints. Barbara is working on that part of it so I am hoping for the best---being here three more weeks. I feel my Spanish coming on and three more weeks would solidify that which I have gained.
So I have a whole day in Posadas, which is no Cordoba. Here my thinking became a little fuzzy. I opted to go for the day to the city of Obera which is about one and a half hours away in the heartland of Misiones. It proved to be a beautiful small town, perfect in all respects including the Confiteria Alemaña and the Casino de Misiones.
I have to say a few words about the casino because generally I detest casinos but this was an extremely hot day and there was a restaurant in the obviously air conditioned casino. So I opted for another "hamburgesa completa" and a cool Quilmes Bock cervaca--like I said, it is hard to eat healthy here in Argentina--or is it just me?
On my way out, I walked around the casino and next thing I knew there was a 10 peso bill going into one of the machines. So, why not--I played to the maximum 5 credits at a time and sure enough, just before I ran out of credits, I hit some type of jackpot. When it came time to pay out, the coins just wouldn´t stop spitting out. I had visions dancing in my head of a good part of my stay here in Argentina being paid for by this mother load which was in front of me. So I loaded up the plastic container and went to the bank with a smug smile. WOW--what a pay out---12 pesos!! I couln´t stop chuckling to myself at my reversal of fortune. Turns out I was playing on a 10 centavos (4 cents) machine and the coins which were being spit out were not pesos but just metal credits which in the end proved to be almost worthless. So for my misadventure, I turned 10 pesos into 12 pesos--that´s a good day's work. That obviously was the highlight of my visit to Obera, a beautiful, clean town highlighted by an esplanade bordered by beautiful trees on both sides that runs right through town. Unfortunately, no one was able to tell me what kind of trees they were.
While my stay in Obera was pleasant, the amount of time I spent in a bus on a hot day did not warrant the trip and on second thought I would have been better off to check out the waterfront in Posadas and to have taken a bus across the border to have a look at Enunciation, the Paraguayan city on the other side of the Rio Naraña.
At 20:00 I am off on Crucero del Norte, who bill themselves as having the newest bus fleet in Argentina. My next destination is Rosario, in Provincia Santa Fe only 13 hours away. The trip was excellent as was the service and it puts in doubt my earlier having awarded Expreso Singer as the winner in the "Best Bus Company" category.
I am amazed at the sure footedness which is displayed by the "mozo" who serves the food and drinks during the trip. I realize that when I get up to go to the washroom and lurch about like a drunken sailor fighting not to end up in someone´s lap. I guess you could say he has his "bus legs" whereas after all those hours in a bus, I still don´t.
Friday, March 17
When I woke up this morning about 05:30 from one of many cat naps, a display of fireworks was going on outside and a torrent of water lashed down on the bus.
What was this?--r-a-i-n!!--I had not seen that stuff since briefly in Ushuaia many weeks ago.
I arrived in Rosario at 09:34 still in pouring rain and cool temperatures which contrasted sharply with the near 40 C of yesterday. Because of the rain I took a taxi to downtown and the my hotel.
One of the first things I did was to get to an Internet cafe to check on news from Barbara-- it was not good. It went something like this:
I called the Aeroplan Center this morning. Not good news I'm afraid. The
lady was very nice and would have changed the booking had she found one.
She says you would have to return by the exact same route...BA to Washington
to Ottawa. She checked every date from March 21 forward and there were NO
SEATS AVAILABLE in the rest of March, April, May or June. Unbelievable. I
asked if you could change the route by paying something and she said no. I
don't know if that is because you are flying on points....
So that was pretty clear. However, I am still hoping that with repeated calling something might still open up to permit me to stay a little longer in Argentina. This afternoon I was even considering--well, what if I just bus it to Rio de Janiero and from there through Central America to Mexico City and on to Victoria, B.C? Come to think of it, that would be a great way for me to finally get my "bus legs".
My first impressions of Rosario were mostly negative, since in my mind, I now tend to compare cities with Cordoba. The buildings here seemed to be quite old, having no particular style in mind, with many in disrepair. That, as well as a lack of green in the downtown area, seemed to make for a pretty lack-luster picture, although the weather didn´t help. Further investigation this afternoon ironically along the "calle peatonal" Cordoba, under better metrological conditions, improved my assessment somewhat.
Of note is the Gigante Express, 960 San Martin which is an industrial-strength type of cafeteria with all the charm of a large warehouse. However, for 1.50 pesos you can get a great cup of cafe con leche along with three small pastries.
There was nothing "industrial-strength" about tonight's choice for supper at El Cairo, corner Santa Fe and Sarmiento. It is one of Rosario´s most charming restaurants and has been around since 1851. It is fun talking with the staff and this evening I learned about the aspirations of Sebastian Clerico, who in the evening is a waiter at El Cairo and during the day runs a city bike tours enterprise called "Dos Ruedeas, un Camino". The affable young man speaks English, Italian and Catalan and would be glad to show you around Rosario on his bike tours. (dosruedasuncamino@hotmail.com) Unfortuantely, I am leaving for Buenos Aires tomorrow morning, otherwise, as an old biker, I would be glad to take him up on his offer.
With the news of the plane ticket situation, I feel that the wind has somewhat been taken out of my sails, but I still have a few days in Buenos Aires and surrounding area to look forward to.
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