California Dreamin'

Rosario, Argentina played host to a horde of American students this past weekend. The study-abroad program shelled out for about 70 of us to take a weekend trip to Rosario, one of the top 3 biggest cities in Argentina. Not that you would know; Rosario feels like a small town at just about every street corner. The pace is slower, buildings are shorter and people are fewer. In all honesty, it felt like Santa Barbara with bigger buildings and more streets. Although maybe it didn't help that I came to that conclusion as I was walking along a walkway with palm trees and greenery down the middle of a main avenue with the sun shining. No matter; the sentiment was universal, with many preferring Rosario over its 12-million-person counterpart 4 hours to the south.

The city doesn't really boast any major tourist attractions, aside from being neighbors to a major river and having a large monument dedicated to the National Flag. We acted the part of typical tourists though and did the bus tour our first afternoon. The river was blue, and the grass green. At one point, we were told we were passing some of the most modern, new and large buildings of Rosario on our left. Of course, as any person would, we turn to look out the left side of the bus and there is a half pile of rubble/half group of walls that looked like it only needed a breath of wind to collapse like a house of cards. A couple of us just looked at each other and burst out laughing. Ranger Jane at the front could not have picked a worse moment to mention new and modern. We did pass some buildings a block later which I assume were those she was talking about, not to worry. The end of the tour saw us walking along the river until the flag monument, which was really well-designed. It was set-up like a boat with two streets bordering it on either side, with the flagship parting the water and leading Argentina to a bright future. Pretty clever, I thought.

Dinner was had in style, with about a third of the group following our smooth-talking charismatic program leader Mario out into the night to an exclusive restaurant. We were told we would be walking the farthest out of the three groups. That was all well and good, but about 30 minutes after leaving probably the classiest Holiday Inn Express in the world we were still no where near anything resembling a restaurant. The dark graffiti covered-warehouses and crowds of people dressed like elegant punk rockers sitting outside of these warehouses silently watching us walk by didn't really infuse much confidence. There was an eventual end to our trek, however, and the restaurant made the rite of passage worth it. We were treated to 3-course meal with wine all around (Mario dines in style - he famously takes students out after plays and movies in BA for great meals) with the first two courses consisting of various cuts of beef (surprise?) followed by dessert. I found out later that the beef from course one was an extreme Argentine delicacy; yours truly has now eaten cow lymph nodes. I really don't know what possessed the first person to eat cow lymph nodes way back in the day. I don't want to know. It was delicious, however, and I highly recommend it. That is, if you can fight the Argentines you're sitting with for it, since it is apparently the most sought-after cut of beef. And there isn't much of it.

After being about ready to take a sledgehammer to my alarm clock the next morning, I indulged in the Holiday Inn Express "American breakfast." It was basically continental, with some ham and cheese slices thrown in. It was a nice break from corn flakes, but if they had had eggs I would have made it my life goal to get that hotel a 5-star rating. We wandered over to what was, according to my Lonely Planet magazine, a good handicraft fair, but was actually a snack kiosk. It did have some computers and phone booths in the back for public use, so I guess it was a special snack kiosk. Lonely Planet, you might be a little lonely on my shelf if I try to go to Patagonia based on your advice and find myself staring at a cactus in the desert up north.

We did make it to the fair eventually, and spent a few hours walking the walk looking at everything for sale. My purchase of the day was some fresh-squeezed orange juice that was almost as good as the daily greatness Tina gives me with breakfast. Following the fair, our last event of the trip was a boat ride up and down the river. The river sees all manners of traffic, from kayaks to sailboats to windsurfers to full-blown tankers. Those kayakers better be able to paddle fast. Maybe after the paddle business at Iguazu fell through they found their way to Rosario. I didn't see any advertisements for thrill rides in Rosario to see how close you could get to a cargo ship however, but you never know. All in all it was a nice cruise; Rosario has a great skyline and the weather was phenomenal, so we spent the majority of the time outside on the bow.

We could have boated home, as the river does merge with Rio Uruguay which becomes Rio de la Plata, but those great Argentine long-distance buses just couldn't be turned down. The only hiccup on the way home was getting into a huge traffic jam/detour because communists had taken over part of the expressway and forced everyone to take an exit and get back on. All 7 of the people camping out, with hammers and sickles drawn on the hill and everything, were really making life rough for a lot of people. 7 people protesting doesn't seem like a lot; maybe the rest were using Lonely Planet to get there.