Rosario, Argentina

on the recommendation of a few fellow travellers, we decided to make the short trip from buenos aires to rosario, a smallish city of about one million inhabitants. rosario's official claim to fame is that the argentine flag was designed and first flown here, and indeed, the city is home to a large, rather impressive monument to this achievement. this is also the birthplace of che guevara, and there exist no less than two che plazas celebrating the fact, one containing a large statue in his likeness constructed of melted keys. besides this, the city is home to two very nice pedestrian streets, lined with all types of boutiques and shops, including an inordinate number of book stores (which i interpret as a good sign -- in fact, i'm developing a rubric for evaluating cities and societies, and a healthy presence of book stores is one criterion i go by; another is the liberty to drink beer openly on the streets, and while argentina scores higher than brazil on the first count so far [although an astonishing, eclectic collection of excellent books can be found at most brazilian kiosks], it falls well short of its neighbor on the second). the book stores were a welcome bonus, since, having finished my last english-language book (house of the dead) and worked through a collection of bukowski stories in spanish, i was ready for new reading material, and lucked out here with the complete alexandria quartet, an opus that should keep me occupied for some while.

rosario is also known for its nightlife, but since it is a rather small city, and since we were not there for the weekend, i suspect we missed out on some of the excitement. we still had a good time hanging out at the hostel with the employees who like their jobs so much they show up when they're not getting paid, watching bjork videos on youtube, barbecuing bovine tonsils, and just hanging out on the roof enjoying the cool breeze. and that cool breeze was much appreciated, because during the day the heat was almost unendurable. our last day there was so hot we barely managed to walk a few blocks in the sun before we collapsed under the nearest tree, taking refuge in the shade -- and even that did not suffice, although it did allow us time to gather our wits and head off in search of the nearest air-conditioned sanctuary -- which happened to be an ice cream parlor, where we happily whiled away the rest of the afternoon, reading and watching the locals enjoy their sweets (ice cream seems almost as popular as red meat here -- one marvels at the lack of heart failure -- maybe it's all the red wine).