What a difference a day makes

These ex-English footballers get everywhere (Beckham in Rosario)

I'm writing this from two perspectives.

The first is from the travelling viewpoint. So we are now left to our own devices for ten days or so until we get to Santiago, compared to our Patagonia trip where everything was looked after for us.

Our first mission was to make the four hour bus journey from BA to Rosario. We had managed to book the tickets and thought we'd be sorted. Even though the bus station was only a few blocks from the hotel, we thought we'd get a cab as we had our luggage with us and it was in a slightly dodgy part of town.

First of all, the cab didn't show so the hotel reception grabbed one off the street for us. This meant that five of our 45 minute window to get to the bus station was gone. Then because it was raining and humid, everyone seemed to be in cabs and the traffic was really slow.  We'd been in the cab 20 mins then asked the driver to let us out so we could run to the station....we were sweating cobs by the time we got there.  Then it was really confusing and we couldn't find the departures...there was only an arrivals board....  At this point we thought we missed our 10am bus, but, to cut a long story short, we hadn't...it was late and it's final destination was not where we were going which is why we couldn't find it on the board...so it arrived at 11.30 and we finally arrived in Rosario just before 4pm.

The second perspective is to do with that classic British institution, and number one topic of conversation, the weather! I've already mentioned that it was raining and humid.  Well, it was still raining pretty hard when we arrived in Rosario and got a cab to our hotel.  Last night we then went out in t-shirts as it was still hot and humid, but not raining.  Well, that all changed not long after we left the restaurant and the most amazing and continuous electrical storm happened that we've ever seen....the sky was just constantly lighting up and we could see forks of lightening and hear claps of thunder.  Accompanying this storm was a torrential downpour....it came on so quickly....we tried to take shelter next to a gym but everytime the wind whipped around I let out a bit of a girly scream and got more wet.  By this time we were both soaked and decided to run back to the hotel....the roads were like streams as they had flooded so quickly (it was like being in Worcester in February...haha).

Big rain....look at those puddles

When we got back we had to wring out all of our clothes right down to the underwear.  Now, today couldn't have been more different, bright and fresh and hot. We've seen Rosario in a new light.  It's a lovely city and the place where the Argentinian flag was first raised. We went to the monument to the flag which looked very totalitarian like something out of 1984 but had a great view from the top.

Monument to the Argentinian flag (look at the blue sky...yay)

View from the top

View from the top 2

Not being very totalitarian 

We also visited the Cathedral and went for a walk along the river Parana...it's huge. We stopped off at a bookshop cafe for afternoon tea and cake too.

Our type of bookshop

We also saw some 'comedy gold' grafitti and signs....well, you have to take a picture don't you??!!!

There were 'nob's all over the town...it's Rosario's football team

She's beauty and she's grace

Ciao for now. xx