Rosario and back to BA.....

Paula and I took a bus down from Colon and met up with Dave in Rosario.  We were jazzed to see Luis Salinas preform and had got tickets two months in advance...we were also jazzed to stay at Palermo Art Hostel in the old part of town. The hostel had great art throughout the old place....but that first night, kids playing what sounded like trash cans and drums kept us awake till 5 a.m. , so we moved down the street to an old nice hotel that was far quieter.....then got all dressed up for our big concert, only to find that the show had been cancelled!   Dave and I have visited Rosario three other times, and always thought that it might be a city we would move to with Buenos Aires got to hectic.....but this time, it didn't look so great.....The thing that Paula disliked most was all the stray dogs slinking around looking ill.  The thing that bugged me the most was that none of the side streets had traffic or pedestrian lights, so it was a nervy crap shoot to decide when it was ok to cross any street....

this is one of Dave's favorite buildings, right downtown on the promenade along the river...its the school of engineering, with a stairway going over the whole thing. 

and here is Paula's favorite place!

Unlike Buenos Aires, where there is little public access to the dirty ole river La Plata,  Rosarians use their river alot...canoes/kayaks/ rowing sculls....lots of restaurants and play areas are all up and down the shore...

if you look behind these handsome guys, you will see the giant freighter going past...

We found the Museo de Arte Decorativo  by accident, housed in a great old mansion...

there is nothing like having out of town guests to get you off your rear and see stuff you always meant to go to but never did....the Japanese gardens in Buenos are few blocks away form us, but we just never got around to seeing them til Paula came to town ....

a nice visual treat in the middle of the city....

Your food shot for this week is taken in the central courtyard of favorite italian restaurant, Prosciutto...

besides a ham decor, they have grand food!   (on the corner of Salta and Venezula, in Montserrat).

Colon Argentina

We took a long bus ride west from Montevideo across inland farm country to the Uruguay/Argentina border, and crossed the Uruguay river via taxi to the spa town of Colon.  Colon reminded me a bit of Florence, Oregon maybe 50 years ago...the main industry is summer vacationers from Argentina and Uruguay, who come for the miles of river swimming, fishing, the thermal hot springs in town, and the near by Parque El Palmar.  We went to the park mainly for bird watching....

But the big surprize were the carapinchos (or capybarras) we got to see...the largest member of the rodent species, in the guinea pig family....

and they were BIG! they can weigh up to 150 pounds....shy, slow moving guys....

We hiked along the river in the park, through willow and swampy areas, feeling like we were explorers in the jungle, when we came around a corner and found a photo shoot going on.......

We stayed for 4 days in Colon at the old original hotel of this city, Hosteria del Puerto and had a grand time.  We had a newly painted room full of antique furniture, with private bath, private balcony, big breakfast, all for 38 bucks a night (off season rate- everything goes way up in Dec/Jan/Feb).  The public hot springs pools (13 of them with different temps in each) were just down the road one direction, and the other direction led to the town plaza with lots of restaurants.....  Colon is only a three hour bus ride from Buenos Aires, and I plan to come back.

Paula wanted to take a boat ride to explore some of the islands in the middle of the Uruguay river, and we found a guy willing to take us for 2 dollars.....we thought that sounded awfully cheap for a nature tour...turned out he just took us to the biggest island and dumped us off- told us to wave this flag when we were ready to be picked up.....so we made our own tour on a trail through the jungle..

Your food shot for this week is from an outdoor lunch we had on the plaza in Colon........

Uruguay .......

Paula and I decided to make a get away from bustling Buenos Aires, and took the Buquebus (a fancy hydrofoil ferry) across the huge La Plata river to Colonia, Uruguay, then a local bus to the small town of Colonia Suisa.  The owner of Hostel El Galope took us to his spread in the countryside. Note the traditional reed roof on his house, and the surrounding fields with a few sheep, horses, and LOTS of birds....I was disappointed that the horses at the place were only for "expert" riders  (I had taken classes in riding in anticipation of this trip...still no way was I an expert)... but the hike to the little town, all the variety of birds we tried to identify, and the appearance of 100's of fireflies at night made up for no riding....

We read books, cooked simple meals....

The owner's dog and cats kept us company as we watched good sunsets...but after two nights we were ready  for city life again and took a couple hours bus ride to Montevideo, the biggest city in little ole Uruguay squished between giants Brazil and Argentina....Uruguayians seem to be very proud of the fact that they broke away from Argentina, seem to see Argentina as chaotic, crime ridden, and full of themselves....

I have seen some amazing churches in my day, but seldom venture inside, feeling like I am intruding with my pagan beliefs... but Paula was raised Catholic, and has dragged me into some amazing churches during her visit..... 

Tango is alive and well in Uruguay.  We made the mistake of asking if Tango originated in Argentina....the answer we got was that the deep water port at Montevideo with its first  immigrant worker population was the TRUE start of the tango..........

We found a basement Jazz club....the music by Las Cabas was a great mix of blues, celtic, tango, jazz...with sit in artists playing everything from pan pipes to bag pipes.....

The taxi driver didn't want to take us to Palermo Art Hostel, in the "bad,black" part of town....but we had no trouble there....had a great time with all the young kids....

And the art throughout the place was great!  Here is a Mardi Gras kid that greets you....

Street art is alive and well in Montevideo...lots of the sidewalks all over South America have missing tiles (home owners own the sidewalks in front of their place, not the city)...I found lots of this artist's work of filling in missing tiles with mosaic...what a grand idea! .....

some building graffiti that caught my eye....

Some good graffitti....

And here is our best dinner in Montevideo found down at the Montevideo port market....great tenderloin about 3 inches high with 4 cheese sauce, or wild mushroom sauce...Paula's served on a bed of onion rings, mine on a bed of grilled potatoes......

The tourist bus tour of the city.....

Please excuse my failure to make any posts for the last two weeks....Canadian friend Paula and I have been out in the wilds of Argentina and Uruguay without much access to computers (check for details of our adventure in future posts) ....Before we left Buenos Aires, we took the open air double decker tourist bus all around the city....it was my third time, and I still find it fascinating....especially how one goes from fancy downtown areas to funky ole Boca in less than an hour.....

We got off the bus in the Boca neighborhood......

And found some great little places tucked away in alleys....

Made a stop at the former home of artist Benito Quinquela Martin.....here is my favorite painting of his of La Boca during its hay-day as the main port of BA ....

We also went to Fundacion PROA museum in Boca to see some contemporary art...  Ruben Borre's stuff was pretty great.....

This week's food shot is from Restaurante Shi Yuan, Tagle 2531 off Ave. Las Heras....this place continues to get our vote as the best Chineese Resaurant in town with moderate prices....the top dish is three kinds of wild mushrooms surrounded with baby bok choy.   We repeatedly order the bottom plate (noodles/veg/pork/shirmp/chicken, all in a complex/smokey sauce) with the deceptively simple name of "Chao Mien Mixto."