Fly like an eagle.

Our afternoon was spent at El Jardín de los Niños, about 2 kilometres from our apartment.  We’ve been walking everywhere while in Rosario and it’s costing us a small fortune in ice creams to keep the kids moving.

El Jardín celebrates the imagination of artists and inventors and invites children to do the same.  It is divided into three section, one of questioning, innovation and adventure.  There is a small museum dedicated to some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions including a water wheel that turns cogs which in turn fills bellows that blow onto a feather vane.  Perhaps Rube Goldberg is a descendant of Leonardo.

The main reason we went to El Jardín was to go on the flying machine.  We’re always cautious about safety in South America but this time we were impressed.  The harnesses were proper full body harnesses, there was a net under the track and the helmets almost fit.  We had a few turns to fly but would have liked to have flown a bit faster.

Later in the night we went out for dinner at a parrilla (grill) restaurant.  They cook on an open flame over coals and the smell is amazing.  We arrived at the gringo time of 8:30 and we were still too early.  As the only ones in the restaurant, the waiter sat us by the window.  It felt a bit like being at the zoo with people walking past looking at the odd family who can’t wait till 10:00 for their dinner.

We ordered a traditional sample plate as an entrée and when it came out we wondered how far from within the beast the items had come from.  While we agree with the nose to tail mentality we had great troubles eating the round twirly things held together with a skewer, the stretching thing that was about a foot long or the round thing with squiggly lines all over it.  The last item rolled around the plate a few times.  The waiter removed the hardly touched plate, walked to the kitchen then to other room. We think that it went out the back for the staff to eat.  Waste not want not.