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.

Park crawl

Ever had a desk calendar that you had to roll over every day?  Spare a thought for the person who has to change the Francés Garden flower calendar.  This calendar is made with plants that have to be changed on a daily basis.  I can imagine the gardener reciting 30 days has September… repeatedly in his head.

Depp is a boy, and as such he likes to run and jump and climb and wobble things and run and jump.  All he wants to do is find the next park so he can expel some energy and not have to hold someone’s hand.  We hope that his school this year will keep his hands and mind busy.

Airbnb is a new experience for us and we’re finding that there can be a little creativity to how the ads are written.  When we first pulled up to this apartment, Steven Spielberg was scouting around the location for his next movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Rosario.  The first section needs a skeleton key to open the iron gates, which lead down a gloomy alley way with fern covered walls and crumbling bricks.  Before entering the courtyard, one must hurdle the hole in the ground.  Spindly little sticks hold a sheet of timber and larger lumps of timber (why aren’t they doing the support work?).  Wheeling suitcases over that shouldn't be a problem.  Inside is the shower of penance.  All those years of having warm showers are washed away as the water dribbles out of an incomplete shower head in either scalding hot or slightly frigid water.  The gods say you can have one or the other but shall not combine the two to make warm water.  Nor shall the water wet all of your body at once. 

Last night we went to Abasto restaurant and had a fantastic sample of Argentine cuisine.  We also didn’t quite know what we were ordering and had enough food for two families.  When it came time to pay there was a problem with our credit cards.  The joy of being able to pay for something on the other side of the word is taken for granted until you can't, so you don't.  I ran to the nearest bank that had four ATMs, none of which were dispensing efectivo (cash).  I ran to the next ATM, which would not accept my card.  In the end I told the waitress the problem, gave her all the money in my wallet and promised we would return the next night.  She let us go in good faith.  We returned tonight to pay the remainder of our bill and enjoy some more local food.  We’re tempted to go back tomorrow night but know we need to try somewhere different.

After dinner we strolled down to Parque Urquiza so Depp could get his playground fix.  There were hoards of people stretching, puffing, running, squatting and sweating the night away.  With so many people exercising in groups it’s the safest we’ve ever felt in a park at night time.  Much like big corporations invest in carbon banking and carbon credits to offset pollution, we spoke to some joggers about calorie credits to help offset the extra ice-creams and media lunas (croissants) we’ve been eating.   They agreed to run a couple of extra laps for us, and our waistlines.     

Cordoba to Rosario

Cordoba to Rosario is a 405 km drive and would normally take about 4.5 hours.  On a bus, it is a 6.5 hour south-east journey through Argentina.

The following conversation may or may not have happened on the bus with the conductor.

Our ticket says you have a minibar on board.

            Here it is sir, tea and coffee.

I see by the range and selection you have a firm grasp on the word “mini”.  Perhaps you could have called it, “The almost non-existent, minuscule bar.”  Which one is the tea?

            The less lumpy of the two.

I also see you have a TV there.  Is there any chance of putting on a movie to help pass the six and a half hours.

            Sorry sir, but we only play movies on long bus trips.

Six hours is pretty long. 

            But not long enough for a movie.

At what point does a bus trip become long enough to warrant a movie.

            It’s an arbitrary figure that changes depending on the bus and what mood I’m in but be rest assured this trip is not long enough.

The TV didn’t work in the last bus we were on.  Does this one work? 

            No.  

So it doesn’t really matter how long the trip is.

            Not really.

Any suggestions to help pass the time?

            You could look out the window.

I’ve been doing that for the last four hours and all I’ve seen is endless corn fields.

            Have you tried the left side?

What’s out there?

            Corn that grows on the left side of the road.

Of course.  Is it worth seeing?

            Some say so.  Anything else?

Yes.  Why does that man have a cardboard box with a tail coming out of it?

            He’s transporting his cat.

Naturally.  One more question.  Why does the bus driver go off the road after he over takes a truck?

            It’s to help him recalibrate his bearings.  He has troubles seeing out of one of his eyes.

Which eye?

            The one under the patch.  Anything else?

No thank you.

            Enjoy your trip.

Dinner and a show.

If Sunday is for sleeping in, then Monday is for using a jackhammer at 7 a.m. on the road outside our apartment, constructing an office block out the back window and testing the resonance of car horns off the surrounding buildings.  Luckily we’re no longer suffering from bus-lag.

Some of our “Oh, that’s how you do it here,” moments this week are…  We ordered a ham and pineapple pizza as we thought that would be a gentle way to ease the kids into eating different foods.  The ham and pineapple, Hawaiian or even Tropical pizza to those with a flair for language, is an Australian favourite.  Our pizza came out with eight olives sitting on the border and a criss-cross of some sort of sauce.  We asked the waitress what the sauce was and she said it was olive sauce.  Not only has Argentina slammed us with a reciprocity fee but they have also defaced the Tropical pizza with olive sauce.  This will take some time to adjust to.

Park drinking fountain

We stopped in at Wöllen Tag Swiss ice-creamery.  While not very Argentine, when one needs to bribe kids to keep them walking, one cannot be too picky.  When it came time to eating the cone, we were at a loss trying to define the flavour of this edible vessel.  Was it malt, or salt, or something reminiscent of fish and chips?  Whatever it was I think the owner was confused why there were four cones sitting on the table.  Perhaps he thought, “So that’s how Australians do it.”

Playground equipment does not meet the same standards that we’re used to in Australia.  We’ve told Depp that we need to have a quick look at the swings and slides before he hops on.  Some of the swing chains look like they’re almost worn through.  Most of the parks often have a few homeless people sleeping in the corners, which has lead to some eye opening conversations for our kids. 

See Saw 

Our noses were called over to the smoky aroma of chori completos being cooked over charcoal from a food van.  We don’t know exactly what sort of meat they are made from but we were impressed with the vendor’s approach to not wasting anything as he tossed a bag of charcoal into the fire without even opening the bag and then ripped up a cardboard box and threw that onto the fire – including the sticky tape that held the box shut.  The chori completo and chori lomo are a gourmet barbequed sandwich with your choice of over a dozen pickled vegetable mixes.  This has been the tastiest thing we’ve eaten this week. 

The park was our choice for eating dinner and we sat watching jugglers congregating, practicing, twirling, fumbling and above all else, defying gravity with their instruments of flight.  The skill needed to juggle is impressive and makes me think that juggling should be taught at school.  Many jugglers busk at the traffic lights while the lights are red. We teach calculus at school.  Could you imagine a maths teacher running out into the middle of an intersection under the glow of a red light with a whiteboard on wheels and running through a string of calculus problems in the hope that drivers would throw a few coins their way.  It just wouldn’t happen.  They’d be slain whiteboards at every intersection.  Power to the jugglers.