cordoba is a nice city, although i’m not sure why (according to lonely planet) it was the cultural capital of the americas. rosario, on the other hand is quite cool. we got here at night, but it seems to have a great vibe. it’s smaller, safer and more manageable than buenos aires, but still has fun stuff to see and do. i wish i could stay here another day to explore the city, but we’re on a timeline to pick up adrian’s visa from the brazilian consulate tomorrow. a few anecdotes:

the sentra has some issues. i took it to a mechanic this morning, and he said the wheel bearing was bad. he’s probably right, although i think there might be other issues as well. he was going to charge me $100 and take most of the day, so i decided to postpone the fix. however, i did patch a tire i had broken about a week earlier ($2.50).

elementary school kids in argentina wear labcoats. why? i don’t know.

argentinians drink mate everywhere. it must be incredibly tedious to have to bring the hot water, yerba, sugar, gourd, etc. everywhere they go.

as in most of the world, people on the street will offer to wash your windshield for money. in panama they were pretty aggressive. in chile they were almost non-existent. in argentina, they’re incredibly polite, asking you if you want your window washed first.

people don’t honk their horns much in argentina. even after argentina qualified for the world cup yesterday night, all the cars were silent.

one of my favorite things about travelling are the conversions. for instance, on the highway in argentina, you might see a sign that says ‘rosario 100’…and you’ll think, ‘oh man, that’s far…but wait! that’s only 60 miles…yay!’. or maybe you’ll buy 1 kilo of bananas for 3pesos…..but wait! that’s over 2 pounds for under 1 dollar…yay! gasoline is a bit disappointing since they use liters rather than gallons.