En La Capital

After escaping the Cordoba province and the small villages , I continued my journey in Rosario, Santa Fe province. That is the city were Che Guevara and Messi were born.

The city in general feels unsafe in comparison with Cordoba and everybody warns you about it. Also not a very touristic place with very limited things to do. The most important is the monument of the Argentinian Flag.
I found a cheap but decent hostel, met few people from Argentina and Colombia but not much in general.



Never the less, it is just a typical city with very few things to see, with exemption of the  Flag monument. My relaxing time was continued since Santa Rosa for three more days, when I took the bus to Buenos Aires.

Flag monument in Rosario

In the Capital, I spend 6 nights, the longest I have been in one place in that trip but I must admit I enjoyed every minute of it.

To start with, I met with Argentinian people I encountered in different parts of my trip so that gave me a better insight of this huge city.

A visit in the Boca Juniors Bario (Caminito), where everything is Blue, Yellow, Maradona and Riquelme. With a strong smell of asado as people do barbeque and dance Tango everywhere on the streets was my first day alongside with exploring several places of the center. The pace of life is much faster and many people not as polite as in other cities.
In general I spend alot of my time exploring the city and the different barios for the first days with the good company I had from Tucuman.

In the Boca bario (caminito)

Puerto Madero @ Night

Later within the week decided to go in the north west of the city, were there is some river-islands to make some barbeque. The place is called Tigre and its very close to the borders with Uruguay, the small island we visited was called Alcazar. Had a great day relaxing under the trees and eating food  until the time we had to return back to Tigre.
For some reason the boats would not stop for us, ending up trying to hitchhike for almost two hours in the river. When we lost all hope, we called to the company letting them know what was going on and they made sure to inform the last boat of the day that they had forgotten us, finishing like that the small adventure. On the way back we were lucky to get a a beautifull sunset.

Hotchhiking in the river.. with no luck

 

Returning to Tigre

Finally, the last two day were deticated to football.  Luckily that week there was a Gran Classico between River Plate and  Boca Juniors. One of the best football games to see. A friend I made d early in my travels in Salta (Gaston) was so much into football and he manage to find me a ticket for me in a proper price rather than black market, where most tourists pay up to 7 times the original value.

Gaston asked me to promise I would not be a River Plate fan after the game. Football is so important for them and making me a fan of San Lorenzo (Their team) seemed to be very important so I had no problem to compromise for that.
Becoming a fan of San Lorenzo, ment much more than just saying it or going to a football match with him.
On Saturday, it was match day for San Lorenzo (Sunday the other game), they came (with another SL fan) and pick me up from the hostel, around 10AM, and we spend the next 2 hours driving around the neigbourhood of SL, and seeing everything related with it alongside with history lessons for the team.

So:
Breakfast to the official bar
Visiting the place were the previous pitch was located
Visiting the New Basketball stadium
Driving and seeing all the San Lorenzo Drawings on the walls
Visiting the official shop so I acquire my Shirt of SL

And last.... arriving in the Pitch at 12-12:30 PM. Almost 5 hours before the game. That team, has a picknick area outside their pitch were people are gathered to cook asado and get drunk before the game and when the game is about to start, they are just few steps from the stadium. I must admit I enjoyed the actual football experience of argentina, with lots of beers, singing eating and getting to know the people around me.

At around 4:30 we were in the pitch waiting for the game to win. San Lorenzo won 3-2 and everybody left happy from the stadium.
 

Outside the stadium with Gaston

Tired from the full day and the sun I was, I returned back to the hostel.

Last day, I had the ticket for the Big Game. Didn't do much for the whole day, just walking around and waiting.

I was adviced to leave early, as there is a lot of police around the stadium.
Arriving 4-5 blocks from the stadium I realized why I was adviced to do that, it is a dangerous game, the have 6-7 isolation zones around the pitch, where the split the people in groups of 50-70 and allow them to proceed slowly, group by group to maintain the control. People singing and prepare the atmosphere for the game. The truth is wether is cyprus,england or argentina fans sings for the same things using the same tempo,just change the language.

Finally, arrived in the stadium; it was filled with people and the atmosphere hot and burning from the 75000 fans in the stadium waiting for the game to start.

Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti

Fireworks (during day) and singing throughout the game helped maintain the atmopshere. In the end, Boca won 4-2 in that away game. Not that I cared alot, but being in the Popular Stand, you really have to go along the people otherwise you may not leave the stadium

That means:
Swear a lot when Tevez scores and be ecstatic and hug anyone around you when River scores one. Almost mixed them up at the beggining but quickly sorted my anti-River feelings in order to maintain my physical integrity :)

Shortly later, I left the stadium, to return back to the hostel and pick up my stuff. There was a long 20hour journey in front of me to reach my first stop in Patagonia and I couldnt miss the bus. Tired that I was, I fell asleep until the morning, when arried  in Puerto Madryn... 
I have finally left the north and the big cities to reach the south with the small but cold places.....

Buenos Aires is such a place with a very specific character and I enjoyed every bit of it...