Love letters from Rosario

A love letter in the streets of Rosario: "Esteban, I love you."

Well the fearless five (fabulous five? I think I need a better name) - that would be Alana, Amanda, Susanna, Josh and myself - set out for a little adventure to Rosario this weekend. It's a holiday weekend here - in the U.S. we call it Columbus Day - marking Columbus' arrival in the Americas. I suppose down here it's a day for either celebration or more sober commemoration, depending on your preferred version of history.

Besides being the home of South America's largest disco (so say the employees at our hostel, though I have reason to question their sources) Rosario also happens to be the birthplace of Che Guevara. Since this past week marked the anniversary of his death, the buses from BA to Rosario were packed with Argentines ready to pay homage to the revolutionary, or just looking for some time off. The fact that the bus was packed turned out to be lucky for me: There were plenty of people to help me open the bathroom door when I thought I was locked inside and therefore shook vigorously until the entire bottom floor of the bus knew I was having problems opening the door.

We did in fact hit up this famous disco - it's called a boliche here - and were relieved to discover that it is still perfectly acceptable to play "Hit Me Baby One More Time" and "Lady Marmalade" in some parts of the world. If your name is Rachel or Rachel, you can imagine that hearing the Moulin Rouge theme song conjured up the image of a certain Christina Aguilera impersonator circa 2002. Smile.

View from the bus station in Rosario.

Photos from this weekend are here: FOTOS FROM ROSARIO.