Impresiones de la Argentina

Bandera Argentina
Originally uploaded by Finizio.

Adios Argentina. Today, with my arrival in Chile, I´d just like to note down a few little details that I´ll remember about this fabulous country:

- Little shrines to Difunta Correa by the roadside, usually with red flags and often surrounded by empty plastic bottles.
- Unpredictable road surfaces: gravel; potholes; ramps; long, straight, brown, featureless highway suddenly changing dramatically to mountains or green forests and lakes.
- Very young kids out to dinner with their familes late at night.
- Mate! People carrying their Mate mugs and flasks of hot water with them wherever they go.
- Medialunes (croissants) and dulce de leche for breakfast. Roquefort and palmito pizzas.
- Dogs everywhere. Mostly friendly but all insane, chasing cars and behaving suicidally.
- Bosa Nova versions of classics: U2, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Guns & Roses and, er, Soundgarden.
- The definite feeling of a work in progress.
- Argentina flags and Coca-cola signs everywhere.
- Over-18 films on buses full of kids.
- Wasps in the lake district.
- Really good wine, available cheap.
- People saying "David Beckham!" or "Wayne Rooney!" when they find out you are English.
- Huge, panoramic, camera-busting landscapes.
- Entire cows or sheep hanging over open fires in the cheapest to the most expensive restaurants.
- Turquoise lakes, black sand, dusty highways, snow-capped peaks, red hils, featureless plains, miles of vineyards.
- Chocolate, ponchos, Quilmes beer, roses and penguins.
- All the streets in every town having the same names: Roca, San Martin, Colòn, Sarmiento, etc...
- Battered old cars with no registration numbers, cracked windscreens, missing headlights and major rust. Often crammed with families of 8.
- Craft markets - Crafts Artesenals.
- Not eating dinner until 11pm and still being expected to get up for breakfast at 7. When do these people sleep?
- No-holds-barred public snogging.
- Kids playing football in the street - what else is there to do in a town like Rio Gallegos?
- Thousands of stars.
- Cuba Libres (with Havana rum, not Bacardi).