Claudio has now worked for the marble company for 19 years and he decided it was high time he meet clients he had only talked to over the phone. Never being able to put a face to the voice, we packed our bags and hit the road.
We did 1550 miles in 10 days, stopping in rinky dink towns along the way and enjoying home cooked meals in the homes of many a happy client.
I am amazing at how exploited the land in Argentina is. For as far as the eye can see and your wheels can take you, there are fields and fields of cotton, sunflowers, soy, cows grazing, eucalyptus trees for making paper, corn, wheat, sugar....
I have never driven through the mid-western states of the US but I imagine it is somewhat similar, though on a spread out scale.
And probably (or hopefully) a bit more technologically advanced as most fields of cotton are still harvested by hand! Yes, by hand!
And the people, while taking part in what my opinion holds true to the words, "slave labor," are proud. Poor yes, but proud.
What surprised me the most is type of poverty that exists in the North. It is not the kind of poverty we are used to seeing here in Rosario in the villas (shantytowns). It is the kind of slave/slave driver poverty. It seems that those who do not belong to one category, belong to the other, and there are few that belong to neither.
In other words, it is life as our ancestors knew it 100 years ago. Many are without water, most are without natural gas, several still cook over wood burning stoves...
Needless to say it was an amazing adventure!
Juani behaved like a superstar. Different town, different hotel, every day, can't be easy on a little tyke, but he truly shows his mommy's adventuresome spirit.
He would enter each new hotel room with wide eyes and "I want to jump on the bed now" sort of enthusiasm all giggly contented with something new.
He slept most of the drive time, which was great, as it seemed like decades since Claudio and I have had time to chat without interruptions.
Here are a few photos, of our trip...
Sleepy head in the car
El empedrado, small fisherman's town along the river
Juan's first encounter with a merry-go-round
Yes ladies and gents, that is cotton!
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