Parana

From Rosario we took the bus to Parana.  It isn't particularly a destination in itself, but it is a convenient stopping point on the route we were taking through to Paraguay.  We had planned a couple of stops on the way to avoid having to take the longer bus journeys.  We also figured that it is good to see a few 'normal' towns along the way.
At the hostel they helpfully swapped our second floor room for a first floor one to help with my back, which was nice of them.  We rested a while, and then set off to find somewhere to get a late lunch.  I still couldn't walk too far, so we wandered around one of the main squares, finding a couple of places that were closed and the ubiquitous MacDonalds.

The square itself was quite nice, with a few nice buildings and couple of good sculptures, one of which was a tree trunk that had been carved into a male and a female body.

Then we tried the other big square, thinking that must be where the food is, only to find a closed bar and a garage cafe. Not quite that desperate yet, we had a brief rest on a bench in the square, and then circled round to a place from the guide book that we thought would be open.  It wasn't.

 Getting hungry by now we went back to the main square to try a place that we'd seen that seemed to be open and have some food, albeit rather limited.  Failing that we might have to break our own rule and use the MacDonalds!

When we got back to the main square, the MacDonalds was in fact shut - probably for the best, but one of the other places had opened.  Nic was very relieved as he was now claiming to be famished, and I was very relieved as my back was in some pain, and I had no wish to be walking around for any longer.

The next day, while I tried to get myself mobile enough to move, Nic went back to a square that we had passed the day before.  He had instructions from me to get pictures of the little shrine and the fireman's monument, which I wanted a closer look at, and he also found a strange and unexplained little house.

We spared my back and took a cab down to the waterfront with the intention of having lunch there.  Of course once again, everywhere was closed.  We walked around for a while, avoiding the 'Malvinas' memorial where various military types were gathering for a ceremony to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the sinking of the Belgrano, as we figured we may not be especially welcome at that.

Eventually, we found a place that was open and had what was by now a very late lunch overlooking the river front. Again, not a whole lot of sightseeing done, but we covered the main squares and the waterfront, and there wasn't actually much else to see.