New Friends In Resistencia

When we finish our bike ride around the world we will have cycled over 24,000 miles.

You see so much, it’s impossible to remember it all.

Sometimes it’s surprising what sticks in your mind.

Other times, you leave a place, a person, or an experience, and you know you will treasure it for the rest of your life.

—

We’re way off the beaten track now.

So much so that when we arrived in Resistencia, and our 100th AirBnB, our hosts asked us how we ended up there.

Resistencia is not exactly on the map for tourists.

Waitresses asked the same and were eyes-wide-open when we told them that we loved Resistencia.

Well, bike tourists know: this is the whole point.

A bike ride around the world is a look at the real country,

the real people.

Sometimes, you meet people and you click with them immediately.

This is what happened in Resistencia.

First of all, we were absolutely astounded when we heard Sofi and Joshua speak English.

English isn’t spoken much in Argentina and certainly not fluently.

Joshua’s English was so good I assumed he worked for an American company and spoke English daily.

That wasn’t the case.

They were both self-taught and hadn’t spoken together in English until we arrived.

As they showed us around our Airbnb, we all chatted away.

There was an excited buzz as we told them about the trip and they told us we’d wandered into a town rarely visited by foreigners.

It was so exciting to speak fluently in English with someone else other than each other.

Joshua offered that we could all hang out.

It was an immediate YES from us.

We took one night off to rest from our cycling, extended our stay for an extra night so we could all hang out for two nights.

The best part about finding a local who speaks English is that you can ask them the 101 questions that come up when you’re traveling.

Why does this happen? What’s that? What do you eat, really? What’s the custom relating to…?

It turned out that we’d immersed ourselves in Argentine culture pretty well, but when we went out to dinner Joshua and Sofi introduced us to a few new foods and some alcohol, too 😋

Most importantly we tried Mate together; *the* Argentine drink.

You haven’t been to Argentina unless you’ve drank it. Everyone else does. I finally understood why so many places advertise “agua caliente” (hot water). It’s so people can make their Mate.

We enjoyed two evenings with Joshua and Sofi. We walked around the park, went for dinner, had drinks and snacks, drank mate, and watched traditional Argentine dancing.

Oh, and no night in Argentina is complete without half a kilo of ice cream eaten at 11pm; a tub holding four different (delicious) flavours, four waffle cones, and four spoons.

We really made two new friends in Resistencia.

I’m not sure when we will see them again, but I *know* that we will.

There were so many coincidences like Joshua’s brother living in the south of Spain almost exactly where we were on holiday before we set off for this trip.

Remember their faces, everyone, because you’ll see them again, too 🥰

There’s no doubt that Stew and I will come back to Argentina, and we will definitely be contacting Joshua and Sofi when we do.