The Coca man:
Dining I noticed yesterday already a guy in his late forties, light green short-sleeved shirt over his potbelly, hair greased entering the restaurant with two plastic bags: in his left a bigger white one with more of the same he offered with his slightly under his belly outstretched right hand: a transparent sachet with green leaves looking like laurel. He went from table to table muttering 'Coca, Coca' under his breath - but no one called the police. Quite the opposite, the coca man seems to be a well established institution in Argentina, like the rose man in restaurants in European countries. And his customers weren't the young folks, rather men of his age and constitution, maybe a little more settled. - Also the geriatric, toothless man, who i was talking with and who offered me grapes at the plaza in Angastaco today was chewing coca leaves. - I knew it from the Peruvian countrymen already, but I'm I bit surprised that chewing leaves is so common in Argentina as well. - Now consider that a 1/4 l of wine is 10 pesos and 1/2 l is just 14, which is 2 resp. 2.84 US$, than it's hard to image, that self-deluding isn't a popular sport or rather a widespread disease, or maybe both.