If you have visited Argentina, then you know yierba mate! The national tea substitute is omnipresent. In the streets, parks, buses, ...everywhere. Even when the Argentinians go on a holiday, they wouldn’t leave the country without their mate-kit. And once you get hooked to it, there is no going back, it’s a great drink. Oh...and the mate tea-bags they sell in back Europe are not quite the real thing.

On on all 3 occasion where I found myself in van with, apart from me, only Argentinians on board it lasted hardly 5 minutes after setting off, before the mate-kit was brought out and someone started preparing the brew. The mate was then constantly circulating among the passengers – and the driver – until the end of the journey, sometimes for more than 8 hours...