The Argy East Coast

I left Buenos Aires a week ago and have been travelling down the East coast of Argentina since then. One thing that I have noticed about this country, which I hadn´t really considered previously, is that it is big... very f&*king big! When you´re looking at the map, you don´t really realise it, because it is dwarfed by Brazil, its northern neighbour. According to an American I met on a bus (another case of verbal diarrhea), its the eighth biggest country in the world!

These massive distances manifest themselves in very long bus rides, so of the past seven days, I have spent the last four on a bus.

My first port of call was a town called Puerto Madryn, about two thirds of the way between BA and the southern tip of the Americas, and a 22 hour busride away. There a world heritage site slash national park there called Peninsula Valdes, which I did a guided tour of. We had a fairly happy-go-lucky (a couple of sambos short of a picnic) tourguide called Martin, whose English was more or less non-existant. We went out on a boat to see White Whales, which in fairness to them, are pretty amazing animals... they are awsomely big and the day we were out, they were jumping around the place happy as larry. It was a pretty awe-inspiring sight.

After the whales, Martin informed us that our little Renault Kangoo might not be able to manage the gravel roads on the Peninsula but that we would give it a bash anyway. As soon as we came off the paved road and onto the gravel one, we got stuck in a ditch, up to our knees in mud... It was a bit of a disaster to say the least.

Luckily enough, some nice argies in a 4x4 came by and pulled us out. I was convinced that Martin would call it a day and throw in the towel considering we had another 169 kilometres left on our circuit of the Peninsula, but he decided to persevere. I was kinda thinking to myself that this lad was a bit of a loo-la and if he thought we were going to be able to do 170 muddy kilometres in this bucket of a car (while every other car that passed us was some kind of massive SUV / Jeep / 4x4), he was seriously delusional.

However, with some swerving and skidding on Martin´s behalf and the occassional "get out and push" on ours, we eventually got some serious distances behind us and got to this beach where we saw elephant seals. Our guide had worked on the beach previously so was able to get us right down to the seals (about 5 metres from them)... Second massive mammal of the day.... Elephant seals are the ones where the males have this kinda disgusting trunk like thing on their faces... But all the males were off in Antartica so we could get close to the rest of them without being attacked and wripped to shreds.

On the way back to the mainland, our guide decided that we should travel in convoy with another tour bus in case we get stuck (cos they had a radio and it was getting dark)... It should have been a two hour journey back to Puerto Madryn, but it took us seven, cos we spent most of the time behind the car (as well as the other bus who was supposed to be our saviour) pushing it. Conveniently, both us and the bus kept on getting stuck in the same places... which meant that we could push our car out, and then go and push the bus out... (they couldn´t push themselves cos they were all geriatrics)... we would continue for about ten metres and then we would both get stuck again... this pattern repeated itself for about four hours... bit of a nightmare... The funniest thing about it was that our guide had forgotton to fill up his water tank before he left, and we ran out of bottled water so he couldn´t clear the windscreen and had to drive with his head out the window... to tell you the truth, he was a bit of a disaster-zone...

Got back at around 11pm (original plan was to be back for six) covered in mud from head to toe... my walking boots, which had been brand spanking new that morning, were completlely fucked, but it was a great day all the same... Went for drinks later that night with two brits and a scot who had been in my car to finish off bonding after our adventure! (more pics here)

Will update on the South (El Calafate, Pereto Moreno Glacier and Ushuaia - where I am now - as soon as I feel like it)

Iguazu & Inertia

Went to Iguazu Falls last weekend. Bren, Dave and I took an 18 hour bus from BA to Puerto Iguazu on Thursday and arrived on Friday. Although the ride was long, the argies don´t really have any trains so they know how to bus it in style. The seats are like big Lazy Boys and if you knock back a couple of sleeping tablets you can get a good nights kip on the bus. Plus, its full service like on a plane. You get your dinner, your brekkie and a plethora of snacks and drinks in between. They also show movies in English so the whole experience isn´t altogether that bad. (especially if you´re into Jean Claude Van Damme movies)

So we arrived in Puerto Iguazu to find that the fact that we had driven due north for 18 hours makes a big difference to the temperature. The weather was stunning ... and our hostel had a pool as well, so we duly planted ourselves beside it and started knockin´ back the pina coladas... To tell you the truth, I hadn´t seen the sun for some time before that, so it was a very welcome surprise.

We took it easy the first night so that we would be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the following mornings hike of the Iguazu Falls. We actually managed to get out of the hostel at 9am the next day and attacked the Falls on a beautiful Saturday morning.

Because its the off-season here (it being winter as you may gather from the pics), the crowds were very manageable indeed and we had a great day walking around the various routes and circuits that let the masses ogle the falls.

The falls themselves are pretty impressive. I´d love to give you all the natural and geological stats but I don´t know them. What I do know is that its a very impressive amount of water splashing down and it is absolutely awesome to see. They´re also very accessible, as in you can get great views of them from all around the valley below.

And when you´re not looking at the waterfalls, you´re looking at the subtropical rainforests through which you wander on the circuits... We saw monkeys, in fact monkeys pelted us with apples... and we also saw toucans from afar (that was my objective for the day, to see a toucan - the guinness bird).

So we did our day at the falls, and then we just relaxed by the pool in the hostel for a couple of days (a chance to turn my milkbottle white to ruby red). The lads split to Rio on Monday and I decided that I would stay in Iguazu until Wednesday but accidently came back to BA a day earlier because I didn´t realise what day it was. (More photos of the falls here).

On a more sombre note, when I got back to BA, I realised that my new room which I had been promised, had been given away to a Frenchman in my absence. Furthermore, my efforts to find gainful employment have reached an all-time low as I haven´t had a single positive reply from any of my applications. Hence the inertia... I´m not quite sure what I´m going to do now, but having got my first taste of the sun, I think that I might head north fairly soon (in two weeks or so) and just land myself in some kind of wildlife sanctuary or something where I can chill out for a couple of months... the weather in BA is not really playing ball either...

That´s all for the time being. Eins will Ich aber noch sagen, die Deutsche Einheit die diesen Blog liesst soll auch ruhig Kommentare hinterlegen denn Ich weis dass Ihr da seid.

Am going to ponder my future for a couple of days and I´ll get back to you with an action plan as soon as I come up with one.

Oh yeah, and see the albums for more pics of Iguazu.

Iguu Azuu...

I{ve decided to stop apologising for my lack of posts or else it{ll be all I ever do. Furthermore, this post will be written with a weird bracket ({) in the place of an apostrophe as my keyboard doesn{t seem to be down with the english vernacular.

So anyway, I{m not going to rabbit on about what I{ve been up to cos its not very exiting. Suffice to say that my liver has registered its intent to seek asylum and I caught it trying to jump ship while I was sleeping the other night... Dave & Bren had their last day in BA yesterday so we went to "our favourite" french restaurant (which by this stage we should own).

Today, I{m going to accompany the two lads to Iguazu Falls (waterfall malarky - see http://www.etravelphotos.com/argentina/iguazu.html for an elaborate amount of generic photos) and they will continue on to Rio after that and I will come back to BA to sort out my life.

That{s all I have to say really. Hopefully I will have some generic pics of myself under a waterfall by monday in which case I{ll shag them up on the old blogaroo to keep you punters happy...

I don{t know how to sign off on these posts. I mean, its not a letter, so there{s no point saying "luv, conor"... but at the same time I feel I should indicate that I{m finished drivelling on about things... I suppose its kind of a diary, but do you sign off from a diary... who knows? Maybe I{ll copy Bridget Jones and start giving you my daily stats (that would be a good way to freak out my mum... bridget jones would be the patron saint of abstinence compared to yours truly....)

Anyway, I{m finished for now.... luv conor (hehe)

Oh actually, if you{re reading this, then I want you to post a comment .... I{m fed up with this being a monologue... surely you people have something interesting to say... (seriously, just rant on for a bit... )... thanks to those got the ball rolling!

Now I{m definitely finished... 1 billion ciggies, 6 vats vino tinto, 4 large cows