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

Selling myself

Forgive me father, for I have sinned: It´s been a week since my last post...

All is still good down here, 10,883 kilometres from home... apparantly the earths radius is 6,376.5 kilometers which means that I´m a little under the earths diameter (12,753km) away from my leaba back in Porterstown. In terms of geographical position, for those of you with GPS gadgets, my latitude is just below the 33rd parallel south (at 33 degrees and 8 minutes south) and my longitude is 64 degrees 2 minutes west... Right so, now that we know where I am, what exactly am I doing... well not very much to tell you the truth...

I´m still doing the spanish classes although now my rate of attendance has dropped slightly to about 70%... but considering that the rest of my class are all a little bit behind me (grace au francais) it´s good to give them some breathing space..

I´m still living with this american dude but am actively looking for a shared apartment for a couple of months... (the argies don´t seem to have the tendency towards wohngemeinschafts or living communities that the germans have, so its not that easy).

I´ve done my cv and a covering letter and plan to drop into all the UN agencies / NGOs in town and try to get something to keep me ticking over for (literally) a couple of months... The plan is just to ambush them with "Hello, I would like to work for you for free for two months, interested?" and I´m hoping that one of them will be able to recognise a good thing when its standing in their doorway looking to solve that long-term filing problem when they see one. Fuck it, we´ll see what happens on that front... By the way, if anyone has any south American NGO/UN/Development contacts, then get on the blower....

According to the grand plan, I am also supposed to have started a tango class this week, but I haven´t. Although its not altogether as easy as one might assume. I don´t want to be in a tango class with chubby tourists (pot calling kettle...), but I would prefer to have a couple of locals in there, so that the spoken language is castellano and not "well gee honeey, you shuddna worn those darn hagh heels"... this would also be a cheaper option... anyway, I got an address of a place last night that could be promising, so I´ll check that out over the weekend...

Apart from that one of the lads left on wednesday so we went out to a great steakhouse on tues night for some bife de bife... very nice... unfortunately forgot me camera so didn´t take any photos...

Haven´t really been doing that much touristy stuff, but we decided that we would treat ourselves to a night at the theatre tonite. We´re going to see BA´s philharmonic orchestra and originally wanted to get great seats in the presidents box (for 10 euros), but everything was sold out so now we have had to console ourselves with seats where we can´t actually see anything. But I suppose seeing people moving their arms up and down vigorously isn´t what orchestras are renowned for so hopefully it´ll still be good. Might go to the opera next week if we can get good seats...

thats it for now... Will try to lash up some photos tomorrow if my camera plays along... hasta la proxima

La bouffe a BA

Been a while since my last update... but I´ve been busy so please excuse. I´ve been plagued by hangovers since I got to this place and I´m afraid its just not conducive to updating your Blog on a regular basis.

At the weekend we went to a soccer match to see BA´s famous Boca Juniors play against Argentina Junior. Boca is the soccer team that maradonna played for and most argies go nutz about them. I got meself a boca top to get into the swing of things, and at one point we got a bit lost looking for the stadium and nearly walked into a crowd of Argentina Junior supporters... A copper informed us that we should either take off our Boca tops or go another way, so we did that and eventually found our way into the Boca camp. It was a good match, but unfortunately we (?) lost so the crowd was slightly subdued.... plan to get tickets for the the next big match against River Plate, their arch rivals...

I´m now a real porteño (BA resident) as I´ve got a place to call home and something to get up for in the morning for. I bumped into this American chap who invests in property here and told him that I was looking for somewhere to stay. We came to an agreement that I could stay in his place for a while (rentfree in my own room), if I take pictures of his apartment and put them on the internet. So thats the plan... and I´ve been there since Monday. I´m living in San Telmo which is the arty-farty, bohemian, tango area of BA and its pretty cool. I just live around the corner from the lads as well... so its a sweet deal.

Apart from that I´ve also started my Spanish course and despite numerous heavy nights, I´ve also managed to attend it on a semi-regular basis. I´ve got four hours a day, from 10 to 12 and from 12.30 to 2.30... so it still leaves lots of time for monkeying about and it gets me out of the scratcher in the morning.

I did miss my morning class today though for the first time. We went to this posh french restaurant last night and it ended up being a bit of a fiesta to say the least... For starters we had a couple of Ricards, followed by a main course of vino tinto by the vat. It would have been rude to turn down the JB coffees and for dessert we had a nice Remy Martin. All that was washed down with cassoulet, rillettes and confit de canard. The faux francais (Swiss) punter who owned the place had never seen such consumption and spotted us a bottle of Moet & Chandon on the house... cos we said we´d come back ... and we will! All that booze with starters, main course and cheese came to 20 euros per lost consciosness...

I´m tellin´ ya,

YOU CAN´T LIVE ANYWHERE LIKE YOU CAN LIVE HERE...!

Don't cry for me... bife de lomo

Have met up with four friends (Bren, Dave, Eddie & Sav) down here who have established themselves as portenos (Buenos Aireans) since arriving a couple of weeks ago. Luckily enough I live just around the corner from them, so have been on the booze more or less all week.

Yesterday we ventured out to Recoleta to see the cemetary there. It´s a pretty impressive place, a bit like Pére Lachaise in Paris, also with its fair share of paddies... There were loads of sepulchres etched with O´Flaherty, O´Brien etc. I´d say there are more Murphy´s here than in Glasnevin.

Also went to see the grave of Evita Peron, whom the more informed of you might remember as Madonna in Evita. Still haven´t really copped on to what exactly her story is, but she was the missus of Juan Peron, long-time president here and seems to have been a pretty popluar person (although apparantly she was a bit of a bitch as well... depends who you´re talking to).

After that we went to this "Parilla" or steakhouse and had a tonne of sirloin and 14 bottles of tinto. We stayed in the restaurant for about 10 hours and had a great night.

Am still living in the hostel but hope to sort something else out on Monday when I start my Spanish course on Monday. Am going to buy a card reader and will then lash a couple of photos up.

El peso fantastico

Although the argies hate the fuckin´ thing, I think that the argy peso is the best thing since sliced bread. This city used to be quite pricey, but since the economic collapse of 2001, when the peso was uncoupled from the dollar, it has been hugely devalued. (currenty at about three pesos to the dollar).

For the locals, this was a pretty shit as their personal savings were suddenly worth nada and the banks ran out of reserves and closed up shop. (seehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1721061.stm for the history). However, for the cheapo, pseudo-student traveller with a strong Euro in his back pocket, this place is heaven!

A bottle of beer in the most expenisive nightclub is about 1 euro, in a bar, its about 75 cents and in the supermarket, its essentially free. Thats right, you heard correct, they give you free beer in the supermarkets... To say that I am happy with my choice of destination is quite an understatement.