Last night I was feeling exhausted.... needed to recharge my batteries so I was looking forward to having a quiet one. So imagine my surprise when I found myself at a boat party on the harbour and dragged my weary carcass back to the hostel at 5.30am this morning.... ooops...
The party was good fun and the views of Rio were breathtaking. You can see the statue of Christ from everywhere in Rio...
I met up with Jay (UK), Matt and Ben (US) Jairu (Costa Rica) and Trent (Australia) so it was good to know people ahead of the boat party. It´s quite weird watching people trying to dance on a boat on the harbour. You see them collectively shuffle from left to right, right to left as the boat sways while they still try and maintain their dance style. Hilarious.
Today I woke up at about 11.30am and pretty much hung around the hostel until 2ish. I met Mark (UK) and we went to check out Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon beaches... amazing views.
Left Buenos Aires today and was sad to go. It is such a special place and the people I met there are fantastic. Especially thanks to the brothers Juan Cruz and Matias who really looked after me while I was there. See you in Sydney soon guys...
Hostel Obelisco is definitely worth staying in. My only issue was that I lost my fleece so I may have to invest in a Llama jumper for Inca Trail. Will see...
I went out with Alegra, Maya and the guys to San Telmo, beautiful area.... We went to an Arabic restaurant....it was great...
Flew to Sao Paulo today and met Flavia at the airport who really helped me out trying to understand Portuguese. She´s swimming in the Brazilian national trials tomorrow so hope she wins. Thayse sat next to me on the plane to Rio and she was teaching me some Portuguese words so I can now order twenty beers without any problems.... Get in...
Last night was a little hectic. It started off with Champagne and Red Bull and slowly decended from there until we left at about 6.30am. An entertaining night. Not really much to report because I can't really remember much about it. I did dance though, that's official.
Done absolutely nothing today and am very proud of that. I had about 3 hours sleep and then went to get some food. Walked around the hostel in a daze most of the day and will have a quiet one tonight.
Didn´t do much yesterday. Trying to recover from lots of nights out, no sleep and food on the run. Pretty much went out for food yesterday and then messed around at the hostel. Went out for dinner with Sam and Georgina to a really nice restaurant for yet more steak. My heart is currently not talking to me on account of red meat abuse. Oops. Georgina and I then went out in search of Guinness and came up with the local stout. It was errr.... entertaining. To say that it danced on my tongue would be a little incorrect. More of a ugly waddle on my taste buds but it did the job.
I quickly realised that Latin America and particularly Buenos Aires runs on a different time clock. Breakfast seems to be around 11am or 12pm, lunch around 4 or 5pm, dinner at 10pm ish and then out for drinks until 6am. Apparently, people go to work from the clubs on a Friday. Thurs, Fri and Sat are big party nights. Crazy...
The spanish is working reasonably ok. I've been practising. I learnt how to call the referee a gay prostitute at the Boca Juniors match which was a crowning moment in my pursuit of a new language. I can also tell a dog that it has beautiful ears which is slightly concerning.
So today I went to Tigre with Sam and Georgina. Tigre is about an hour north of Buenos Aires and is a bit like Richmond on Thames.
Life focuses on the River and the buildings are quite magnificent in parts. This evening, I party like it's 1999. I'm going to a club called Crobar on account of the tools you need to take with you when you go there. Not a rough place but it´s certainly entertaining. Just kidding, it's actually one of the best clubs in BA. Electronica and Latin music. Should be good fun.
Wow, what an amazing couple of days. I went along to the tango lessons and the tango club on Wednesday night. I actually danced tango. I really did. I met Hilde (Norway) and was also joined by Sam and Georgina (UK). We had a great time. I was a little rigid to begin with but then when I got used to the steps I almost looked competent. A few damaged toes for my partners later put paid to that.
My favourite move, the half step.... check me out... We got to the tango club and it was a little empty but we were all just watching and learning at the beginning. I threatened Hilde with a dance but she sidestepped my advances with consumate ease...
The music changed to a little salsa and these three Argentinian girls on our table dragged everyone up to have a dance. I'm so glad I got up there. They taught me some Salsa steps and it was great fun.
I danced Salsa at a Tango club. The fact I actually danced is pretty impressive for me. I usually skulk around the outskirts of a bar or club when the dancing happens, looking a little like a spare prick at a wedding (sorry mum) but I had nothing to lose and really enjoyed it.
I then press ganged Georgina into dancing Tango with me. We found a quiet dark place to avoid embarrassment and went for it. It was great. Hilde then agreed to sacrifice her toes to my heavy steps and we danced Tango too.
To top it all off, I drank the local moonshine know as fermet or something like that and then Georgina and I danced a few steps of Tango on Avenides Corrientes so I can officially say that I have danced Tango on the streets of Buenos Aires. Amazing.
Thursday was always going to be good. I met Hilde for breakfast before my Spanish lesson to practice with her and then met Matias for an hour and a half's lesson. He invited me and some of the guys from the hostel to a bar called Tres Quartes by the Woman's Bridge (so called because it is in the shape of a woman leaning back with her leg in the air in a classic Tango pose.)
After Spanish lessons, I went to La Bombonera the home of Boca Juniors to see them play Tachira from Venezuela.
It has to be one of the most amazing experiences I've had. The fans are insane. I went with Thijs (Holland), Maya (Switzerland) and Gillian (Scotland) and we had a great time. Don't worry Jay, I bought you a fake Boca jersey. The score was 3-0 to Boca and we were right in the middle of the Boca fans so we were dancing and singing. I made loads of temporary Argentinian friends at the game. The kind of friends you make at these sort of sporting events where you hug, high five and dance together knowing you will never see each other again in your lives. Boca has a group of fans called the 12 as in the 12th Man. They come in to the stadium 5 mins before the game starts in a procession much like a military tattoo...
There is an empty space above the goal on one side of the ground and then it suddenly fills in a sea of blue and yellow (the Boca colours taken from the Swedish flag actually). They then sing and play music for the whole game. To cap that, I also met a Diego Maradona lookalike and got a pic...
In the evening, Thijs and I went to the bar to meet Matias and his brother Juan (who works at the hostel I'm staying in). Juan got us free food and a free beer. My room mates Clive and Bec (Australia) were also in the bar so we had a few more drinks and a dance.
I forgot to mention in my blog post yesterday that when I went to the Drs to get myself checked out for being a swine.... errr I mean having suspected swine flu that the Dr asked me a series of questions... one of them had me struggling to maintain my composure, he asked me:
"And how are you poo poos and wee wees?"
Now, in fairness my Spanish is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike but I was almost in stitches... I guess the terms number 1s and number 2s haven´t made it to Buenos Aires yet.
On Monday evening I had planned to go on the pub crawl but ended up playing the ´Things´game (thanks again for that one Banana) with Georgina and Sam (England), Gillian (Scotland), Gabe (US) and my room mates Clive and Bec (Australia mate). We played until about 1am and then I endeavoured to teach Georgina how to play pool.... it was err.... entertaining.
The weird thing is that Georgina is from the town next to where I was from, she lived in West Byfleet and was born in St Peters Hospital, the same place the little miracle that is me was born, albeit a few months before me. We were chatting about all the places we went to, pubs, clubs etc. Ok, i´ll say it.... small world huh.
The next day I did the walking tour around Buenos Aires. It really is a beautiful city. I spoke broken Spanish to a very kind and beautiful stall holder in a market. She let me film her and the stalls so I bought something from her for Lib and the Quinns.... You´ll see....
I realised quickly that almost everyone in BA is beautiful.... Being here, I´m kind of bringing the average down but you walk along the street and everyone has a kind of grace and beauty which is so natural....
My tour guides then took me to the Pink House where Evita made her famous speeches from in the 1950s.
The guides then kept looking over to my left and saying tremendous, tremendous almost drooling.... I took a look and there were 5 buxom Venezuelan women in tight dresses looking amazing... Gratuitous expressions of lust seem to be part of everyday life in Buenos Aires. Difficult concept for an awkward Englishman to understand but I´m getting there.
Last night I went out for dinner just by the river with my other room mate Colin (Ireland) who I first met in Mendoza bizarrely. It is a very nice spot similar to Darling Harbour but not quite as touristy.
I also booked in for tango classes and a show on Wednesday night and the Boca Juniors match on Thursday.... get in... bought a Juan Roman Riquelme Boca shirt and will wear it with pride at the game...
So, Mendoza was a bit of a cop out. Lovely place but I needed some R&R so I didn't really do much yesterday. Went to the park with Pamela, Maike and Felix and ended up meeting Charlie (who I met in Bariloche) there. We went to follow the trail of football fans to take a look at the submerged stadium. Almost made it but the site of rowdy fans and police with sub machine guns and twitchy finders put us off a little. Surprise that....
I did manage to get a hot dog though. It's kind of like a chorizo sausage hot dog. Very nice.
Got the bus yesterday and arrived in Buenos Aires today feeling a little tired. I wanted to expend some energy though so I walked from the bus station to the hostel with my pack. I was pretty pleased with myself for doing that. Exercise has been at a premium the last couple of days.
So, how was my first day in Buenos Aires I hear you ask.... Well, it's been err... entertaining. After hearing about the Swine flu in Mexico City yesterday, I became a little concerned that I may be a mule of a completely different kind than is normally known in South America. I feared I was a virus waiting to erupt so I got myself checked out. Got the all clear from the Dr (a good use of 30 pounds) and then had to go to the tropical diseases hospital the other side of town as a precaution. Two bus rides and two hours later, I got the all clear. The bus journeys were an experience....
Planning to go out for a few beers this evening with Laurie who I also met in Bariloche. Will see how it goes...
