Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas all!
It´s Boxing day over here, and we´re all taking it very easy after a big day of eating, drinking, swimming, and general merriment. But I´m getting a bit ahead of myself.
A couple days back we went on this big day trip out into the desert. We saw Seven Colour Hill, climbed to an altitude of 4100 metres, ate traditional Argentinian food at a self sustained farm in the middle of nowhere, visited the Salta salt flats, and visited an Inca ruin. It was a very nice day, but damn tiring.
The following day was Christmas eve, we took it relatively easy and did a bit of Christmas shopping, during which Ness tried to speak to someone politely in Spanish, and clearly getting it very wrong, she aroused a very angry rant from a local store owner, that I am sure consisted of the worst Spanish swear words imaginable. It was pretty funny.
I then tried to ring Brit and my family for Christmas, however the instructions on my phone card was in Spanish, the phone lines were jammed most of the time due to everyone having the same idea as I, and due to a storm the phone kept cutting out. After 2 hours I got to speak to my sister and Brit for about 20 minutes. Mum and Dad had gone out.
That night we went to a Christmas party at a hostel, 30 pesos for all you could eat and drink. We were only going to have a small night because we intended to have a big day on Christmas, but somewhere along the way it went horribly wrong, and it turned into a big night. Over here Christmas is kind of celebrated like New Years, with the party on Christmas eve, and a count down to Christmas followed by all the locals shooting off massive fire works. It was quite incredible, I have never seen so many fireworks filling the sky in all directions.
At 5am I decided I would try to call my parents again, seeing as it would be 7pm in Australia. I managed to get through relatively quickly, and it was nice to speak to them, but truth be told I can´t remember much of that conversation.
I finally crashed out at the hostel, and it was only a couple hours later that we had to get up and check out. I felt ordinary, but Sarah looked like death, and contiued to look quite ill for most of the day. From the hostel we set out for a house some friends we had met in Bariloche hired out for Christmas.
It´s a great house, a pool, a big backyard, and most importantly plenty af great people, 15 of us all up. When we got there we were told of a massive feast we were to enjoy later that day. It all sounded quite ambitious, so I was skeptical as to how it would turn out. When we offered to help out, these two Irish boys stepped forward and proclaimed, you can all help by not setting a single foot in the kitchen until dinner is served. And for the remainder of the day we were all locked out of the kitchen, some people attempted to enter but were yelled at immediatley. At about 6pm, with none of us having eaten all day, the boys opened up the kitchen and what lay in front of us was the most enormous feast I have ever seen. Two turkeys, roast beef, stuffing, gravy, roast veg, roast potatoes, scalloped potatoes, mash potatoes, fries, corn, wine, beer, Irish coffee... The boys had even had Brussel Sprouts Fedexed to them from Ireland. They went the whole hog. Dessert followed with more Irish coffee, 2 apple pies, and a crazy ice cream cake.
I had never invisiaged that it could be so good, a few days prior we thought we´d be eating hotdogs on a street corner somewhere, and although not a family Christmas spectacular, this exceeded all expectations. By 4am we passed out on the floor, as the house didn´t have enough beds, but what followed was one of the best sleeps I have had in weeks. And this morning we got up sometime after midday feeling well rested.
Tonight we leave Argentina and head to Bolivia. Tupiza being our next stop. It´s been a fun country, and we will miss our American friends, Adam and Noah, who we may not catch up with again, however we may see Natalie and Tracy for New Years, so that will be good.
Argentina was a good way to start the trip I think because it is quite similar to Australia in many ways, and we didn´t really experience any culture shock. Bolivia however, shall be an entirely different propostion, and I look forward to the challenges it will hold.
Till next time,
Dylan
P.S. Christmas photos are coming and maybe even a video, but it may be some days until I can get them posted.

Iguazu to Salta

First thing´s first. Booze is REALLY cheap here, and only gets cheaper in Bolivia. On our last night in Iguazu we bought a litre of vodka for 5 pesos, which is about $2.50 Aus. It smelt and tasted like Methylated Spirits, but we had a good night. By coincidence we ran into Dean, who we met in Bariloche, and this made the night even better. We had a 9am bus out of Iguazu the following day, and needless to say we weren´t feeling the flashest. We transfered onto another bus in Tucuman, and by coincidence jumped on the same bus as some American guys we met briefly on another bus. We got talking and it turns out they were friends with two other girls we had met in Bariloche and were meeting them for Christmas in Salta. The coincidences just keep on piling up. So these guys invite us to this Christmas party they´re having at this house that they are renting for three days over Christmas with a pool and everything, telling us about the huge dinner they´re going to prepare, and we agree whole heartedly. It turned out that they were coming to the same hostel as we were first so we shared a taxi and checked in. Then I get an email from the girls we know inviting us to the same party. It really is a small world. Anyway we´re pretty psyched about Christmas, we´ve got a makeshift travel family, and with the big dinner and the pool, it should be really fun.
Salta is a really beautiful city. Yesterday we took an airbus up a mountain, and despite desert only being a few kms away the whole place is greener than any city I have seen. It´s nice kicking back in one town for a few days. Buses are beginning to feel very ordinary.
However, despite this being a really nice city, and being in a really nice hostel, there are some wankers about. Last night we were cooking dinner and this drunkard kept on leaning over our food, pushing Sarah aside and taking over. Who does that? He started adding all this olive oil in it, we were making Chili con Carne, you don´t really need olive oil! I literally had to push him aside and forcefully reject his offers to help, which were not so much offers as much as they were demands as he reached over to take the pan. I was fuming and ready to throw the pot half full of boiling olive oil at the bastard, but luckily he wandered off and passed out in the hall way. How rude can you get. You just don´t touch a strangers cooking, you could get shot for that kind of thing in some cultures... well my culture, whatever that may be! For the rest of the evening I had to contend with this loser pleading with me to pick up a girl for him. It didn´t seem to occur to him that me picking a girl up would not help him in the slightest. He also didn´t care when I told him I had a girlfriend and wouldn´t feel comfortable doing it. I downright refused, and he continues to give me daggers when I walk by him in the hall ways. Jerk.
Despite these set backs, I´m having a great time. The pool table is free here, the beer is cheap, and the weather is warm. The girls have gone nuts for a cocktail that you drink out of a pineapple, however they haven´t yet mastered the art of not butchering the pineapple beyond its use as a beverage container. Still they´re having fun. I´m enjoying my last opportunity for big cheap steaks. Bolivia ain´t much of a steak country.
Tomorrow we´re heading out for a 15 hour day trip. We´re getting to some high altitudes, so that´ll be interesting. I´ll let you know how that goes soon.
Till then,
Dil pickleton.

Iguazu Day 2

Well it´s been another big and spectacular day. We got up early and caught the bus to Iguazu national park to see the falls. Again it was damn hot and humid, we all agreed that we had never sweated so much in all our lives, it was just lovely. The national park has several walks that take you to different views of the falls. Each was spectacular in its own way, and between today and yesterday we manged to do them all. The park itself is crawling with wildlife. Amazing birds, the most colourful butterflies you have ever seen, thousands of lizards including plenty of iguanas, these small wild guinea pigs, huge bugs-ants as big as your thumb, we were also lucky enough to see a family of Matis ( at least I think that´s what they´re called... I could be very wrong), they were mammals about the size of monkeys with stripy tails, and long thin noses, they came to within a foot of us. It was pretty cool. So it was a pretty amazing day. Half-way through it however, it just started pouring with rain, I mean the heaviest rain I have ever experienced. One moment it was really hot, then BAM- pouring with rain. In Iguazu it seems you´re either swimming in sweat or swimming in rain. There was no shelter anywhere, so we had no option but to grin and bear it. After you´re soaked through there´s not much you can do but enjoy the rain. I was a little worried about my camera and i-pod, but luckily they are fine. Most everything else in my bag had to be ditched though, and all my money got very wet, which is a problem when it´s made of paper. I handed the bus driver a hanful of soggy notes, he accepted them, but was none to pleased about it. When we got back to the hostel, I used Sarah´s hairdryer to dry out all my money(which I would have paid her out about bringing if I knew she had it earlier, but seeing as I needed it, it turned out to be a great thing to take abroad). It was a relief to have a hot shower and put on some dry clothes. Right now the girls are out buying ingrediants for dinner, we´re gonna make pizza, which is exciting cos although there is plenty of Pizza here it has all been surprisingly ordinary. We´re gonna make it right tonight!
Tomorrow we jump back on another long bus trip to head to Salta, where we´ll be spending Christmas. It will be good to spend a while in a town and just relax.
Until Salta,
Dylan

Mendoza to Iguazu: One Big ass bus trip!

Many a thing has happened since the last blog.
Whilst still in Mendoza I decided to scour around for a new book to read, which is a harder task than you would think cos of the whole language thing. We asked around and finally were directed to some kind of second hand book store district. It was bizzare, there were all these book hustlers on the street corners, whispering sleazily in your ear,
``hey guerro, you lookin for a book, you come to my bookstore, you get some good books there!``
then some other guy would come up to you, and be all like
``don`t listen to him, his books are bad, you come buy my books``
Then some kind of book turf war would start, and much blood would be shed. Well not quite, but it did feel like they were pedling drugs or hookers or something, when honestly the shops were like ma and pa secondhand bookstores. Crazy!
I finally found a book, and we headed to the bus station. It was here that we had our first run in with dirty dirty theives. We were sitting with our packs near our feet, my day pack was about two feet away from me. And then some guy came up to us and was like,
``Hey, you guys, you know....(followed by incomprehensible english).``
We all looked up at him, but as I did I saw in the corner of my eye someone picking up my day pack. I turned to him quick as a flash, catching him in the act. I wasn`t quite sure what was happening at first, but he dropped the bag immediately, and tried to confuse me by offering me his half eaten lollies. It worked, I took his crappy lollies, and he was gone before I had truly realised what had happened. It was a close call, but a good way to learn, our day packs stay in our laps in bus stations, and locked up otherwise.
We waited a long while for our bus, almost too long, before we checked with a lady and found our bus had been docked at a different platform to the one we had originally been directed. We ran to the otherside of the bus station and got there just in time. Sat down and got as comfortable as we could for the epic journey ahead of us. The trip wasn`t too bad. The food was passable and I knocked off half of my book. But when we finally got off we found that Sarah`s bag had been sitting in some foul smelling liquid for 36 hours and soaked theough all her clothes, rendering them smelly. She`s washing them now, but not altogether happily.
Iguazu is hot. And damn humid. Walking around here is like swimming in sweat, it`s not too pleasant. However, battling on we headed to the falls, and they are breathtaking. So far on this trip I have seen so many sights that are so amazing they are practically indescribable, but looking at these huge falls is kind of like being drunk. The constant changing formations of the masses of falling water makes you dizzy, and gives you a bit of a head ache. It is truly mindblowing. We are heading back there tomorrow cos there is so much to see, the falls are so huge you can`t see them all in one day.
Our hostel is alright, it looks really cool cos it used to be a casino, we`re about to go swim in this huge pool out the front. However, everything in Iguazu is sooooooooo expensive, it`s a tourist town and boy do they know it. It`s worth it though, I never thought I`d be so impressed with a waterfall, but I have been proven wrong, and not for the first time... nor the last I fear.

Till next time,

Chuckles

Leaving Mendoza

After a big sleep last night we set out to stroll around the city of Mendoza, saw some nice parks, ate some decent enough food, and now we are preparing for the 36 hour trip to Iguazu that lies ahead. To tell you the truth there´s not a whole lot to report, but I have taken this opportunity to download a bunch of photos, the first lot are from Sarah´s camera, the second lot are from my camera and are shots of Mendoza. I have also added some more pictures from Bariloche in previous blogs.

See yáll,

Dylan

Mendoza

Another crappy bus ride later and we´re in Mendoza. This time our bus broke down twice, they only played one crappy film for the entire 20 hour trip (the Italian Job), and we were not fed because they were too busy grinding the hell out of the gears. So spirits weren´t exactly high when we finally arrived. We also decided to walk from the bus station to our hostel, which took us more than an hour, and to top things off our hostel is a hole. The first thing we wanted to do was shower, and we all got to do this, but Ness and Sarah did so wading in a bout three inches of other peoples shower filth due to clogged drains. It is also the first time we have been put in single sex dorms. I have the pleasure of sharing my room with a silent mustached man, and Old Man Doom. Old Man Doom is nice enough, but about 50 years old, when he asked me where we were going and I replied amongst other places Peru. He responded with. Oh that´s a very dangerous place. And I said oh, have you been there. Turns out he hadn´t, but he did tell me a bunch of horror stories, and continues to look at me as if my days are numbered. This morning I woke up to him telling me that someone had been mugged in a park nearby, so we had better be careful. I asked him how it had happened and he told me that a drunken tourist was staggering throught the park at midnight, and then he got mugged. I told him that a staggering drunken tourist could be mugged in any park at midnight. And he proceeded to look at me as if my days were even lesser numbered.
After breakfast we jumped on a bus and headed to the wineries. We hired bikes and rode to 3 wineries, a wine museum, and a place that made amazing chocolate liquers. We tried beverages at all of these places, which combined with the extreme heat of the day made riding the bikes progressively harder. By 5pm we were exhausted, and headed back to the hostel. We just went to the supermarket to get our dinner organised and opted for our first vegetarian meal. It was so cheap the girls suggested never buying meat again. I don´t know if they were joking, but I let them know it wasn´t very funny regardless.
We´re heading off to Iguazu falls tomorrow and shall be spending Christmas in Salta. The Iguazu trip is 36 hours on a bus, I just hope it´s not as tedious as the last trip... That may not be a realistic thing to hope for, but I´ve still got a shred of optimism in me.

Catch yáll!
Chuckles

Leaving Bariloche

Just a quickie toady. We´re heading out of Bariloche in a couple of hours to set out for Mendoza, Argetina´s wine region. I´m looking forward to it, but in honesty it´s a little sad saying goodbye to our new friends. Dean the gay pom was one of the funniest guys I have met on these travels. The Americans, Jarrod, Natalie, and Tracy, were really cool to hang out with. Who´d have thought that Yanks could be so bearable? We´re all headed in roughly the same direction so we may be able to meet up for New Years. Some funny things to mention that happened during our stay at Hostel 41 Below were as follows. Two morons paid 100 pesos for about one cent´s worth of mate (argentine tea) being told it was pot. They almost smoked all of it before someone else told them they weren´t smoking pot, we heard them coughing and spluturing upstairs, they complained of headaches for the next day. It was pretty funny, you´d have to be stupid to try and buy drugs over here, so they got what they deserved. Ness confidently shouted out bottom when we were listing words that could be spelt the same way backwards and forwards, moments later she thought it was raining in one spot that was actually a sprinkler. I asked a guy to turn a light on, he was Israeli and clearly misinterpretted what I said and proceeded to tell me all about who he hooked up with the night before, then he left, leaving me in the dark. A Canadian was intrigued when I told him that 70 % of all statistics were made up. He wanted to know where he could find that statistic, it took me another 5 minutes to explain that it was a joke.

Anywho I best be off. Photos are on their way soon, it just takes so long to upload them. Here´s a taste anyway.

Chucklebear.

Bariloche Part 2: Certificate of Courage

Bariloche is amazing but exhausting. There is just too much to do.
Yesterday we went canopying. They drive you up a mountain in a 4x drive. Then strap you into harnesses, and set you off down flying foxes conected to the tops of the trees back down the mountain. It´s pretty cool, they even gave us a certificate of courage, so we´re certifiably more courageous than all of you! Probably more cool though are all the people we have met here. The hostel we´re at is the first that we have really been able to meet nice people and hang out with them. We never once intended to head out to town for the noght, but it´s happened just about every night cos people just pull you out and take you to cool places. They have the most amazing chocolate here at a place called Mamushca´s, not really comprable to Haighs but really good. Their ice cream is even better at a place called JaiJai, pronounced Hai hai, so much variety, all gold. That said, I´ve cut down to one meal a day. Partly cos of money, partly cos of time, but to be honest I´m having no problems with it, cos at the end of the day I´ve been going down to the supermarket, getting a 600 gram chunk of steak, fry it up with onions, capsicum, garlic, and jalapenos, served with a side of mash and peas and carrots, and boy it really hits the spot. All for about $3.50 Australian. If you buy at the supermarket, you can eat real cheap!
We went bike riding today with a group of 6 of us fro the hostel, got a bit lost, but that was fine. We just sat by a river and read our books then found our way home, but gee my ass hurts now. I reckon you have to be a masochist to be a cyclist!
Anyway, best be cruising, my tummy´s rumbling, and steak isn´t too far away!

Luv Dylan

Bariloche

It seemed like a year, but at the end of our tedious day stop on the way to Bariloche our bus did finally arrive. We were so relieved to see our big yellow bus, but our relief did not last long as somehow we had landed the most anxious bus divers in the whole of Argentina. They must have had one too many hits of speed or something, cos they were nuts. They were shouting at everybody in frantic incomprehensible Spanish, leaving Ness, Sarah and I quite confused. We got on though, sat down and began to relax until the world´s most annoying passenger sat down directly behind Sarah. He was laughing, waving, and gesturing wildly to his daughter outside to see her off. This doesn´t sound bad on the outset, but even his daughter was not as enthused as he was about his parting, and she certainly didn´t seem upset. Then this guy starts making faces at his daughter and strange slurping noises that would have been completely lost on her due to the two inch thick plate of glass between them. Forcing everyone else in the bus to listen to these sounds that in honesty sounded pseudo sexual. It was disturbing and annoying. Then the bus took off, and we all got settled to read our books, when the drivers turn off the lights in the bus and proceeded to blast Phil Collins´ music for many an hour. I hate Phil Collins. But to make things worse annoying Mc annoy-o started playing the drums with his drink bottle on the back of Sarah´s chair. Luckily I had my i-pod and drifted off relatively early.
I awoke suddenly to the bus drivers screaming at us. It was daylight but I knew instantly that we weren´t in Bariloche yet. The drivers wouldn´t have a bar of it and forced us off the bus. We were left standing cold and disoriented in a strange place without our luggage as we watched our bus screech off. Unsure of what had just happened, we stood there scratching our heads until a kindly gentlemen informed us that the bus was just refuelling, and would be back shortly. The last leg of the journey was relatively uneventful except for a rising smell of heated stale urine. It got worse and worse until we finally got to Bariloche by which time it was unbearable to be within fifty metres of the bus.
We grabbed our gear, got a taxi to our hostel, and had a shower. I am glad to say that this is the best hostel we have been to. The people are really friendy, it´s run by a New Zealand guy so communication´s a breeze. Bariloche is amazing, one of the most spectacular places I have ever been, it´s in the centre of the lake district. There is in fact a huge lake by the city, and surounding that snow capped mountains. Yesterday we took the bus to one of the smaller mountains. We caught a Gondola, a kind of sky bus, to the top of the mountain and walked back to our hostel from there. It was tiring but really nice. Then this morning nursing hangovers we headed to a national park by bus. We wandered round the lakes for a while then headed up a trail. Ness and Sarah were too buggered to go very far so they sat down whilst I explored a bit further. I ran the rest of the trail right up a big hill to the most amazing view, and then ran back leaving me beyond exhausted. Now I´m here, at the internet cafe, exhausted and hungry, so I best be off to have dinner and or a nap.

Till next time,
Chuckles

Disclaimer

Very little has happened since the last blog except an excruciating bus trip. We´re taking a day stop Comodoro Rivadavia, before going onto Bariloche. Anywho, it has come to my attention that some of the contents in my blog have been a little unnerving for parents and loved ones, so I´m just going to clear a few things up. The guy in our room fiasco was most probably a dream and at worst a fellow traveller who wandered in to the wrong room momentarily, it´s an easy thing to do in a hostel. Regardless we did lock the door the following night just to make sure. Thus far we have all shared the same rooms, and all our other room mates have been really nice or at least harmless. Despite all the stories you hear about South America, we have so far felt very safe, but have been very precautious nonetheless. The locals have been very helpful, and we never purposefully wander into any place that seems remotely dodgy. Transport can occasionally be an issue, because they do drive quite recklessly, but thus far we have taken a total of three taxis, and only the first was especially frightening. Despite the scary driving, road fatalities do not appear to be sky high, and the buses that we have been on have been especially safe. If some things that I write sound a bit scary, it´s probably just exaggerated (not fabricated) to make it a slightly more interesting story. To assure you how tame we are, our ´big night´ the other night consisted of us drinking two bottles of wine and playing oh hell (a card game) in our dorms. So don´t worry too much about us! We´re really too lame to be in any real danger. You guys are probably at a higher risk of dying from thirst over there from what I hear of the drought.
Keep hydrated yo!
Regards
Responsible Dylan and the Girl Scouts

Glaciers galore... well one...

Hey yáll
After seeing all the animals at Peninsula Valdes we jumped on a bus to Calefate. It was a 24 hour bus trip, and we worked out the entire trip was a four day detour out of our way for the sole purpose of seeing a glacier. By the end of the bus trip we were all thinking to ourselves that this had better be one hell of an impressive glacier. When we arrived in Calafate it was cold, I mean icy cold. It is a cute little village, and after passing several impressive cosy looking hostels, we came to the very average looking one that we had booked. Inside it was not much better, the toilets were a bit of a joke. However, a joke that would be more funny for you guys, than for those of us who had to use these particular facilities. We had a cheap and mildly satisfying meal, downed two bottles of wine, and passed out in our dorms, which we had to ourselves. Half way through the night Sarah woke up and swore she saw a guy in boxer shorts standing over her. She looked across at where Ness and I were sleeping and we were both there. So either it was a dream, or there was someone in our room watching us sleep, or the third option; this was a jammy clad ghost of some poor tourist who froze to death using the sub-par bathrooms and continues to haunt the premises to this very day. Either way it freaked Sarah out. On a side note for Lachy, this is the first time we´ve had any more trouble with guys since we made your t-shirts!
Anywho, we got up this morning and got ready for our glacier adventure. We had booked a taxi for the day, which cost us $40 Aus each, but was the cheapest way of getting to and from Glacier Perito Moreno. It was also the quikest cos our driver travelled at 150km plus and hour. It was a spectacular drive, our first view of the fast approaching Andes was breath taking. Our first glimpse of the glacier was even more so. I have never seen anything like this before in my life. Not even in Victor Harbour! Words can´t really explain how impressive this thing was. Plus as it was an active glacier it was making these cracking sounds and bits were falling off it. Shortly after we arrived this massive chunk fell off. It had to have been 35 metres high and 10 metres wide. I cannot adequatley describe it beyond this, but it was pretty damn cool. Then we got on a boat that took us quite clost to the glacier, and that was pretty awesome as well.
After another quick taxi ride we were back in Calefate. We decided we´d cook for the first time in the trip. We made spag bog, with heaps of veges (as we have had none in the last week and a half), and it was awesome, but more importantly cheap ($5 Aus all up).
That brings me bout up to date. Getting prepared for another epic bus ride to Bariloche, where we are going canopying, and eating chocolate.
Hope you are all having just as awesome a time at home!
Hahahahahahahaha.... feel free to send money over...

Luv Dylan, xo

Whales, Elephant Seals, Penguins, Sunburn

Today I realised I was definitley over my jetlag when I got up at 7am and felt as crap as I usually do at 7am. But the day that ensued made the ´´early´´ morning well worth it. At 8am a minibus picked us up from our hostel, it was full of other tourist who all spoke English better thant they did Spanish and thus the tour was conducted in English. Our guide was fantastic. Enthusiastic, clearly good at what she did, and a grasp on the English language which enabled us to understand her easily but still be amused at the way she said belly-button. I´m not complaining, obviously her English was infinitely better than our Spanish. Anyway the bus trip took about an hour to get from Puerto Madryn to Puerto Pyramides. Once at Puerto Pyramides we hopped on a boat that seated about 45 people, and the driver took us out to see a bunch of Southern Wright Whales and their calves. It was amazing! We saw about 10 whales, 5 mums with their babies, and we got to within 5 meters of them. We got a heap of photos, but the problem with photographing whales is that the majority of them remains underwater while you take the photo, so most of the photos are of black rubbery mounds sticking out of the water. I got a couple of good ones though. After that we headed to an elephant seal colony. It was pretty cool watching them play and fight and move a little bit and then stop moving. They moved like giant slugs! Unfortunately we couldn´t get very close, so the photos are a bit ordinary, it was a spectacular sight though, especially with the clear sky, amazing blue water, and vast cliff faces.
After spending about an hour with the elephant seals, we went and saw a penguin colony. It was amazing how close we could get, literally less than a meter. The penguins didn´t care. They stood non-chalantly over their nests, hardly noticing us. It was awesome.
It was towards the end of the day that we realised we were had forgotten sunscreen and were all quite burnt, which was silly, but oh well.
Gotta go now the place is closing!

Catch ya

Dylan

Go to http://s125.photobucket.com/albums/p70/alex0080/?action=view&current=IMGP2090.flv to see a cool video of penguins!

Puerto Madryn

After leaving the hostel BA yesterday we went to the Bus terminal. We got there really early to make sure we didn´t miss the bus, and yet somehow we still almost missed it. We had been looking at our tickets, and decided we had to go to terminal 25 for our bus, we waited and waited there, but the bus didn´t come, and there didn´t seem to be anyone else really waiting there. We waited until about 10 minutes before our bus was to leave, and then I decided to have a closer look at the tickets, and realised it was well within the realms of possiblity that we may have misread the tickets and were in fact meant to be at gate 6. So hauling all our luggage we ran down to gate 6 and sure enough our bus was packing up and about to go. The main thing is we got on the bus.
Now this bus trip was the best I have ever had. The seats were like lounge chairs that reclined almost all the way back, and we had plenty of leg room. I slept better on the bus than I had been in the hostels. The trip went for 18 hours and I reckon I slept at least 9 of them. They put on 2 films. Both American dubbed in spanish with English subtitles. It was pretty funny hearing Adam Brody (Seth) with a deep Spanish voice. It was also cool because there was a huge thunderstorm for over half the journey, with heaps of spectacular lightning. I was also surprised by the country side, it could have easily been Australia, it´s so vast, and in parts extremely flat. The vast flat scrublands reminded me of the nullabor.
Anyway we finally got to Puerto Madryn and it took us a while to find our accomodation. Once we had we found that the place was run by a vague hippy, who between singing to her spanish reggae, told us that she didn´t have our booking, but had room for us anyway if we didn´t mind sleeping in a freshly waxed room that reeked of turpintine. We accepted figuring that at least we wouldn´t need to spend any money on alcohol to get intoxicated. We also booked our whale tour for tomorrow, which is pretty exciting. But apart from that there´s nothing to do here, it´s a pretty quiet town, and the beach has grey mud instead of sand. It will be good just to sit back and read a book though.

Catch ya later.

Dylan

Leaving BA

It's our last couple of hours in BA. And I am actually looking forward to the 20 hours bus trip ahead of us. The buses here are amazing apparently, and we're travelling first class. It'll actually be good to stop for a little while and have a break. We've been walking just about everywhere for the last few days, and it has been hot. Not as hot as in Adelaide but it was 33 today and humid as hell. A few things have happened over the last couple of days. Some english backpackers took us to an irish pub, it was a bit of a hole, and pretty sleazy. Every time I turned away from the girls guys swarmed around them. Ness pretended I was her boy friend, but Sarah had to fend for herself. Which she did amicably. The boys are very forward here. The English backpackers can really drink, we weren't up for a big one, but they kept buying us drinks. And the average size here is a longneck. It got messy quickly, but we managed to get back to the hostel fine. Yesterday was a bit of a write off, we were organising our travel for the next couple of weeks. We startred at the travel agent here, but realis ed we were getting ripped off. So we organised it all ourselves, well mostly Ness, she's a machine! But we saved probably $300 dollars so it was worth it. We said goodbye to Sam and Owen yesterday, it was really nice to see them. I think they were pretty s toked to see us too, they'd been travelling together for 6 months. And then we had a few drinks at the Hostel, where Ness danced up a storm, noone was dancing at the time, and everyone stopped what they were doing to watch her. She was on fire. Some of the other girls obviously felt they were being upstaged so they started dancing on the table, and soon everyone was dancing. So Ness was the party catalyst. Today we went to a modern arts museum *MALBA. Saw some work by Frida, it was pretty cool. Now we're about to head to Peninsular Valdes to see the whales, penguins, and sealions. I can't wait.

If I were to sum up BA in a couple of words, I'd have to say they are terrible drivers, but very friendly people on the whole. Pollitically there's a whole heap of crap going down over here. There are big protests almost everyday. It's a damn cheap place to enjoy, but I think I have seen about as much as want to at the moment.

Alright , I best be off. But first I must congratulate Mark and Erin, and Belinda and Mark, for their recent engagements, and secondly Brit for her first class honours. Amazing shiznit guys!

Here's hoping internet coverage will be okay across the rest of my travels...

Luv

Sir Chuckleton of Radelaide

La Boca to Palermo... Still in Buenos Aires.

Today Owen, Sam, Ness, Sarah, and myself headed into La Boca. It's a crazy little suburb in BA all the houses are painted in bright contrasting colours. To get there we had to catch a bus, the first one during this trip. We found the bus stop and our bus came within a matter of minutes, but we were promptly refused fares because we didn't have correct change. It then took us twenty minutes to work out what that change was, and find somewhere that could give us that change, many places could not change 10 pesos (roughly $5 AUS), which is pretty bizarre, but gives you an idea of how impoverished some areas are. Money has been slightly problematic because we only withdraw money occassionally and when we do it's usually a couple of hundred pesos (we don't carry all of it with us at once, that would be silly!). Problem is the ATM only gives us 100 peso notes, and hardly anyone can change them! Anywho after finally getting the correct bus fare (roughly 30cents AUS), we were soon on our way. Drivers in BA are crazy, our bus driver clearly hated his job, which was quite understandable, but he drove like I drive in video games... recklessly. He almost killed a couple of pedestrians on the way, like actually slamming on the brakes at the last second and then swerving violently to miss them. Then once the bus had stopped, the driver screamed at the people he had almost hit out the window. It was quite something to be a part of. We arrived at La Boca and had a look around, it was very pretty, but very touristy, so we decided to venture out a little beyond the touristy area only to find we were in a slum of sorts. There was a suspiciously strong police presence, so we meandered back to the main area and sat down for a break, pulled out our lonely planet to read up on La Boca only to find strong tourist warnings about sticking to the main streets. We'll research things a little better in future. We got back on the bus, grabbed some lunch, and then parted ways with Owen and Sam. Ness, Sarah, and I decided to jump on to the subway and head to Palermo, which is a lot like North Adelaide at home, but prettier. Leafy boulevards, charming boutiques, and other noncy crap. I bought this wicked t/shirt of a hotdog high fiving a mustard bottle. It rocks! On the way back Ness walked through a small childs freshly excreted urine, but we all managed to successfully navigate through the mountains of dog crap. There are so many dogs and cats everywhere, seemingly unowned, but all relatively well mannered (opening doors for ladies and that kind of thing). We jumped back on the subway, and have arrived safely back to our hostel. This is our second hostel, I liked the first one better, there are too many people here... Any who the cerveza is calling, and we have to organize the next few days.

Catch ya on the flip side homecows!

Dylan

Photos are of La Boca and a $4 steak!