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Steaks and Sierras
Mullets as far as the eye can see! Why does every Argie have a mullet with an optional rat tail hanging from his head?
And so to South America, 9 hours on the plane from south Africa seemed like nothing compared to some of the bus journeys I've had so it was somewhat of a culture shock to suddenly arrive in Buenos Aires. After so many dire cities in Africa, bar Cape Town, it was a great change to be in a city with such a European feel to it. Reminded me a bit of Madrid, loads of cafes spilling out onto the streets helping give the city a busy vibe 24hours a day. After being used to not going out at
night in Africa due to safety concerns it was so nice to be able to walk around the city at night with plenty of people doing the same.
Everything seems to happen somewhat later in Argentina, you eat at around 10pm, go out drinking at around 11.30pm and get back home in the very small hours. I remember having an 'early night' once in BA where I was the first to bed in the dorm at 1.30am. They seem to have set their clocks for this late lifestyle too, instead of the sunrising and setting at 6 in Africa it was now rising and setting at 8 o'clock in South America. People told me that BA was a bit dangerous, it's got nothing on South Africa! I've felt incredibly safe, slowly the paranoia demons that plagued me in South Africa have dissipated. There is something comforting seeing a 4 year old child wandering around at midnight with Mum and Dad.
Had a good few days staying in Buenos Aires with most of my time being spent exploring the city on foot. Decided with a few others to go andsee a Boca Juniors football game one night. Managed to get sometickets off a tout after a bit of bartering, unfortunately however these turned out to be fake which was a bit of a bummer. The only thingwrong with them apparently was that when you scratched the surfacethey didn't turn black! Anyway fortunately we managed to find acorrupt security guy who let us into the standing area for a small backhander. I've been to a few football games abroad now but nothing comparedto this Boca game. It was just a huge party, they sang, screamed, jumped, danced, & banged drums for the whole 90 minutes, throats wouldhave been red raw after the game. They have horizontal balustrade typebars separating areas in the standing section. Instead of theirdesigned use, these were used to stand on to get a better view at theexpense of others behind. I would have tried to get on one of these myself but fortunately one of the guys I was with from France tried first, and unable to balance properly took a header much to my concealed amusement behind a concerned ´have you hurt yourself?´ face. Most of the fans are more interested in the singing and dancing than watching the footy, so much so that many of them had their backs turned on the game jumping up and down with their buddies. Music and singing stayed the same even when the goals went in.
Do you know why Boca play in blue and yellow? They couldn't think of what colours to have when the team was set up sop they decided to have the colours of the flag of the next ship to sail into port. That ship was from Sweden. Whoever said football fans were simple folk.
Went over the water on a short boat trip to Uruguay for a couple ofdays from Buenos Aires. Nice picturesque town but nothing too much to write home about, just a lot of holidaying people from Buenos Aires flowing into Uruguay and onto its nice beaches.
Buenos Aires and Uruguay was a bit of a stop gap before I flew down to Ushuaia at the tip of Argentina to begin the second half of myoverland travelling with destination Mexico in mind. Ushuaia is the southern most city (well town more like) in the world and it definitely had the end of the world feel to it. Strange to say but it was satisfactorily grey, grim, and cold arriving there which added to the end of the world feel. Very weird to see mountains surrounding the town with snow at 600m after all the hot weather of Africa. I didn't have much of an idea about how far down this place was, it took 4 hours on the plane from BA to give you some idea of the distance involved. That said it is only 55 degrees south, Newcastle is 55 degrees north. Maybe there is something in what the Londoners say about Newcastle being the end of the earth! Had a few days in Ushuaia and luckily the sun came out for one of them when I went to Tierra del Fuego, the National Park. Stunning in the sun, grim in the grey would be my summary. Due to the huge size of Argentina there are some long long bus journeys to do. These tend to average 16-18 hours but fortunately Argentina has the best buses in the whole world. Factoid. They have various different classes with the cheapest one having acres of legroom, a real treat for lanky streaks of piss. ´Cama´ class takes it to another level however. The chairs are huge with only 3 across the width of the bus, they recline to about 40degrees complete with Grandad styly leg rests, blankets, and gimp to serve you 3 airplane style meals. I was on one when the gimp even did a game of Bingo for the passengers! I couldn't help but laugh. Shear luxury though with 18hours going by in a flash with spectacular scenery and 8hours ofdeep sleep guaranteed.
The southern part of Chile and Argentina is called Patagonia with simply stunning unspoilt landscapes with some of the best trekking in the world. You can end up criss crossing between the 2 countries quite a lot which I am trying to minimise as space in the passport is now diminishing. Torres del Paine in Chile offered the best trekking that I have done. It was the first time I have done a long trek (4days) andc arried everything on my back tent and foodwise. A really good workout rewarded with spectacular views that many would not of seen if the weather had not been so good. So so lucky with the weather as it is autumn here now. Blue blue skies, glaciers, luminous icebergs floating by and snow-capped jagged mountain peaks making a truly memorable experience. Had some cute fun German girls for company for most of thetrek gladly challenging the German stereotype.
Talking of cute people what has happened with the Chileans? Rat tails apart, Argentineans are pretty good looking folk with that typical Latino look. Cross the mountains over to Chile and suddenly there are dwarfs scuttling around your feet with the widest jowls in the world and bellies Krystian and Terry would be proud of. I'm sure they lived underground as well.
I had enough of the dwarfs so headed back to Argentina and headed up to Calafate and El Chalten where there was yet more trekking to be done. I love the occasional trek but felt a bit ´trekked out´ in Patagonia at times. Was good to mix up one trek in El Chalten with some ice trekking. An awesome day out, the highlight of which was strapping on some crampons and heading out onto a glacier for some very up and down trekking and climbing over the pressure induced ripples of the glacier. I can safely say that ice is quite hard and sharp as at one point I managed to catch one of my crampons in my baggy trousers and took a header down a small crevice. I saw the same face I had pulled at the sight of the Frenchman falling on his head at the football on the other trekkers I was with. No great damage with some schoolboy like grazes and cuts. Also visited one of the biggest glaciers in the world at Calafate where the 60m high front of the glacier shears off in with monstrous thunder every 30 minutes or so. A real spectacle watching these especially when you don't know which part is going to calve off next. Watching ice melt that was frozen before South America was discovered by the Europeans is a humbling experience. Up to El Bolson and Bariloche on another lengthy bus journey along Ruta 40, most of which was dirt track with the bus crawling along at asnails pace, something in the bleakness of the desert landscape we passed through. Stayed at a superb hostel in El Bolson with a great group of people, a fantastically chilled place where it was good to do very little for a few days and get drunk with some proper locals and backpackers. Argentineans are very very friendly people and will always help you out if you need it. The only thing I don't share their passion for is Las Malvinas (the Falklands) and that barrel chested smackhead cheat of a football manager they have. I like to get behind the football team of the countries I visit but there is no way I could do that for Argentina. Incidentally, speaking of handballs, I met a Frenchman who was refusing to follow France at the world cup as he was so ashamed of how they had qualified! He said that most of the French felt the same way.
Bariloche is the heart of the Lake District, a similar landscape to our Lakes but better. Some more fantastic trekking with some precipitous drops to the sides of some trails enough to make some turn back. Same group as El Bolson making for some good nights out, everyone seems to be following a similar route northwards towards Bolivia. The town had a Swiss village feel to it with kitschy chocolate shops and the like. The strangest sight I saw was a beat up Ford Sierra, of which there are many in Argentina, driving along with its boot flapping open and 2 huge St Bernard dogs looking out the boot. Argentina comes acrossa s a very affluent country akin to Italy or Spain apart from some very beat up cars. MOTs don't seem to exist here.
I've managed to type this without yet mentioning the most obvious highlights of Argentina - wine and steaks. I'm in Mendoza at the moment which is the wine capital, some very very good cheap red wines. I have had to alter my drinking habits somewhat as a litre of nice wine is often the same price as a litre of beer in the bars! Unfortunately I have not yet mastered the slower pace of drinking required for wine to avoid falling over. The steaks are simply superb, I'm not a big steak fan but the huge hunks of beef you get here are so so tender even if they manage to over cook them. And beef is cheaper than cheese in the supermarkets! Meat is served solo, if you're lucky you get some chips, vegetables are for the girls in a truly machismo choice of diet.
I'm spending a couple of weeks in Mendoza attempting to improve on my pigeon Spanish which is proving to be frustrating as I am indeed as s*** at Spanish as I was at languages at school. It will help immensely for the rest of the Latin America travels though. It hurts my head having to learn things again. It does not help matters when Idon't even know what the ´past perfect´ is in English let alone in Spanish!
Managed to do a vineyard tour last week on a push bike which was good fun and just about managed to control the bike enough to avoid the various lorries along the roads. Looking back I probably avoided a nasty accident by doing it with some Americans who fulfilled the standard stereotype and announced they felt quite pissed after the first half glass. Mendoza has turned out to be one of my favourite places, a happening city with tree lined wide avenues and loads of plazas to bask in the 25 degree sunshine it gets for 330 days of the year. Wine tours and mountains compete for your attention which is a welcome break from the studies.
¿Hablar espanyol?
Si, un poco paloma.
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