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Josie's Giant Adventure
A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.
In the words of the Earl of Chorley, Buenos Aries is The Dream. Its one of the best places I've ever been to. It rivals my beloved London. If only they spoke English or I spoke Spanish! I was so sad to leave it and its freindly people and brilliant night life.
The city has a very European feel about it and has lots of wide open space, wide roads and parks and lots of trees. There are loads of interesting and beautiful buildings and lovely markets. I didn't get round to any museums or galleries - I did lots of wondering around with Don't Cry for Me Argentina playing in my head, and I did the night life and there wasn't time for much else. I was there for far too short a time.
We saw Evita's grave although it was surrounded by tourists so we couldn't really get close enough to see much. The cemetry itself is more interesting. Its really strange as its loads of tombs which are like little houses, rather than being tomb stones, so its like a little village. Spooky. We also saw the square where Evita made her famous speach and other famous people have spoken. Unfortunately Maradonna is one of those people. Argentinians absolutely love the guy and you aren't allowed to say anything bad about him. There is no making light of any football issues either. I happened to mention that we beat them in the last world cup and I was told that the reason they lost was not that we were better than them, but because Veron played for an English side and therefore didn't try his best. hmmmm. They take it very seriously and wont have the michael taken out of them about it and it was best just to change the subject.
As well as thinking Maradonna is a hero, they also think the Faukland Islands are theirs. People have tatoos of Argentina with the Faukland islands included and all Argentinian maps of the world and South America show them coloured as Argentinian. Again, probably not a subject worth broaching.
Never mind, I feel bad about pointing these faults out as I met so many friendly Argentinian people and felt very welcome in their brilliant capital city.
We went to the Boca Juniors ground the day after they won a South American cup, so there was quite a good atmostphere and its an interesting area. There was a street where all the buildings are different colours and decorated, really pretty.
I am now in Santiago where I'll be for Christmas. We have plans A, B and C for Christmas day. I'll let you know what we end up doing once we've done it. What ever it is its going to be very different, but in a way that's good to keep us from missing home and our friends and family too much.
I am here until Boxing day, then I fly to New Zealand. I'll be very sad to leave here and I now see that 7 weeks in South America is no where near enough. There is so much more to see. However, onwards and upwards, I am very excited about getting to New Zealand and seeing Simon, Emma, Jason and Chris.
I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas and New Year.
Lots of love
Josiexx
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