17.12.-25.12.10

Salta / Buenos Aires

After a wonderful 3 day stay in the beautiful town of SALTA in the north of ARGENTINIA I left Salta on Sunday, 19.12.10 at 3pm in the afternoon.

The night before I went out with 13 "Backpacker" who I met on the bus from SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA in CHILE to SALTA. The bus trip including the border crossing took 12 hours and therefore we had enough time to get to know to each other.

Steve from England invited us on Saturday (18.12.10) to celebrate his birthday with him and therefore we caught up at the main plaza of Salta at 9pm where we had dinner outside of a very pricey Argentinian steakhouse…..and for sure we all had to order our first big steak!!!

Afterwards we went to a "party mile". Two streets lined up with hundreds of bars, restaurants and nightclubs. After checking out a view bars we ended up in one of the best nightclubs of Salta. I loved it as EVERYBODY including all guys were dancing. The whole nightclub was just one big dance floor….where I bumped into RICARDO a nice Argentinian guy with his two mates. We just danced until 5pm in the morning and when I went home it was bright and still warm.

So at 3pm on Sunday, 19.12.10 I was finally sitting on the bus to BUENOS AIRES. I fell straight away asleep as I only had three hours of sleep but it didn't bother me at all as I had approx. 20 hours bus ride in front of me.

On Monday, 20.12.10 at around 12pm I arrived in BUENOS AIRES. I was really looking forward to BA as it supposed to be a very nice and lively city. Furthermore I could stay with Magdalena, a couchsurfer who lives in the richest and very beautiful suburb of BA, Palermo.

I took a taxi from the bus station to Male's (Magdalena) flat and I couldn't believe when the taxi driver ripped me off. Unfortunately it was too late when I noticed it. Thank God it was on 20 Euro!!

The security guy Cesar who knew about my arrival, let me into Male's flat. Wow….what a nice flat she has... with a huge garden. I felt homely straight away.

When I met Male I knew that we both would get on quite well. In the evening we were sitting in her beautiful garden and chatted until 12pm as it was still too warm to go to bed.

BUENOS AIRES has a population of around 13 Million (greater BA). On the first day I mainly walked through the city centre where I went from one historical monument to the other as the Obelisco, the cathedral, Casa Rosada, Palacio del Congresos. Later on I had some lunch at the new developed area "Puerto Madero" at the docklands.

The next day I took the "hop on, hop off" bus and got off at the colourful suburb "La Boca" which was developed by Italian immigrants. I walked through the streets of "Caminito" where I was impressed by the colourful houses and the live "Tango shows". Later on I strolled through the suburb "Recoleta" and "San Telmo".

On my third day I did a bit of x-mas shopping and returned to Male's flat early in the afternoon. 35 degrees were just too hot for me and I thought I might go to the nearby public swimming pool…..but I just stayed in Male's "air-conditioned" flat and had a nap.

On x-mas eve Male's nice SOL came for dinner. Together we prepared a delicious x-mas dinner and set outside in her garden until 3am in the mornin …..and it is was still quite warm when we went to bed.

Unfortunately I could only sleep 3 hours as I had my flight to USHUAIA at 9am in the morning. Actually it wasn't too hard to get up as it was bright and warm when I took the taxi and bus to the airport.