After 20 hours on the bus I finally arrive in BA. I grab a cab and head straight to the hostel. I have not slept great, although the bus was very comfortable, because of the pain in my back and just want to chill out. However it is feeling better then yesterday and I can walk a bit easier now. I wait for Nicola to arrive and for check in at 1pm. When she gets here we have a few words as we need to clear the air, and I feel really upset with her right now for leaving me to cope on my own in Iguacu, instead of making sure I was on my way and all ok. We go for lunch and have a chat about our plans for the next couple of months. I will leave BA on thursday and fly to El Calafate and she will stay in BA and learn spanish and we will meet up again in 3 weeks in Mendoza where we will cross the border to Chile together, then head into Bolivia and Peru and we will take it from there after Macchu Piccu. We both agree we need some time out from each other! It is very difficult spending 24 hours a day with the same person for months on end.
After lunch we head off to do some shopping. I need to get a new camera as mine has broken. Cameras here are really expensive, typical, 3 times the price of the US!!! But what choice do I have? So after coughing up about £350 for a canon powershot which retails at $179 US!!!!!! my spending spree is over! It does have some awesome features though and I am going to have a lot of fun with it :)
It is friday today and the weekend is upon us. It is Nicola's birthday on Sunday so we are planning to party this weekend! I do not really feel like it as I am in so much pain and just want to rest my back and sleep, but needs must. The hostel we are staying at is the Milhouse and is fantastic. We keep meeting so many people here we have met previously on our travels, it is a real party hostel, but also really nice and comfortable too. We are in a 6 bed female ensuite dorm for the first 3 nights which is great. On our first night there is a party at the sister hostel down the road, so after dinner we head there for a few drinks. One of Nicola's friends, Clare is there too who she has met previously, so I leave them to it at about 2am as my back is throbbing and I can't dance anyway. Nicola, Clare and some others head onto a club and roll in about 7am!!
That day we meet up with Paula, our friend we met in Ilha Grande. She takes us to a pool and we just chill out for the day with her and her friend. In the evening we meet again in Palermo, where she lives, for dinner about 10.30pm, everything is so late here. We hit a few bars, see Nicola's birthday in at midnight, and head back about 2am. It is so nice to spend time with Paula and see where she lives and hangs out, and get a taste for local life!!
The next day is Nicola's birthday, we go to San Telmo to see the sunday markets and just have a wander around BA. We find a spot to have lunch, where there are lots of birds flying around, as one shits on Nicola's arm and we are laughing about it being good luck, one shits on me ha ha, time to go!! We move on and find a nice little street bar and have a glass of wine whilst watching the world go by :) This place is so like Rome in so many ways but a lot more vibrant! The layout and architecture looks very much the same, but the buzz is different!! This place is so much more alive!! The shops and markets are full of retro stuff from the 60's and 70's and it is very hippy. We wander round for a while longer, look around the antique market, have a coffee and cake, then head back to get ready for Tango night!!!
We start off the evening with a lesson just to learn the basics. Clare and her boyfriend have joined us too which is nice and we meet an icelandic couple and all hang out together. I have to partner with Nicola as there is a distinct shortage of men on the scene!! We take turns being the man, and leading, trying not to tread on each others feet ha ha! After 45 minutes time is up and we are ready for dinner and a show! We head to the restaurant where we are served a feast of appetisers, steak, deserts and plenty of wine!! Now that is what I am talking about!!! Then the show begins!
I have never seen so much passion in one room!! Oh my god!! The whole show was just an explosion of emotions, love, desire, anger, passion, jealousy, moody, happy, everything you could think of captured in this dance!! We were just mesmerised, staring at the dancers and their every move and expression throughout the whole performance!! It made you want to feel all those emotions too and be in love again. To be held and looked at like that by a man, doesn't happen much where we come from, but here, wow they are so in touch with their emotions and feelings and so passionate about everything, and are not afraid to tell the world and shout it from the rooftops! Even on the streets men will just come up and start telling you how beautiful you are…mainly in spanish, but we get the gist…or at least that is what we think they are telling us ha ha!!!
After the night ends, we head back to the hostel for the party. There is generally one most nights. I stay up for a while and go to bed when the bar shuts at 2am, Nicola heads out again to the clubs as it is her birthday night tonight. Feel bad but she has plenty of other company and my back is still too sore to stand for too long and definitely to dance all night!!
Today is raining and cool, so happily we just chill out and sleep most of the day in the hostel once we have changed rooms. We are now in a mixed dorm and as our friends Andrew and Stuart who we met in Paraty are here, and had 2 beds spare in their room, the hostel let us take them. There are just the 4 of us in there which is nice. It is Andrews 30th birthday today, so we arrange to go out to dinner about 10ish. Eventually we get up and ready and head out for some steak and wine!!! We find a great restaurant recommended by the hostel and eat as much as we like buffet with all kinds of meat and salad bar, wine and deserts. It is amazing and about $20. We stay there until about 1 ish and catch the end of the party at the hostel before going to bed.
Tuesday, we just sleep in again, then head back to San Telmo for a late lunch. We were trying to get somewhere else to the place Tango was born, but the bus decided he was only doing half the route so we had to get off at San Telmo. Oh well, we had lunch and wandered slowly back from here, I played with my new camera trying all the features and making Nicola pose. It is awesome!! Love the black & white effect with a splash of colour!! (see above :) ) After that we just chilled at the hostel all night.
My last day in Buenos Aires had arrived!! I am gutted I did not get to do the polo, as this is famous for it, and really the main thing I wanted to do here, but I need to get my back better first, so will try and find some elsewhere!! We arranged to meet up with Paula again today for lunch at her work. She has a 2 hour break so we find a nice restaurant where her friend works and settle in for lunch! The food is amazing and about $10 for 3 courses and wine!!! They only charge us for 1 meal as they know Paula!! We have a lovely time catching up and then I say my final farewell. I hope we might meet again some place in the world in the future, I am sure we will!!
We want to head to the cemetery where Evita is laid to rest and it is a very nice area to explore, so we head that way and slowly wander back to the hostel from there. There is a lot of cats lazing about in the cemetery around the tombs which I guess keep the vermin away. We sit in the park for a while and then carry on back as it is about an hours walk from here.
We venture out tonight for a last farewell glass of vino, and I try my hand at my spanish. Don't know why I bother, no one can understand me!! In the end I have to give the waiter my book to read the phrase I am trying to ask for a snack to go with our wine, but to no avail. Apparently there is spain spanish and latin american spanish!! Well my book is spain spanish, so waste of bloody time that is then!!! Hand signs seem to work just as well!
I have to be up at 4.45am to catch my flight to El Calafate, so I am in bed by 11pm, and am awoken by Nicola before I know it!! Alarm did not go off, great!!! I jump up, get ready, say a final farewell to Nicola, and go to meet the 2 others downstairs I am sharing the cab to the airport with as it is £30!! Bert, the surfer boy coming with us, with his overlarge surfboard, which Lucy and I are both wondering whether it will fit in the taxi, is completely and utterly wasted and has just got in from partying all night! Just discovered he has no local currency!! Oh joy!! I lend him the money and take $50 aussie dollars from him, until we get to the airport!! I help him through check in as he can't seem to read the flight information!!! Then leave him to it!!! Shame no exchange so have to keep the money. Well he would have missed his flight if it were not for us so do not feel too bad! I board my flight for El Calafate, via Ushuaia and I am off on my own little adventure for a whole month!!!!
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