Moving on from BA

I´ve been here around 6 weeks now and had a fantastic time. I´ve been lucky enough to meet a good crowd of people and have many, many fun nights out. My liver´s probably not as happy with the place as I´ve been, but such is life. This week I´ve had a couple of quiet nights in to try and get my body clock sorted out so I can be awake in the afternoons to get things sorted. It´s been a complete failure - I´ve been getting to sleep later than I would if I´d been out. My room´s so hot and I´ve had a few things on my mind, like when do I start work again, where do I go after BA, can I afford to go to Rio for Carnaval etc, that I´ve been awake until 10am.



I canned it with Maria last night as well but that is definitely for the best. So for the next few nights I´ll be out again, partly because ironically I´ll get better sleep that way but also because these next few nights will be my last in BA.



It´s been interesting talking to the locals about their city. They´re all relaxed, friendly and fun people, at least the ones I´ve met. But when you talk to them about what it´s like for them living and working here, almost without exception they´re really down on this place. According to them, making a living´s hard, the government´s fucked and the police are corrupt. I can see what they mean and there´s no doubt that life as a gringo traveler here is easier than life as a local, but you could argue that´s the same in any major city in the world. Possibly to a greater degree here than in some places, but still.



Inflation is a big problem here, with prices rising much faster than salaries, which is always a recipe for social unrest if played out over a long period of time. Aregntina had a painful period of military junta rule from 1976 until 1983. During this period aggressive economic reforms were pushed through (as they had been by Pinochet in Chile not much earlier), and Argentina´s "Dirty War" played out, with leftist and opposition groups being "disappeared" - 30,000 people snatched from the streets and tortured, often killed or never heard from again. That kind of relatively recent history is bound to leave traces of mistrust and cynicism among a population. So in a way it´s amazing that people are as friendly as they are, even if just superficially.



Where next for me? Don´t know really. I was going to go to Rio for Carnaval but checked hostel prices yesterday and I won´t be paying that much. In any case I fly back to London from Rio so I´ll get to go see it in a few weeks anyway. I´m not that fussed about Carnaval really. So I´ll go to Iguacu Falls next week, come back for my birthday and take it from there. At this stage looks like I´ll go back to Punta for a party the weekend after my birthday, and from there I´ll probably head to Colombia for a few weeks before heading back to London.



But with me, anything can happen so I´ll probably end up in a float in the Carnaval and wake up with a sore arse and no kidneys.