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.

Punta del Este

After another big night we left BA at the crack of dawn and got a 3 hour ferry to Montevideo, and a 2 hour bus from there to Punta del Este. Having had no sleep to speak of, we were pretty shattered so we got to our luxurious (not) hotel and slept all day.

Our room must be around the smallest twin room in the world. We affectionately called it the match box as it wouldn´t make the grade of a shoe box.



Got up a bit groggy and went in search of a place for eats and drinks before a club. We took advice from the dude at hotel reception and took a map from him to help us on our way. The area we were after was only around 6 blocks away, by the port. So we left the hotel and started walking..... and kept walking..... and walking.... and decided that the map was a bit misleading.... and kept walking..... until we thought we might try and catch a bus. Another guy was waiting for the bus too, so we showed him the map and asked where we were. We were on the completely wrong side of town, half way to an area called La Barra on the end of the peninsula. So we crossed the road to try and catch a taxi or bus, but none came so it was an hour´s walk back the way we´d come.

Eventually we got back to town and had some food and a laugh about our self inflicted misfortune and duly headed to the port. A year ago we´d been to Thailand and happened to be there the same time all the Aussie school kids finish their year and jump on a plane to Thailand to get wasted for a week. This area was strangely reminiscent of that. It was weird, I expected there to only be people around our age here but in the port area we were like granddads. Again. The last bar we went to, we tried to get upstairs but they wouldn´t let us up.



I was trying to explain to them in Spanish that we just wanted to get up for a drink, we weren´t out for any trouble. He asked if we were American and when he learned that we were kiwis he was all keen for us to go up after all. Pretty funny, and a good example of why it sometimes helps to come from a country where the travelers have a generally good reputation. Had a couple of beers until the sun came up, dropped into a cafe for breakfast on the way home, and got our heads down.



Next day we headed for a feed at the beach (the right direction this time) and decided we´d try out a club we´d heard about called Crobar, in La Barra, which was supposed to be pretty cool. So we got a bus out to La Barra (or somewhere close to it) and had a few looseners at a quiet bar. We asked the waiter where Crobar was and he told us it had closed for the season. I knew that the high season for parties in Punta only runs from Christmas to the 2nd week of January but it was still a shock to hear we´d missed it altogether. What kind of "party place" only has a 2-3 week window of opportunity? It was a disgrace. So we were totally fed up with Punta at this stage. Nobody our age and no clubs. Great. Full of shit apartment blocks and schoolies.



So we went for an empanada and considered our options, and decided we´d head back to BA a day early. There was another bar we´d heard about, so we decided to head there and see, on the off chance, if it was any good. And it was. Real good. We tucked into the cocktails and the bar staff loved us. The crowd in there was slightly older than the other places we´d been. Still younger than us, but at least not schoolies. We had a pretty good night in there. We invented a cocktail consisting of champagne and coke. In BA a few nights previously, Jason ordered a Jim Beam and Coke and was given a champagne and coke. The bargirl was looking at him kind of funny, on reflection. But anyway, it´s actually an ok drink. So it´s France meets the US, and we called it a Sarkozy Obama. The bar staff were loving it.



Our final day we went and changed our tickets to leave a day earlier, had some food, went to the casino for a bit of a flutter, and headed back to the same bar as the 2nd night to a heroes´welcome. We ordered a Sarkozy Obama and the bar staff were falling about laughing. There were Uruguayan girls dripping off us, must have been something in the water. They were super hot as well. I forgot to get my camera out for the most part because I was just staring open mouthed at the local beauties. I missed Maria in Buenos Aires though, so I didn´t get into anyone, I was just enjoying talking to them.



So Punta came good in the end, but if we hadn´t found that bar I´d have had a very different experience of the place. I´ll try and take some mates from BA over there in a few weeks as that bar has a good looking party happening on Feb 14th, so hopefully I can drum up some support. If I head back there the bar staff will crack up when we walk in. I´m back in BA now, and we had a heroes´welcome last night. We´d only been away for 3 days but I missed my friends and the feeling was mutual. So I guess I´ll be in BA until we go back to Punta for a weekend, then I might go to Iguacu Falls for a few days. But after that I will probably custard pie Rio for Carnavale and come back to BA. Especially if things are working out nicely with Maria. You don´t meet a girl like that and piss off in a hurry.

....and Buenos Aires keeps entertaining...

Man, what a place. I´ve been having a blast here every night since new year. I continued lessons for a couple of weeks, in those afternoon classes, and they were pretty good. I´ve finished now as I have learned all I´d reasonably need to know for the rest of my time here, and just need to practice that. If I was going to be in South America for longer I´d probably take more classes and work a bit harder at it generally, but it´s not necessary and I´ve paid enough out on classes already. I still get complimented a lot on the amount I can speak and understand in the time I´ve been learning, so that´s encouraging.

The apartment continues to entertain. This is the view from my bed......


And this is the view from my balcony.....



I´ve had a pretty unbelieveable run of luck with the girls here too. I wasn´t sure whether it was just a myth that they like westerners but from what I´ve seen it´s true. One in particular I´ve been seeing a fair bit of the last few days and I´ll miss her when I do decide to move on. Sure I´ll live, though.



My mate Jason from NZ is here for a few days, so we´ve been hitting it pretty hard and having plenty of fun. Tomorrow we´re off to Punta del Este, in Uruguay, for 4 days. It´s supposed to be like the Ibiza of South America and it´s where loads of models and generally hot women hang out, so it should be interesting.



After that Jase will head back to the Caymans, where he´s working, and I´ll need to start getting my head and body together for life back on the road. I´ll probably have another 2 weeks in BA and plan a little more. After that I might head to Rosario for a few days, then go check out Iguacu Falls and then push up into Brazil with the aim of being in Rio for Carnaval. Not that that´s gonna be a massive party or anything.....