Billyconkers

So, I´m now in a small seaside place called Puerto Madryn. Surrounded basically by a stunning amount of flat nothing on the Argentine steppe, it, along with a few places in the area, was founded by some intrepid welshman, who thought it was obviously a good place to raise sheep. I´m not convinced it was, as they have to limit the amount of sheep to 1 every 3 hectares to avoid desertification. So you don´t necesarily seeb many. Anyway, what there IS a lot of is coastal wildlife. It seems that everything under the sun that likes a bit of the wet stuff, finds this part of the world a good place to come and make babies. Now, unfortunately, it´s not baby-making season for whales, so I didn´t see any of them. Oh, apart from a ... read more

Well, I´m really only writing this because I haven´t done one for ages. It seems I´ve gotten pretty bad at this. Ah well. So, I finished my Spanish classes. I think I´m speaking reasonably well again now, so it acheived its purpose. I´m not sure I learnt much new, but I´m not sure I expected to. The school and classes were OK, especially for the absurdly low price, but not nearly as sociable as the school I went to last time. Not that it needs to be, I still managed to have myself an excellent bloody time. Anyway, now I'm in Uruguay. I spent a day in Montevideo, which I guess is like BA's ugly little sister. Not a lot to say about it really. Now I'm in Punta del Este. It's a big resort with ... read more

It´s been pointed out to me that it has been a while since I wrote one of these things, so here goes... Well, what have I been upto?! This and that... After New Year, I was thinking about going away for a few days before enrolling for classes. Well, I realised that I could enrol a day earlier than I had thought, so decided to wait, and go away for the weekend after I´d enrolled. However, I then got an email from an Icelandic friend saying she´d be coming back to BA from Brazil, so I ended up staying to meet up with her. Doh! Well, classes (which went well this first week) are Monday - Thursday, so hopefully I´ll get away one or two weekends anyway... It´s quite good because my classes are from 3.30pm ... read more

Hope you all had a great time celebrating Christmas and New Year. I sure did. New Years Eve was good fun, if not the best I ever had. I think it seemed to lack the focus of places like Berlin, Rio and Madrid. Not helped, of course, by the fact that no self respecting Argentine is likely to be out partying when the countdown comes at midnight!!! Most were off having dinner with family or in a vastly over-priced restaurant or some such. As a result, I headed back to the hostel where I´d been staying to join in their asado (cow BBQ), and then around 2am some of us headed off to a random free outdoor dance party in a park in the grounds of the planetarium. It was OK, but a bit of an ... read more

So, after the airport hassles, I finally arrived back in Buenos Aires. Needless to say, I´ve been having a great time, partying extensively, eating lots, and sleeping little. I´ve now found myself a nice little room in a quiet little shared apartment, in a good location in Palermo, a couple of blocks from where I lived before, and on the same street. Christmas was different. After a big party in the hostel on Christmas Eve, at about 2pm I went with a load of Dutch people to hang out in one of palermo´s many parks, drink some Malbec and watch the world go by in all its´ sunny glory. We went for dinner at about 9.30pm in a really nice restaurant called Cabernet, and didn´t leave there until about 1am, thoroughly satisfied, and with pockets 110 ... read more

Hey. Well, I thought I'd just drop a quick note from paradise. Well, kind of. I'm on the Panamanian carribean islands of bocas del toro, a short, noisy twin-propped 'plane ride from Panama City. There's a pretty chilled out atmosphere here, with a bizarre Jamaican patois spanish creolle mix going on. It's all beaches, rainforest and partying. Yesterday we went on a (fairly high-speed) boat-ride around the islands, which was pretty much an excuse to get taken to the bars of the boat captains friends. But we saw dolphins, did some snorkelling, and saw bright red frogs on red frog beach. The biggest problem here is the tropical rain. When it wants to it really let's go. Heaviest rain I think I've ever seen. But at least it is warm! Well, I'm going to relax here ... read more

It's raining, and it sucks. Well, I've had a great time, seen interesting things, met great people, drank lots, ate lots, got in far less trouble than makes for good stories, but thoroughly enjoyed myself. So, where next?!............ read more