Full Circle in Buenos Aires

From Iguazu Falls myself, Mike and Kelly moved on to the capital. Getting back to Buenos Aires meant that I had now completed a loop of South America. I even checked into the hostel where all the fun started seven months ago: the Milhouse. Sadly, like most things in life, it wasn´t to be as much fun the second time around. Unhappily it now it seemed to be full of obnoxious 18-year-olds with misplaced Oxbridge swaggers. All that had seemed fun the first time - the constant party atmosphere, the organised tours of the city, the central location - was now a source of annoyance. With hindsight I would have preferred a chilled, smaller hostel in a chilled, smaller place. None of the lovely people I had met the first time around were there this time, unsurprisingly. With one exception - Carly, the first person I actually spoke to on my travels and the person I ended up spending my first few weeks travelling with. However, even the pleasant equilibrium of her presence didn´t revive my appetite for the Milhouse experience. Mike and Kelly jumped ship after a couple of days and moved to a nicer hostel down the road. Having paid in advance, I was stuck there. Buenos Aires itself had also lost its lustre, and having done all the touristy things the first time, the city was now just another concrete metropolis with noise, smog and more noise and smog. The steak was still as good as the first time though.

However, for two days within my week in BA I was not booked into the Milhouse, so I decided to stalk off to Uruguay. The second smallest country in South America is not a top tourist destination, but on the eastern bank of the River Plate lies a lovely little colonial town called Colonia del Sacramento, set up by the Portuguese in the 17th century as a smuggling haven to shift contraband goods into the Spanish colonies over the river. It is only an hour from BA by ferry, so over I went, leaving Mike and Kelly in BA. It felt like a million miles away from the Argentine capital, with its cobbled streets, quaint little lighthouse and colonial architecture. It was, for the sake of argument, good for the soul, with activities such as breathing the air, watching the sunset, and listening to the sound of nothing at all. All nice things to do travelling that are as good as free. I also witnessed an entertaining street parade, with about 20 drummers, women of all ages between 5 and 85 doing some defiantly unchoreographed dancing, and the town´s mayor in the midst of it all, with a top hat, a cane, and some kind of sinister orange mask.

And then it was back to BA. We spent a day in the river Plate delta town of Tigre, 15km from BA, where we went on a boat trip. You could have been mistaken for thinking you were on a boat down the Thames, from maybe Barnes to Kingston. Pleasant enough though. I also went to see an popular Argentinian ska band playing in a venue the size of Brixton Academy, which was great.

After our week in BA the three of us headed off to Mendoza in the west. Argentina´s third city lies on the cusp of the Andes, and only a few hours from Santiago, Chile. Mendoza´s chief attraction is wine. Argentina´s prize grape, Malbec, thrives in the Bordeaux- like climate that Mendoza enjoys, with hundreds of vineyards and bodegas peppered around the city for visitors to go and sample it. Unsurprisingly, we did likewise. A tour of three bodegas included the wretched tedium of an explanation of how the wine is prepared. Three times. However, the medieval banquet of a lunch, with unlimited Malbec, made it all worth it. The seven months I had been deprived of red wine, decent cheese and proper Spanish chorizo (they are non-existent everywhere else in the continent) had started to feel like a geological epoch.

Also in Mendoza: I went for a gentle hike up a 3,200 mountain, with a stunning view of an azure lagoon from the summit; wandered around Mendoza´s huge and beautiful Parque San Martin, dwarfing Hyde Park several times over; and went out for a final steak dinner with Mike and Kelly that can only be described as phenomenal. They have just flown back to BA before heading to London the day after, leaving me once again a lone traveller. Next: either Argentina´s Lake District, some 17 hours by bus to the south, or Chile, a few hours to the west.

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