Blogs from Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America - page 381

Latitude: -34.6191, Longtitude: -58.4114 Temperature: 35ºC (95ºF) Altitude: 5m Nearest Equivalent / Equivalencia más aproximada: Rabat, Northern Morocco ******************************************************* Welcome to Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, birth place of Tango. Population: 14 million (3 million in the very centre). The people of Buenos Aires are known as porteños which means "people of the port" (the port was very significant in the development of the city). Most of the porteños are of Spanish and Italian descent - there was a major immigration influx at the end of the 19th century, promoted by the government (they offered immigrants the same rights granted to the nationals). Introduction over... This is going to be a short(er) page as we onl... read more

we left the kittys care package with the grants and catherine took us to the san francisco airpot. traffic was light??? i had lox and bagel at noah´s vivian had japanese. flight to dulles was uneventful. we arrived and the plane to ba was loading. luckily we arrived at gate c3 and left from c8. i talked to sara and vivian called the lara girls. it was a large plane with plenty of room. we sat in at the window only two to the row. we had a good meal viv-beef, i had pasta with two glasses of wine. i saw ´the island´again. people on the plane were very quiet, viv thinks they are just tired. so far the trip is off to a good start. i couldn´t sleep, viv did. breakfast was a box with ... read more

Things have been sightly hectic lately, so it´s been difficult to find the time to update this journal. Apart from preparing for Spanish lessons, I´ve been spending time working out how to organise my trip around Argentina, and as we´re approaching holiday season in South America this does require a bit of urgency (so I´ve been told). Working out the bus routes to start with is probably a good idea, so I can work out when and where to book hostels. I went to the bus station (at a place called ´Retiro´) yesterday to find out about the buses, and it turned out to be more fun then first anticipated. The station is situated around a two storey building. Working my way up from the basement I finally found a bus company that has services between ... read more

This is probably our last blog before we go to Europe, so drawing from the Roger Dear book of phrases, "like it or lump it!" We arrived around midday, and after checking in at the hostel we went to grab a bit to eat. Maccas was the call for lunch although we got all excited at the sight of Burger King, after not seeing it for eight months. This was our first mistake! It went down well but as Axe found out , it came up well also. Needless to say we didn´t eat there for the rest of our stay. Our weekend coincided with the Meeting of the Americas, and there were hundreds of people protesting against the presence of George W. Bush in the country. It started out as a peacefull march, but turned ... read more

This morning I was very tired (The Brazilian guys decided to have a party on the roof yesterday after the bars, and I couldn´t help joining in). I had to get up early ( well at around 10.30 ) for my Spanish lesson, and Monica wasn´t too happy with my performance. I had lunch at a Pizza place near the hostel, and the waiter seemed reluctant to give me the correct change when I paid (he only handed me the remaining five pesos when I gave him a dirty look). I think today I may have appeared particularly vulnerable. I started planning my trip around Argentina in the afternoon. According to everyone I spoken to I should book transport and accommodation in advance, as between the end of December and the end of February, everyone in ... read more

I managed to get up at around half past twelve in the afternoon, and was a bit disappointed when Juan explained that breakfast is only available until noon. Luckily, he offered me some bread and cheese instead(well apart from tea and coffee, breakfast only consists of bread, cheese, jam, and butter anyway). As usual it was a nice sunny day, and I went for a short walk in the Botanical Gardens of Palermo before my Spanish lesson. I didn´t see any half naked women as recommended by Monica, but then it turned out she was referring to a different park previously. The lesson again went well, and Monica was again happy to tell me more about Buenos Aires and Argentina. She explained places like San Telmo and La Boca are for tourists and if I want ... read more