On the 30th of April, we were invited to attend a birthday party for Vitillo Abalo at the Café de Los Angelitos, another of the historic confiterias in Buenos Aires. The cafe dates from 1890 and has been completely restored. It is located very close to the Casa de Maria Tango, on Rivadavia. http://www.cafedelosangelitos.com/ Vitillo Abalos is one of the surviving brothers of the Hermanos Abalos, a music group that was an important force in bringing Argentine Folkloric Music and Dancing to international attention during the 20th century. http://users.erols.com/abalos/ http://www.oni.escuelas.edu.ar/2002/santiago_del_estero/madre-de-ciudades/habalos.htm At the birthday party, there were live performances from many musicians [View Full Entry]

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May 2-4, Claudia, Sebastian (from France), and I went to El Tigre for the weekend. We rented a different house, Melodi - the house in front of Filomena. It’s an older house than Filomena, but was quite nice. A neighbor, Sergio fixed us dinner Friday night. Saturday, I went rowing with my friend Inés, then we had a long lunch at El Hornero. We walked around the island and visited the local feria artesenal. We ordered a pizza from another neighbor for dinner. Sunday, we got up and went for a long walk, then had an asado with Inés and Julian. [View Full Entry]

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On May 14, I visited the Botanical Gardens with Jayne, a new guest from England (although she currently lives in France). It was a lovely day, very warm - it feels like summer again. Afterwards we came back to the house and had a baby shower for Daniela, the secretary. Her baby is due in July. Baby showers are not an Argentine custom, so Nancy and I had to give instructions to the girls on how a shower should be done. We had cake, played games and of course, Daniela opened her gifts - all pink! Hopefully, the ultrasound was [View Full Entry]

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Day 15. Km 1045. On our Trusty Mighty-ones, "Jay" Guevara and Ernesto(tt) GuevarIan. We have now crossed the mighty pampas of Argentina which felt like a mini epic. set off after a few days around Buenos Aries generally recovering from the flights, rebuilding the bikes and meandering around the city. Taxi journey from Airport was quite funny...outside lane all they way...pip at anything that even slightly looked like getting in his way, begrudgingly let an ambulance with sirens on past but only after holding it up for a minute or 2. He had a trick that he clearly had done before [View Full Entry]

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Day 22 Had a quiet day trying to organise some staff for Patagonia and munching down one last steak before we left BA. Then got the night bus to Mendoza with Col for the 13 hour haul. Day 23 Arrived early and went to the hostel after a little fight with nearly everyone we came across en route. There’s guys who out your bag on the buses, but you have to take them right up to the boot and they then just pick them up and throw them on, and then they want a tip. And they tell you to give [View Full Entry]

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During our 8 months of travelling we have experienced many things that have rendered us speachless. I think you will agree that this is odd for a couple like us who seem to never stop talking! Almost every country that we have been to so far has had a least one "Wow moment". Seeing and experiencing Iguazu Falls has left us utterly lost for words to describe it adequately. Our attempt at doing so is below, though we know our words, picture and video attached, only cover the tip of the iceberg. Enjoy.... After arriving at our hostel early in the [View Full Entry]

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Brief Intro Iguazu Falls is the latin Niagara Falls or so I´ve named it, haven´t actually seen that written any way as its stands alone on impressiveness. The falls are made up of 275 different waterfalls spanning an area 3km wide (thought I´d throw in a bit of geography as, after all this is my fortay). Iguazu Falls borders Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and can be viewed froim all three countries. They say that the closer you get to water the happier you are. Something to do with the ions in the water. People have actually been know to uncrontrolable bust [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Easter Island several days ago we have been constantly on the move catching planes and buses and living as gypsies on the road. We landed at Santiago in Chile in the evening and headed straight out to catch the airport bus to the omnibus terminal. Here we hoped to transfer to the next overnight bus over the Andes to Mendoza and on... So we hopped onto the bus with precision timing and departed within minutes of boarding. We placed ourselves down the back where there was plenty of room for our packs and sat back to relax before our [View Full Entry]

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Nuestro viaje a la ciudad de San Carlos de Bariloche, o simplemente Bariloche, ubicada en provincia de Río Negro, Argentina. Es una importante ciudad de turismo invernal en Sudamérica, con espectaculares paisajes y la ciudad más poblada de los Andes Patagónicos. Está ubicada en el Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, en el sudoeste de la provincia de Río Negro, junto a la cordillera de los Andes, en la ribera sur del lago Nahuel Huapi. El turismo es la principal actividad económica de la ciudad. Por sus características geográficas, existen actividades que se desarrollan durante los meses de verano y otras propias del [View Full Entry]

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I’m back in Buenos Aires after a great weekend in and around Tilcara, Jujuy Province in Northwestern Argentina. Besides being overwhelmed with city life, I was more than bogged down with schoolwork and ready to get out of the city for a bit. Having never lived in a big city, I experience new things every day, without exception. Unfortunately, I have not been able to write them all down and will forget some. Sometimes they make my happy and sometimes they make me frustrated, angry, and loco. However, they always increase my understanding for Argentine culture and lifestyle. The small [View Full Entry]

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