Blogs from Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America - page 410

A good friend (Sean Pond) from Hawaii, who has spent the last year in Afghanistan, arrived in Buenos Aires on the 26th of April for a week long visit. It was great to catch up and to have another familiar face in town. We saw all of the main touristy spots and tried out some cool restaurants and bars while he was here. We even took a last minute trip to Uruguay the day after a late night out with friends, which made for a long next day and uncomfortable nap on the ferry across the River Plate, but still fun nonetheless. Overall a really fun time, attached are some pictures. Now I'm back on my own and just found a new apartment since the one I'm living in now will be rented in 2 weeks. ... read more

So back on the trail after a few weeks break back in London and Scotland, great to see family and friends again, but glad to leave behind the foul spring weather. This part of the trip will only be 4 months long and is designed to be a bit different from our first sight-seeing-top-heavy 6 months. This time we’ve factored in a 4 week language school in Argentina, where we will be living in separate homestays (living with local people) and 4 weeks volunteering 10,000ft up in the Andes teaching English and again staying with local folks. Sightseeing won’t be forgotten as we’ve booked a tour into the Amazon rainforest and we’ll be travelling overland through the salt lakes of Bolivia and up to the Mayan ruins of Guatemala. Now (23rd April) we’re in Buenos Aires, ... read more

Hello! We finally made it to Buenos Aires! Okay, we actually got here on the 23rd. Can you believe it took us almost six weeks to reach the first big city of our trip? First, a bit about the journey here. After our finishing our last blog, we walked around Sierra de la Ventana. We eventually made our way across the railroad tracks to a nicer residential neighborhood. We stumbled across Casa de Té La Angelita. It is a lovely old house set amidst walnut trees. Here we enjoyed late afternoon tea and pastries. Headed back to the center, had dinner, claimed our bags from the luggage store at the train station. The train from Bahia Blanca with destination Plaza Constitución in Buenos Aires arrived about a half hour late to Sierra de la Ventana. Just ... read more

A Chilly Morning: I woke Sunday morning to find our room surprizingly cold. I faintly recalled hearing the sound of rain during the night, and then Dina getting out out of bed and closing the window shutters against the heavy plastic blinds used to block out both sunlight and mosquitos. In between the gaps of the blinds, I could see the sky was grey and overcast, and a chill wind streamed from the cracks where the two halves of the shutters met. We rose, dressed ourselves, and hurried downstairs, not wishing to miss another breakfast. Sandanzas serves a light breakfast, mostly croissants and freshly squeezed orange juice - however, free is free. There were a few people at the kitchen table, and I talked briefly to a young fellow from Germany, who had been away from ... read more

Sandanzas Hostal: The taxi ride from the airport was interesting - nice place, big, although some parts of the city look a bit run down. Buenos Aires is like Panama city, only way bigger!! We knocked at the front door, and met the people who run the place - they seemed very friendly, although they spoke mostly in Spanish. Dina did most of the talking, since my Spanish is a bit on the weak side (okay, pitiful might be a better description). We waited in the kitchen, while they got our room ready. There were other travellers eating and talking, and generally doing their own thing. We didn't really talk to anybody, although we did exchange some friendly nods. We were eventually shown to our own room, at about 11:30 am. Dina and I hit the ... read more