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Published: September 10th 2006
Santiago
Smog on the Tyne is all mine all mine!Hola cicos y cicas. Yo vivo en Bariloche y es muy bueno!!!
Indeed thats about the extent of my spanish knowledge after 2 weeks of spanish school here in a little town called Bariloche. I have been 'so' busy learning new vocabulary and getting pissed off with verb grammer that I havent had time to fill people in on what ive been up to since arriving in South America. But a kick up the back side from my cousin has got me off and rolling on this new era of South American blogging!!
So here I am in Argentina after almost 3 weeks in this faraway continent. Its been pretty amazing here but completely different from what Ive experienced whilst travelling elsewhere. As you would expect the language difference is a real problem, and one which Im trying to overcome. With places in Asia, everybody tried to speak english at least (which I suppose is bad) but not here. Oh no! If you want to speak english, bugger off back to England!!
I left you last time on my final day in New Zealand. My flight was at 6pm which I made easily enough with no problems. Was
put out a bit when I had to pay a departure fee though, the cheeky kiwis! On getting to my seat I found out I was sitting next to a Chilean guy who spoke a bit of spanish. However, he really stunk and I was worried that I was to sit next to this stench for the whole 11hr flight. He told me where to go in Chile and where to stay in Santiago (which was a load of crap as he suggested a suburb about a million miles from the city centre) but thankfully once taken off he moved to another seat for more leg room. Thank god for that. It also meant I was spared from having to speak awful spanish! I didnt get virtually any sleep on the flight over so instead played crazy golf and Who wants to be a Millionaire for about 7hours!! Oh what joy. On arrival into Chile I was confronted with my 1st task of getting to my proposed hostel. Remember I was really tired having no sleep! After much deliberation with an english speaking cowboy who helped me get money etc (these ATMs are weird!) I inevitably caved in to the
The border of Argys and Chillies
Where my banana was exchanged for some eggs and bread. Bonus! pressure and got a taxi to my hostel, which Id sorted out at the airport. Not knowing the exhange rates and being told a pack of lies by the cowboy, I later found out I had been proverbally mugged!! After a few hours kip, I decided to go get some food even though I was still really weiry and jet lagged. After wandering the streets of Barrio Brasil, where I was staying, for yonks I just couldnt find the bloomin supermarket (I later found out it was hiding behind a tree!) So for food I had to go into small little corner shops which really highlighted the language problem. I could not order anything, I could not communicate how much it was.....nothing!! Ended up walking out with eggs and bread though which I thought was a success!!
I stayed in a real cool hostel in Santiago called La Casa Roja, or the red house. It was a real spacious place where you can just chill out, and there was also loads of english speaking people there which made me feel a bit better. The first day in the coty I spent just wandering around and sightseeing. The city is
ok as cities go, but the smog is awful. It really does get to you after a while causing muchos caughing!! The plazas are really nice however, with huge old spanish styke buildings surrounding them. I ended up at the very centre square playing chess against some old mafia style italian guy for about 2 hours. Beat him 3-0 so I was quite impressed with myself! The first proper night I ended up getting a bit tipsy, drinking too much Chilean wine in the kitchen with some ozzies!
Worse was to come however, as the next day when attempting to cross the road, i stumbled on a hole and went over on my bloody left ankle again. Shit! I couldnt put any pressure on it, and as usual it swelled up like a big balloon, so ended up spending the entire afternoon reading on the settee with my ankle up!! In the evening, however, somehow I did manage to make it to the off license and buy some more wine, and later to a few bars with some english people. I must have been still jet lagged however, as I managed to sleep right through to 5pm the next
Birthday celebrations
Me and Sara (dutch) on our birthdays! day (dont think I got to bed till about 6am!).
So far South America has been pretty intense in terms of meeting new people. And I have such a crap memory that I never remember anyones names. So in the evening of that nights after the mammoth sleep, I bumped into one of the english girls I went out with. However I just couldnt remember her name, so when she asked me to spell her name in spanish I felt a tad embarassed!!- and she was really pissed off the silly cow! And im expected to remember a language???!!!
I had a good final day in Santiago, however, as I could now walk! Off I wandered to the main hill in Santiago, called the Rio Mapoche. You have to go up there by funicualr railway and on the top there are great views over the city. Like in Rio, there is an angel statue called the Cerro San Cristobal, overlooking the city. Its quite good up top but you really get a sense of the smog shouding the city. Its rank! Santiago is surronded by the Andes too, but due to the smog it can be difficult to
Me and Flav
Our Socialable spanish teacher who ran all the dance classes. She liked to boogey! even see le montañas. Managed to make it to the bus station also, and communcaite enough to but a ticket to Barriloche, where I was to start my spanish school on Monday. The tube is pretty good in Santiago, but when you have a mahusive backpack on your back I think I knocked about 5 people over when standing there!
I got my 10pm bus and off I trundled over to Argentina. I had to change buses in a place called Osuna and then arrived at the border about midday. I got across fine but the border is a real strange place-it felt like a gypsies site with crap everywhere. The border control stamped my passport fine but when the guard went through the bus she found a banana in my bag. Shock horror! However you cannot take fruit across borders so she took it off me and gave me a bag of eggs. A good deal in my book, but I got some funny looks from all the Argentinian passangers on the bus. I was the only tourist on the bus so i just smiled sheepishly and went back to sleep. I didnt however get much sleep at all cus of all the snorers on the bus- god chileans and argies are loud sleepers!!
I arrived into Bariloche late Saturday afternoon. The town is based on a huge lake surrounding mountains. It really is a beautiful setting and reminded me of Queenstown in New Zealand. The town is very alpiney too, with a huge ski area only about 20minutes away. There are lots of Argentinian school groups that come here for ski holidays and its funny cus you have a bout 50 youths all wearing the same colour jacket singing their school songs and banging their drums. There is also a major problem with stray dogs here- they are literally everywhere. Apparently the owners get these dogs but then dont want them anymore so just put them out on the street. Its quite shocking really, but all the locals just seem to accept it. I was to stay in a hostel for the forst week and with an Argetninian family for the 2nd week. I had to get a taxi to my hostel via an ATM cus I had no Argentinian pesos. When i arrived I realised I was about the only one who didnt speak spanish, and the only one who did speak english. Bugger! In the evening I somehow managed to communicate with some Argentinians in my hostel and we went out to a few bars. Bariloche has got a wicked social like with loads of bars, restaurants and clubs. The final bar/club we went in was playing Argentinian dance music, and I realised that it was impossible to dance to!!
On Monday morning I started my spanish school. In my class there is just me and an American guy called Peter. Its good cus we both started from pretty much nothing and are improving roughly at the same rate- which is a bit slow! The teacher is excellent and is very patient with both of us. Ive met some real cool people at the school, with most people in a similar position in spending a few weeks learning some spanish then travelling on. My spanish goes on from 9-1pm every weekday. There is not much to do in the afternoon as I havent been walking far due to my ankle. But the school puts on different activities some days. On Mondays there are salsa classes in the evening, and I have been twice. I actually quite enjoy just boogieing around. But no mother, Im not going to take it up when I get home because I have got to keep some street cred! Also on Friday I tried the Tango class. I was crap at it and just could not get it at all. Even the beer didnt help!! Ive also taken up an Argentinian card game called Truco- its hilarious as you play with a partner and have to tell them what cards you have by making facial expressions. I was crying with laughter when Andy my partner was making these faces. Last friday night we all went ten-pin bowling. The funny thing was that instead of the pins automatically being put up, there were these little dwarf-like umpa lumpa creatures at the bottom with 2 heads and 3 arms putting the pins up manually. It was hilarious. On Wednesday we also headed out of Bariloche on the local bus to a little village which is horribly poor. It really is a different world as Bariloche is all rich and touristy, and this village about 10minutes bus journey away is in poverty. Again, stray dogs line the paths outside these houses, and we even sore a horse that looked like it was starving- i think the dogs will eat it soon! We went there to hand out flyers to the kids of the village as the school is putting on english classes every wednesday- I may get involved in the teaching but as I am only staying here one more week I dont know if I can. Was quite an eyeopener, and shows the massive class difference here in Argentina.
Speaking of class, the food here in Bariloche is pretty amazing. I have aten out loads with Inga, Ina and Andy in the past 2 weeks - cus its soo cheap. Ive had about 3 cows recently, as the meat porptions they give you are huge (tone it Mike!). Last night we went out for a meal for my birthday. It coincided with Sara's birthday, a girl from Holland. We were born on the same day!! So it was quite a turnout at an Italian restuarant for some good honest pizza. There were 9 Americas, 3 english, an irish, 2 norwegians, a dutch, a german and our token social teacher Flavia. I even got preses from my favourite Norwegians Inga and Ina and 2 bottle of champers from Abby an American girl. Was a great meal and then we headed off to South Bar, our local pub where we do all our dance classes!! Over here they drink alot of Fernet, which in my mind blows your head off. So bugger it when people were buying me this petrol all night long!! Inevitably we ended up at a club which thankfully played some non Argentinian dance music. Me and Sara got up on stage and had a boogie (not salsa or tango) but then got escorted off it! And then I got chucked out for tickling under the arms of a bar lady who was carrying tables above her head across the dancefloor. And a slap. Was quite funny at the time, but I do feel a bit guilty today!! So all in all quite an eventful little night. earlier in the day we had intended to go skiing. Arriving up the slope at 10am, due to the weather loads of lifts were shut. It was windy, but more importantly it was pissing it down. Its been raining solidly now for almost 3 days and its getting on my wick! So instead of skiing, we ended up in the pub to watch Premiership footy all day long!!! Altogether, a great birthday celebration. Sadly, on my 'special' day I do feel completely knackered and hungover!
For the first week I was staying in the hostel and it was ok. But new people just kept on being really loud snorers so I was getting pissed off. Luckily I am now in an Argentinian couple's flat right in the centre of town. I have my own bedroom with a double bed and a television. Its luxury and they cook for us each night. I think Im picking up spanish bits here and there but its slow but at least Im forced to speak it. Kuqui is great and very helpful withmy homework, and Roberto speaks fluent english so we can communcaite between us. There is also 2 other people staying from the school- Plunket, and Irish guy, and Leo, a German. Its good and we all get on well.
It has been nice staying in one place and not travelling on. This is the longest I have stayed in one place all trip, and I have decided to spend a 3rd week at the spanish school. After that I havent decided on my trip, but I will probably head south into the deepest darkest depths of Patagonia!!
All in all I am absolutely loving South America. The culture is soo different, as people dont eat till after 9pm, and everyone has a siesta in the afternoon. Crazeee! I have not met a single nobhead, as everyone is soo kind and helpful, even if they cant communicate such kindness to me!!!
In a little over 3 months Ill be jetting off back to Inglaterra. Before that I have this massive continent to see. Wish me luck!!
Hope everyones good back home?
Ciao for now
Jonny x
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Very proud mate
Muy bueno Juanito me hermano estupendo. Creo que hablaremos este sermana. Me te dice Feliz Cumpleanos otro vez. Lxx