Blogs from South America - page 5456

Hey all, Back in one of my favourite places....Buenos Aires....love it here. Its kinda convienient that mum has a place here now the sweet thing cause it means i can pop over whenever i feel the urge to party till 8am and live in one of the best cities in the world for steak and nightlife!!!! We arrived here on the 27th of October but i thought i would give it a chance to settle before i wrote another epic about adventures and blah blah blah.... The first order of business was to go and pick up Gaz and B-dog off the bus from their mammoth 20 hour journey from a place called San Martin de los Andes, which is a place right on the border of Argentina and Chile. Then the next order was to ... read more

Inzwüsche han i mi dritte Schueltag do in Cordoba hinter mir und au bi mirere Familie han i mi langsam igläbt. Am Sunntig Mittag bin ich mit eme Taxi vom Busbahnhof an die Adrässe vo minere Familie gfahre. Noch öbe 10 Miunute rasanter Ralliefahrt het är inere Quartierstroos voremene zweistöckige Reihehus mit eme gäle Glasbalkon aghalte. D Taxiuhr het irgendöbis mit 45 ungrad Pesos azeigt (das sind ca 20 Franke). Ha natürlig scho dängt dass dr Taxifahrer mi linkt, ha aber denn nid grad dört mit ihm welle afange umemeise und han ihm mürrisch e Hunderternote anegstreggt. Das het ihn denn aber irgendwie sichtlich verwirrt und är het irgendöbis avo umefuchtle und verzelle - kei blasse Schimmer was. Irgendwenn het är denn au no welle in mis Portemonnaie luege, was ich natürlich nid welle ha. Noch ... read more

So, since Jane´s Germanic birthday retreat, we´ve been travelling to the cities in the Central Pampas region. (Via a total of 20hrs on buses.) We left Tigre and headed to Rosario, a city that has a huge monument (you go up it in a lift) dedicated to the man who designed the Argentinian flag. There´s a whole plaza with hundreds of flags (all Argentinian), and a burning olympic like torch - all very over the top for a white and blue stripe with a funny sun in the middle. Then we went on to Cordoba, 2nd largest city, large student population and home of the largest all-you-can-eat restaurant. Did we? Well, of course we did! A long journey to San Juan next, through crazy small towns in the middle of nowhere and lots of nothing until ... read more

I guess we've been neglecting our blog responsibilities, so now we have two cities to write about: Potosi, Bolivia and Salta, Argentina. First, Potosi: It was one of our favourite cities in Bolivia. Also, it is the highest city in the world at 4090 m ASL, so in your face all you sea level-dwellers. We enjoyed Potosi for two reasons: 1) Its physical beauty. It has some of the finest colonial buildings that we have seen. For instance, our hostel -- Hostal Carlos V -- was in a great colonial building. (Never mind that the hardwood floors were covered by newspaper, and one time when I was having a shower, green algae began seeping out of the shower head. But then again, maybe the algae is related to the building's "history"...) 2) The historical context. Potosi ... read more

Three flights later and we were still in Chile but it felt like another world when we arrived in Calama near the Bolivian border. Our plan was to stay in Calama that night but not for the first time since arriving in South America our plans changed as it seemed easier to get to San Pedro de Atacama 120km away (where we were planning to go the following morning) than into Calama itself. We did wonder on the wisdom of this decision when we arrived in San Pedro just after midnight with no accomodation booked (our driver had assured us that it wouldn´t be a problem) and the first place our driver tried was shut, the second was full and the third wanted $30 each (a fortune in this part of the world)! Our luck was ... read more