Argentina is boss

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The title says it all....we have been in Argentina for a month now so in order to summarise things everyone who loves a good bullet point is in luck.

-Buenos Aires
Amazing city, lots of plazas and squares surrounded by Spanish and Italian inspired architecture which gives the city a real European feel while remaining distinctly South American. We decided to spoil ourselves to our first S. American room with air con (America del Sur hostel, more like a brand new hotel, highly recommended) as in Jan/Feb as it's just too hot to be in the city. Lots of the locals had gone to the beaches for their summer holidays.
We were lucky to have our own personal Buenos Aires tour guide in Sarah who has been living here for months. So we spent the week touring the city, hanging around on the rooftop of her flat admiring the view, alternating between bbq´s and heading out on the town for some great meals and drinks including some Peruvian scran.
San Telmo- District close to the centre of BA famous for its tango, architecture and sunday market. After touring the city for over a week we definitely feel we made the right choice in staying here. Very cool, beautiful buildings, and safe to walk around until the early hours as Argentinians never go to bed.

Recoleta-home to the cemetery where the rich Argentinian families bury their dead (Eva Peron is here). It is a bit of a macabre tourist attraction which actually looks like a small city. Worth a look though, some of the mausoleums are works of art in themselves.
Palermo- cool district of BA for shopping and going out but is full of Americans and Europeans, normally I have nothing against either but you don´t particularly feel like you are in Argentina.

However long we had stayed in Buenos Aires wouldn't have seemed long enough and this blog posting has in no way done the city or our time there justice. The city is so big and so interesting that you could easily spend weeks here. We would definitely like to come back in the future.

-Argentinians
Many of the South Americans we met had warned us that the Argentinians would be a bit stuck up and rude but we have found them to be really nice. Some people of a certain age hadn't been quite as friendly when they found out that we were English but with a Basil Faulty "don´t mention the war" mentality we have sidestepped some potentially dodgy conversations.
The Argentine lifestyle is completely against the good health rudebook, loads of red meat, huge amounts of food late at night and they dont really eat breakfast but fair play to them they enjoy it and so do we.
Buenos Aireans (Portenos) are however perpetually tired as they dont sleep, ever.

-River
To continue our footballing world tour we went to watch River Plate vs Colon and we have now been converted into River fans. Our new Argentinian friend Alejandro had prepared us like true River fans...he had extremely kindly presented me with his River shirt to wear and taught Nina a medley of River songs to sing (she only remembered the rude ones about Boca fans). As in Bogota it was at times more entertaining watching the fans than the footie.
Before the match started we noticed on the opposite terraces there was a big gap amongst the River fans, however 2 mins into the match the band started up and all the River fans around the ground stood up and started chanting. This was a theatrical way of introducing about 1000 of the hardcore River fans from outside the stadium to their rightful place in the centre of the terraces. It´s lucky we hadn´t stood there thinking it was a good spot. Might have been a bit of an
River were 2-0 up until Colon scored a couple of 35 yard screamers after some terrible defending by River. Most of the fans didn´t seem to notice and just kept on singing.


-Tango
Nina had a Tango lesson at our hostel. After having a crack at the Salsa in Colombia I decided to save Nina´s toes from a beating and shyed away from the lesson. The instructor (probably used to having backpackers shuffling around the dancefloor like Dustin hoffman in Rainman) was clearly happy to have Nina in the class and said she was a star pupil.

We also went out to a Tango hall called La Catedral. As with everything in Argentina it didnt get started until about 1.30am. The hall was beautiful and it was a much better night than going to a Tango show as it is just a ballroom filled with locals dancing the night away. A bit more elegant than throwing some shapes on a dancefloor back home.


-Food, Drink, Fiesta
Meat, meat as big as your head. When we were given our first Argentinian steak I thought I had momentarily turned into Gulliver on the second island. The steak is amazing, cooked perfectly and huge (sorry Andrew and Leanne). It has also been so nice to be able to drink good red wine rather than stuff out of a carton in Ecuador and Colombia.
The Argentinians drink Maté, a lot. It´s a very strong tea drank from a special little maté cup and straw. Its a big social thing and they love a good cup of maté with their mates.
After some food and drinks in Buenos Aires we decided to hit one of the superclubs called Krobar. It was a night of full on strobe lights and techno music. Its weird getting into a club at 3.30 and we partied through to a respectable 7.00am when some of the locals were just getting going.

Travel
The coaches in Argentina are unbelievable. Most journeys are around 20 hrs long but the coaches are genuinely nicer than a lot of hostels we have stayed in. The seats are like full reclining business class, you get three meals on most and served alcohol throughout the trip, we had a glass of champagne on one journey and the whole coach played bingo on another.
In comparison to other journeys we have had it's so easy.... In Ecuador the buses played Salsa music at eardrum perforating levels as the coach drivers hammered it around the corners. On one journey Nina woke up and was understandably suprised to find an Ecuadorian child asleep in my arms - dumped there by her ma who was looking after three other kids all sat on her lap. I possibly looked the most respectable person within reach (which will give you an idea about the other passengers on the bus). A Colombian travel highlight (or lowlight) was a 5.30 am Medellin taxi booked to take us to the station - we opened the doors and were instantly hit by clouds of strange smelling tobacco and a driver who looked very relaxed in his work. A fine journey for the first 30 seconds until the driver ducked below the steering wheel when a pigeon flew about 10 foot above the car.

The Lake District

After Buenos Aires we arrived in Bariloche looking for some quiet time. Bariloche is a winter ski resort town in the Argentinian Lake District on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi. After a day or two of sight seeing and once again eating steak at times too big for normal size crockery we decided to move onto El Bolson, a couple of hours away. Our hostel (El Pueblito, recommended)was 4km outside of the town and as we had planned was very quiet. After a couple of days chilling out, walking around the lake at National Park Lago Puelo and visiting the local hippy market (highly recommended if you´re on the lookout for a wooden bowl) we headed back to the outskirts of Bariloche. We didnt head into the town but set up at Alaska hostel (one of the best hostels of our trip) approx 8 km from the town centre, 2 mins walk from the Lake. Over the next few days we took a canoeing trip around lake Gutierrez and went (Nina dragged us) on a number of hikes including a two day hike up to a little refuge called Frey by a glacial lake in the mountains, ultra blue and be warned don´t have a cheeky swim in a glacial lake if you are fitted with a pacemaker.


Mendoza
Another 20 hour journey overnight as we headed to Mendoza, no more luck on the bingo. Nice city, stayed at Breakpoint Hostel (one of the staff there is one of the most unhelpful people walking the planet). Anthony had headed over to meet us from Chile so we spent most of our time getting reaquainted after not seeing him for 12 months and again eating more steak and drinking the locally produced Malbec.
We hired some bikes and headed off with a map around the local wineries. The company we used belonged to Mr Hugo, it was cheaper than all the other bike hire companies and when we dropped the bikes off he sat us down and plied us with lots of free red wine. Vote Sr Hugo!!

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Photos

Vamos River Plate!
Steve and Alejandro

Comments

[Andy]

Argentina (boo to the meat!)
Yo bro and Nina, Sounds like Argentina is amazing. Our next big trip will probably be South America (getting their by cargo boat of course!). Although I think we may struggle to eat anything - we met a Venezulan in China who had a veggie Swedish girlfriend and she struggled to eat much out there. Coaches sound good. The only sleeper coach we were on was in China. Quite small beds! and loud music til about 11pm. It also didn't help the driver beeped his horn every minute. We have stuck to the trains ever since!