More from Buenos Aires

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Hola Chicos

As has been pointed out, we have been a bit slack on the updates - sorry. Studying Espanol has been taking up four hours of each morning, and we are usually petty exhausted by the end of that. Its going slowly, but well. Its full imersion, not a word of English spoken, which was a bit surprising really, but hopefully in a week and a half we can look back and appreciate it. At the moment it feels like information overload.

ccommodation wise we have been on a bit of a merry go round. Initially we had booked into a hotel, which was nice, but after 3 nights we decided we were ready to meet some people, which was difficult to do in a hotel. We booked into a hostel not far from the hotel (both very central) but that turned out to be rubbish. After two nights there we couldnt take it anymore and moved to a hostel in the barrio (suburb) of San Telmo called Ostinatto. Itś tidy, relatively new and the people are friendly - its total class compared to the other dive we stayed in.
San Telmo is an arty suburb, kind of like Fitzroy is to Melbourne. It has a HUGE antique and craft market on Sundays which we went to and it convinced us to stay in the area.

As our Spanish course goes for two weeks we were planning to get away to Uruguay this weekend to break up our stay in BA, but just this afternoon found out that most of the ferry tickets are too expensive, so have to re-visit our plans there. We want to get away somewhere, just not sure where at the moment.

We have had some interesting language experiences, the most commonly repeated is Jo telling everyone that she doesnt have a Nintendo (gaming system, like a palystation), when she is in fact trying to say "no entiende", which means "I dont understand". Funny girl.

A few learnings from BA so far:

- Im pretty sure you need your formula one drivers licence to drive a car here. They drive like crazy people. Its awesome!
- When you hear a car or motorcycle toot when youre crossing the road it doesnt mean "Look out, I had to slow down to avoid you", it means "Im just giving you a heads up, Im about to run you over"
- Its not uncommon to see a motorcycle riding on the footpath, or a dude crusing down the road with no helmet.
- When walking down the street admiring the architecture and other stuff, you need to keep an eye on where your jandals are going. There is dog crap and pot holes everywhere on the footpaths
- The pollution is quite bad. Al Gore would have a field day with the buses and trucks driving around over here.
- If you speak English people simply assume you are American. If we get nothing else out of our Spanish lessons that the ability to say "WE ARE NOT AMERICANS!", it will be worth it! (its not actually that bad...)
- Argentinos are worse with their time keeping than the Irish. Seriously. I didnt think it possible either.

Attached are some photos of our expeditions since last update. These include Recoleta, home of the cemetery housing Eva Peron and a few other cool bits and pieces. Enjoy. (ACTUALLY, WE ARE HAVING TROUBLE UPLOADING, SO WILL DO ANOTHER TIME).

Chau

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Photos

Crowds at San Telmo market
Eye opening experience...great antiques, crafts, music and Tango dancers but people everywhere!!!

Crowds to see Evitaś resting place
This cemetary in Ricoletta was jaw dropping.

Av. Florida
This is a pedestrian street running the length of Microcentro (CBD). At lunch time you can barley walk for all the people....ps. there is no escaping McDonalds

Check out this beautiful building
We can get over the arcitecture in BA. It feels very European. This building is a great example.

Comments

[Pam]

Awesome
Awesome udate son and Jo. Total immersion Spanish - mierda! Love ya.

[Carina]

The tango dancers look like they are having fun. I'm trying to imagine people dancing in the streets around NZ and just can't quite picture it :)

[vance]

Birthday
Hope you had a great birthday Brett .

[Brett and Jo]

Cheers Vancy, a month early though! Looking forward to catching up in Auckland when we return in late June.