Route:
Puerto Iguazu to Buenos Aires (bus)
Buenos Aires to Tigre (bus, day trip, returned to Buenos Aires)
Buenos Aires to Sydney (747 baby)
- I made it back to Buenos Aires from Iguazu in one piece. I basically ended up staying there for the ten days before heading to Sydney. I wanted to see all of BA so I moved hostels a bit. I stayed centrally when I got back from Iguazu in a place that was pretty dull. I still did the mandatory three nights of clubbing. Cocoliche was on the agenda again and was perhaps better this time, although I did get a dose of the fear towards the end... lack of sleep taking its toll. On the Saturday I went to Crobar with my American and English friends. We had trouble getting in - our tickets were valid until 3am and we pitched up at about 3.15. One of our group smooth talked us in though after a while. Which was a bit of a shame, as this is the type of club I try to avoid at all costs - huge place with lots of bad neon lighting, cheesy trance remixes of bad pop songs and a generally unfriendly crowd. Thankfully I was with some good, good people so ended up having a good laugh on the night.
- I moved down to a part of town called San Telmo. This is a really lovely neighborhood. It's one of those used to be impoverished/taken over by artists/got slowly gentrified areas. It's the central focus of Tango in the city. You can't escape it, there are people tangoing everywhere. Tango, tango, tango... you know when you've been tangoed. I was tangoed several times. It's actually quite a sexy dance but I have strong doubts about my ability to carry out even the basic steps! Other than Tango, San Telmo has a load of decent restaurants and bars, and is a really cool spot to hang out in for a few days. I ended up staying there for the rest of my trip, despite the hostel I was in not being the most exciting place.
- I saw the legendary La Boca. It's famous for being a bit of a shithole. And for being the home of Boca Juniors, who have some of the most batshit insane fans in the world. Apparently. I wouldn't know as the football season was postponed by a week due to "financial difficulties". Why they thought putting off revenue generating games would solve this, I don't know. I was a bit disappointed to not see a game, but them's the breaks. There are parts of La Boca I wouldn't walk through if it was Glasgow or Dublin. Why I found this OK in Buenos Aires, I have no idea. Anyway, there's a part of La Boca called La Caminita (I think, look it up!) famous for buildings made of galvanised metal. Kilcullen, my home town, also has a building made of galvanised metal. It's called The Cattle Mart. It's not painted in pretty colours like those in La Caminita. Which is why it's not famous I guess. Suffice to say I was a little underwhelmed.
- I went to Tigre, about an hour outside BA. It's a town near a river delta. I got the train, which afforded me views of some (very small) slums along the way. You get the impression from central BA, particularly Palermo and Recolata, that it's a wealthy city - by South American standards at least. This is party true. There's a huge flipside though, and I was interested to finally see evidence of it. At Tigre, the main thing to do is get on a big boat and float around the various tributaries of the delta for a couple of hours. Lots of the rich folk of Argentina have some pretty funky riverside houses here. I saw one with a boat-lift, which lifts the boat up to the pier from the water! Buy a fucking ladder people.
- I spent the last couple of days in BA looking for, and finding solitude. I fecked off and sat by the port drinking coffee and reading books. This was actually one of my favourite parts of the entire trip - a bit of peace and quiet! Although I did kind of ruin it all by going out with some folks on my last night, getting shitfaced, having two hours sleep and a terrible hangover just before getting on a fifteen hour plane ride. You'd think I'd have learned by now, eh? That said, I did meet the 24th best mountain biker in the world on the plane...
- This will be my last update for a while folks. I've arrived in Sydney and am jobhunting etc. I'm sure you're not that interested in the day to day details of my life so I won't bore you with them. Sydney is OK so far, I've been taking it relatively easy. First impressions are largely good, although I'm holding it to pretty high standards as it's going to be my home for the next six months. It's the first time I've been in any way homesick, but it's great to see my sister. It's weird being back in the first world again, everything works as advertised and there aren't too many surprises. I'm in Bondi which is full of beautiful people. Obviously I fit right in... not with this beer belly! Not that Argentina isn't, as the title of this episode alludes to :) Thank you Father Ted...
- It's been a hell of a trip, definitely ups and downs but more ups for sure. Not working for two months does wonders for you. It's been a good opportunity to take a break, take stock and learn a few things. Mostly about myself, and mostly known to be already. I've also got a pretty good idea of what I want to do next. Thanks for listening folks!
