Hotel Costanera Mar San Clemente del Tuyu

... extends right from one end of town to the other and passes numerous seafront restaurants and coffee shops - all closed at the moment but due to open soon, judging by all the maintenance work and painting going on.

Sunday the 8th and leaving day. We left the Hotel early just in case, as San Telmo is packed with antique stalls around all the streets near the Hotel on Sunday mornings. We got to Dakar Motos at 9ish and Martin, a Brit, who had just arrived from 5 ...

After taking our first overnight bus (cama-suite, fully reclining chairs, very posh), we arrived in Villa Gesell at about 7am. We decided to have a spot of breakfast (selection of medialunas and pastries, courtesy of the overnight bus) and then head out to find a bed for the night. Armed with a list of potential hostels we headed out from the bus terminal into the centre of town. You wouldn´t think this would be a problem considering Villa Gesell is only a smallish town, but ...

... mais je ne suis pas tres a l aise dans leur appart et ai vite fait le tour de ces bourgades qui, bien que flanquees de superbes plages, n'ont pas trop d'interet. Je pars donc a une centaine de km plus au sud, a Mar del Plata, grosse ville en bord de mer genre Cannes. Pas tres interessante de prime abord, mais la encore, ce sont les gens que je vais rencontrer qui vont faire la difference!

... is this (fairly disgusting) liquor that everyone seems to drink here. We also decided that instead of only ever ordering steaks, ribs and pork chops at the barbeque places, we should open our horizons a bit more so we ordered a bbq platter one night. We enjoyed the steaks, chorizo sausages and the pork that came with it, but the intestines and blood sausage didn't really float our boat! We tried everything to be good ...

We spent a few days at this coastal town, about 5 hours south of Buenos Aires, as a stopping off point to Puerto Madryn. The weather was lovely so we had a couple of very long walks on the beach, along with a few good seafood dinners. As we were off-season the town was quiet but there were enough people there for the weekend to make it feel lively enough. A really attractive place to chill out for a couple of days.

... the same time. And the loud speaker announcer kept the 50,000 informed of the other score, As it happened Bocca kicked its thirs goal with 10 mins remaining and at the same time, the announcer called the scores from the other ground saying that Boca now only needed 3 goals to advance, well you should have heard the singing and chanting, have look and see what I mean. Its a sight that rivals, nay betters any sporting event I have ...

... huge distances exploring wherever my interest takes me and there is a lot to see. The only time I spent in my room today was to shower and change and then go out again. It is now almost past midnight here and the streets are packed like the Market in Ottawa would be on a nice Saturday afternoon. It is hard to move out there. The restaurants are still full and the only tickets I could have gotten this morning to a ...

... it was funny since the cousins had just finished telling me earlier how she always manages to cheat on her diets. coffee followed as always, (another element wreaking havoc on any semblance of a sleep schedule), and then lisandro took me down into the basement of the churraquera and we found some old pictures of the family and brought them up to share with everyone. after lots more chatting, arguing (this time over how old a ...

... for awhile when i awoke, but i kept getting really frustrated since he garbles all his works and i feel like a complete idiot when i try to talk with him since i always have to ask him to repeat everything multiple times. i know that no one really understands him that well and that like tia peinesa he is known for speaking a mile a minute, but it was still a humbling not to mention exhausting experience.

... it may have been because of the winter vacations that had just begun, but i suspect that hard times have just hit the town, and hit it hard. for the first time in my life i saw a veritable abandoned building---not a store front that some owners just left with a lonely 'for sale/rent' sign and a scribbled telephone number below, but a 5 story tall building dominating a major intersection that has been gutted so that all that remains in the concrete supports and stair case ...