Impala Buenos Aires

My first few days in Argentina have been spent ambling around Buenos Aires. An obvious different ambience to the Inca sites in Peru. First of all, the "cool crowd" in my hostal; those youngsters not brave enough to go to Ecuador or Peru didnīt impress me much with their drug addled BA nightclub stories...

Second, the big city vibe. What can I say, Buenos Aires seems a real curateīs egg:

The ...

Friday, November 13, 2009
Comfortable Flight

After finding my seat, a blonde flight attendant named Jill came and immediately offered to hang up my coat and asked if I wanted something to drink. Tempted by a pre-flight cocktail but knowing that I would have to pace myself, I elected to have some cranapple juice instead. Then, the chief flight attendant and the chief ground attendant came to greet all the passengers in Business First by our full names and welcomed ...

... UBA campuses, and it is also close to a university wide election, so it is definitely more political then the norm, but the point remains that I feel people hear are a lot more in tune with what is happening politically then people in the U.S. are.

One final thought for this update is that probably my favorite thing by far that I’ve found here in Argentina is the coffee culture. There are 4 officially recognized meals a day, with the extra one being a late ...

Nous ne faisons pas grand chose aujourd'hui, Lever 11h, petit-dej, glande jusqu'ā 15h, dejeuner dans un bistrot puis je pars au Kilca Hostel (celui ou nous etions au debut du voyage). Le sac que nous avions laissé a disparu avec les quelques souvenirs qu'il contenait. Tout ceux que nous connaissions sont partis, l'ambiance semble bien differente... Le soir, nous voulions aller ā l'ambassade pour le 14 juillet mais il faut des invitations...

... to grips with the language i.e. “hola”, “adios” :-) We say its a strange city as its completely European and how you'd image South America. It looks like France, they eat mainly Italian and they speak Spanish! Confused? Some of the architecture are beautiful but sadly everything is graphitized which lets the city down. The highlight for us was going to a graveyard :) I know that sounds weird but the really rich and snobbish here ...

The throbbing beat of the music vibrates through your skin, right down into the bone as if it were coming from within you instead of out of the speakers. Your movement is slight, dictated by the amount of bodies pressed against you on the packed dance floor, even if you didnīt want to be sliding against the person to your right, the push of the person to your left forced you there. It was useless to fight the pushpull of the crowd - just go with it. I closed my eyes, gave in, and ...

... which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to begin with. But what follows is how to use the plastic bag milk: first, cut off the corner of the bag, pour a little of the milk out so that bag isn't too full, and then stick the bag into a hard plastic holder, specifically made for milk in plastic bags, that will hold the bad upright so it will not fall over. Not really the most efficient milk process I have ever used. In a similar fashion, liquid laundry detergent is ...

... where they actually came out and took your order, and also served you. Back to the hotel for a quick siesta, before our tango lesson and show. Tango Complejo was a VERY touristy experience - they picked us up, and started off with a lesson. It was kind of fun, but they totally try and make a ton of money by cramming far too many people into a small dance studio. There were people from another GAP tour group there, but they had already ...

... mausoleum. Bizarre! From there we got dropped off in the city centre to visit another recommended leather shop but, again, went off empty handed. We did have an interesting walk through the Sunday-quiet shopping district and back to our hotel via the Synagogue which was unfortunately closed. We spent the rest of afternoon wandering around the park and craft market where we saw some beautiful handmade wooden boxes, knives, jewellery and other nik-naks. Then, in keeping with the ...