More Hairy's
Trip Start
Jul 24, 2007
1
20
50
Trip End
Ongoing
Buenos Aires,
Capital Federal District,
Argentina
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
We checked back into hostel Stalag 17. I'm sure those punters up in Guantanimo bay are better looked after.
Well, finally an answer to the march of the penguins...........we are booked onto a longer trip (22 days) which takes in the Falklands, South Georgia and ANTARCTICA!!!!!! RESULT. They have even upgraded our cabin to one with it's own bog! The new vessel was built in Yugoslavia in the 70's as a research vessel, sounds like an amphibious Lada.
More great news we have rented out an apartment, it works out just slightly dearer than Colditz, without the ensuite wildlife. It is in a Stranmillis type area (minus the tax dodgers), very trendy, we'll fit in well with our white mutton dummies and washed out football shirts
A lark in the park
. It's great they have a radio channel that only plays 80's music, it's poptastic mate. Roxette, Bonnie Tyler, Frankie, Chicago..............We even have a laundry room in the basement, but the tumble dryer is shrinking all our gear, especially the Y fronts. I moved in singing "Baggy Trousers" and leave whistling "walking in the air"
BA is football crazy, which I'm finding hard to adjust to.............but ya know, when in BA and all that. We've been to a few River Plate and Boca Junior fixtures.................mental, but great fun. We also went to see Argentina beat Bolivia................a split loyalty game for us. It's abit like football at home in the 70's, in fact I'm regretting not bringing my tartan parallels :-(
We met up with Natalie, a girl we met in Bolivia for lunchypoos one day, she is now back home in Blighty. It was great to catch up on all the news. We worked together with Natalie in the wee school in Santa Cruz.
Luck we made it out of Uruguay when we did.............they have closed the borders between with Argentina!!!!!
Congresso con sol
! International dispute over the use of a border river. It has been closed now for about 10 days and spending that long in Montevideo would be like watching re-runs of Crossroads!!!There is still a legacy from the bad old days here. During the dictatorship thousands (30,000) of young radicals were rounded up and simply disappeared! Most of them where loaded into army planes, flown out over the Atlantic and given a one way ticket to Davy Jones locker!!! For the last 30 years their mothers (madres) have marched round the government square every Thursday to demand answers. They walk anticlockwise in a symbolic way to "turn back time" and have those guilty arrested.
The people here are great even though they are still coming to terms with the financial crash in 2001. Some people have found their feet, while others, unfortunately, are still looking up from the gutter. There is loads of bin hoking going on, but no hassle, they stick to their turf and I'll stick to mine.
Tucker and grog all very cheap and excellent quality. Not a place for vegetarians though, everywhere is a carnivores delight. In fact the one piece of luggage absolutely necessary is a toothpick, apart from Da Moon who can just whip 'em out and give them a scrub:-)
BA has an old fashioned feel to it, and that's not just because my fashion sense has made an appearance. People always open doors for you, ladies are always given a seat on the bus and even the prostitues say please and thank-you! (that last bit was a joke, just to make sure you are concentrating;-)
Next stop: Ushuaia, the most southern town IN THE WORLD!
Comments
Ice Ice BABY
Hope that wasnt your vessel that went down in t'Antarctic lad!
Enjoying reading the blogs Phillo... they are a total chucklefest as always.Some cracking snaps too.
Five-a-side is moving outdoors from January... lets see who comes back after the first week when everybodys googlies get frozen off!
Stay safe.
the Lynchys