Buenos Aires

The journey from the bus station was fraught with danger. All part of a greater plot, first off a policeman pretended he just didn't know whether to direct us to the railway station or the Subté (metro/underground), both of which happened to be in the same place! This nice delay allowed just enough time for the rain to cover the steps down to the Subté with a thin film of water...certain death if stepped on by someone only wearing his thongs hey Martin?? Having picked himself up (and taken his thongs off) we made it to the platform to discover that what awaited us was an original underground car from the 1930s complete with flickering lights and manual doors! Apparently the first underground system in South America and they like to keep it looking that way!

After reaching the hostel and a quick clean-up we started on our recommended tour of the area, taking in the sights of an old courtyard and the Cathedral with guarded tomb, before it came on to rain...hard! Running to the shopping streets for cover we found ourselves a road with more than enough cinemas. This included the ABC which was touted by plenty of sleazy men who think we want boom-boom or whatever for only 100 pesos! Bargain but no thanks! Finally we got to see Blood Diamonds (no not an explicit version) which was awesome if slightly brutal at the start.

Parrilla was our particular selection for dinner - a plate of various meats and parts of animals all BBQ'd and presented on a hot plate. At least 80% of this dish is awesome...huge pieces of meat rule anywhere in the world, but then it came to the things which weren't so readily recognizable unless you're a med student. First up for grabs was liver...which was alright but could have really done with a sauce. Next was kidney which I've decided now is awesome in pies but again really needs a sauce. Now whilst I could make myself eat a bit of each of the previous items to ensure the taste wasn't growing on me particularly, the next was decidedly grim. Small intestine, but not cleaned and in small chunks like in Vietnam. Instead this version came complete with everything which was partially processed and still in the animal's gut beforehand, and which tasted horribly similar to what I imagine all those chocolate cakes in dairy fields to taste like. Ming. Martin took a Juggernaut-size desert to make up for it.

Nothing starts early in Buenos Aires. Getting back at a time which we thought was late meant we actually had a good 2 hours before we needed to be getting ourselves over to the best club for the night - Asia de Cuba. Right on the dock next to the Hilton it was a haunt aimed mainly at tourists and rich kids...so not exactly up to our usual levels of high culture but endowed with bars stacked with Coronas which is always a good start.

The second day was spent mainly recovering from bus journeys, the previous night and also trying to find a language school. That evening the carnival parades started...not as big as Brazil, but still full of dancers and plenty of espuma (spray-foam). We started with a technique of subtlety...catching people in our drive-by crossfire, but then that got too easy and all-out coverings in espuma were needed! Some of our opposition just wouldn't give in though...and so they fell!

Still so early in Argentine time, all of us at the hostel hung out enjoying the 40-pence bottles of white wine we'd got earlier that day. These actually taste far better than a GBP7 bottle at home...so yes it is classy! Fortunately though Martin still succeeded in his continuing challenge to make us look like a couple of yobs by eating so much steak that he actually broke the chair. The night concluded at Opera Bay...again right next to the Hilton on, surprise, the bay. One awesome very new club with three huge rooms with totally different music which made for a great bit of choice. The dance room even came complete with a sliding roof. In fact it that room was practically a greenhouse, from which you could take in the bizarre scene of the sun rising over the city the next morning whilst the club is still pumping.

Having heard reports of the crazy Bocca fans, come Sunday we headed to the Bocca Juniors vs Rosario Central match. You could tell even outside the stadium that the atmosphere was building up for a huge party...and the fans didn't let us down. Argentine fans actually have tuneful football songs...to which everyone in the stadium bounces, sings and plays instruments...continuously for nearly four hours! And then there are the various stand-sized flags which continuously reappear and dance to the music.

The whole experience helped to improve our Spanish too...especially with lines like "Oooooooo Puto", shouted everytime the opposition keeper takes a kick and "hijo de puto" shouted most commonly at the ref or bad tackles. As explained by a local the songs were exceptionally colourful in language - not anything to sing around the Christmas Tree that's for sure!



That night, once again, it was parade night...and having a window overlooking Avenida de Mayo made for a good place to watch, but also one really noisy room, right up until the small hours of the morning!



Finally the sun shone the next day. After arranging ourselves a Spanish course in the morning, we headed via an awesome Banana milkshake and hotdog stall for a quick look around some more of the town before each of our individual first two hour lessons. The challenge of speaking Spanish solidly for two hours and even asking questions about the problems I was having in Spanish was massive, but great fun and I definitely learned a lot very quickly...as we both continued to do over the next five days. After 6 months off it was a massive shock to us to find ourselves suddenly inundated with homework - a good two or more hours for every lesson! It certainly made the next week go quickly.



Monday night we headed out to a drumming show...plugged as the best rhythmic/drumming/syncopated improvisation group in Buenos Aires we thought it was worth a look. After being martyrs to the cause, donating some of our GBP1 pizza slices to our taxi driver, we then tried to use the remaining as bribery to skip the queue into the venue. The doorman told us a beer would have worked, but the effort seemed to outweight the reward as soon as the queue got moving...and quickly too. The band were pretty good, though it'd have definitely have been improved if they'd started dancing with dustbin lids too! However, bringing dustbin lids into the mix could have caused some unfortunate accident considering the massive congregation of hippies at the bottom of the stage who were in green heaven, very much in touch with nature.



Another busy day at school was rewarded that evening with pancakes...and lots of them for it was Shrove Tuesday! And who were they made by - no other than yours (two) truly! Everyone was jealous of our awesome dinner of banana pancakes...no really! Testimony to our dual-pan flipping skills.

Before lessons on Wednesday we headed to *** for a quick look around. It was a much quieter area than much of the rest of Buenos Aires, but going by the signs decorating the central square there was more than a bit of political unrest. Taking a photo in the next block it was clear the authorities had done something to appease at least the unruly menfolk!

After class we had all of 45 minutes to grab dinner and get to the theatre for Tanguera - allegedly the best Tango show in town. With so little time and knowing the mañana attitude to service speed in restaurants we grabbed ourselves another GBP1 pizza each and headed for the show eating on the way. Arriving we felt a little under-dressed and subtly walked past the theatre where we couldn't be seen to finish our pizzas! The dancers in the show were awesome and fortunately there wasn't too much language involved - almost the entire plot (set in turn of the century Buenos Aires) was shown through dance and music.

Thursday's extracurricular activity was stroking beavers...all included in a trip to the zoo. Another particular highlight, at least in our opinions, was the pair of us trying to make ourselves look as pretty as the animals on display. It is amazing just how hard this can be. However determined not to be beaten by a lama and a camel we persevered.

Also competing for attention with us was a Siberian Tiger and cubs which were absolutely gorgeous, a pair of Black Panthers, which did look truly lethal and a chimp who was particularly adept at catching all the food the onlookers are not supposed to be throwing over the fence to him! Memories of Kunming Zoo...

In fact the zoo seemed to be employing a very good scheme as far as feeding the animals went. The animals which were supposed to be fed had food runways, which required nothing more from the animals for than for them to sit at the end of them and look longingly at the passers-by who would diligently roll the food down the ramp towards them. In addition to the usual zoo creature we also got to see some Kyotes and Polar Bears...and some beautiful Macaws in a particularly Martin-like pose!

With our last evening we felt duty-bound to check out what is supposed to be the best steakhouse in Buenos Aires...it was awesome! I now have my suspicions however that Martin may have pre-arranged the whole thing, as not ten minutes after we'd sat down and well before our food arrived, the whole restaurant was plunged into darkness. Out came the candles, making for the most romantic meal of our trip so far. Beautiful as it was and as smoothly as Martin talked I somehow managed to avoid succumbing to his wooing. I'm confident many less-determined souls would have fallen at his ghost impression.

On Friday we said a tearful farewell to our Spanish teachers, feeling shattered as we were after the immense amount of concentration needed to endure 2 hours of speaking only Spanish and then two more hours of homework everyday! It was great though and the teachers and staff were all brilliant which certainly made the experience a lot more entertaining than it could otherwise have been. Being knackered I think we just watched Mr and Mrs Smith for about the third time that week with everyone in the hostel. Sometimes even us hardy travellers have to relax!