¨Every day´s a school day...

is a saying that I have picked up from my good friend Oein from Ireland. And its so true...

We have been in Buenos Aires for over a week now and already feel completely at home here. The hostel is gorgeous and the staff have all become like our family already. We have met up with our new bestie Nikki from Brighton who we have become so close with already. Along with Robin from Holland, we are just another crew of like minded people happy to have found each other..

BA is an incredible city, the 8th largest in the world. Its all things a big city should be: dirty, polluted, busy and bustling but with another undercurrent of a dark history and a struggle that continues each day.

One of the first things you notice is the rubbish. Each night, all the restaurants and shops put their rubbish onto the street to be collected which is when an entire populace of scavengers come out. They rip open the bags and rifle through the trash to find anything recyclable or that can be traded for cash, a beer bottle for example can get you 2 pesos (75cAUS). I have seen entire families riffling through rubbish at 3am, a little baby asleep in his mothers arms as she throws junk onto the street. The worst thing is that they then leave it everywhere and rubbish lays all over the street until the morning. Its heartbreaking to see this industry at work but I am sure its barely the worst of the poverty we will see...

Today we did a historical walking tour of the city which was extremely educational. I learnt more about Argentina´s history in a few hours than I would in months of living here. We went to see where Eva Peron´s body was embalmed for three years before being kidnapped and moved all over the city. I didnt really know anything about Evita before this so it was amazing to hear all about her influence in Argentina. The old man from the museum was talking to us in Spanish about Eva and the guides translated for us but he kept really looking at me in the eyes while he spoke and I could feel the emotion he had for Eva and the people she fought for. It was totally moving and I was in tears by the end! We also learnt alot about the Dirty War in which thousands of Argentines ¨disappeared¨ and were tortured and murdered before their bodies were thrown into the river. Dark times in Argentina´s history but one I could relate to with the recent resurgence of the Stolen Generation issues around Kevin 07´s apology. I have told quite a few Argentines about the apology which they have thought was amazing and a great first step in the healing of the past wrong doings of a nation...

Its not all sadness however. We have been ripping it up in the clubs, enjoying frozen mojitos in bars and huge steak dinners which have been the best ever (the pasta has been great too!) I got addicted to empanadas briefly which are baked pastries, filled with deliciousness like queso y cebolla (cheese and onion) or verdura (spinach). So cheap and tasty but so so bad for you! I think I will be a ten tonne tessy by the time I return... the food interests me more and more. Not so much the food but the culture around the food. Bread and jam for breakfast, bread with salt sprinkled on not butter, salad with boiled egg, pizza with ten times the cheese you would usually expect, more empanadas, NO fresh vegies, NO asian food and NO spicy food!!! Bland!!!! Aaarrggh!!! And the men, dont even get me started...I have had no love from the local men, i think because they are all 5 foot and skinny and I am like an amazonian next to them. They are loving Jodie however so when we go out i am like her body guard hahaha! They do have amazing dreamy brown eyes however..

We are here for another week and then go to Iguassu Falls followed by Rio. As much as I am loving the South American cities, I am desparate to get to Peru, Bolivia and Columbia which are by all accounts the real diamonds of South America.

Until next time...

Bye Bye Barry Barry Lochi!!

So we have been here 9 days and once again, have grown very attached to the beautiful town of Barilcohe Argentina. Much like a ski town, Bariloche sits on a gorgeous lake and is surrounded by majestic mountains which in winter have amazing ski slopes for snow bunny fun. We have done a one week spanish course which was good for us to not only learn the language but to have some structure in our day. I have learnt a little more but still have a long way to go! We also met a great group of people, especially Amy and our Irish roomies, Oien and Jim, our brothers and best mates in Bariloche. I have also had a great time hanging out with the elusive and overly affectionate Cameron who has been travelling for 6 years!! So it can be done!

Yesterday we took the road trip from hell. Jodie and I with our roomies hired a car and set off for the Siete Lago trip / the Seven Lakes route. After a harrowing drive through the city while Jim adjusted to the left hand side drive, we set off out of town for the 4 hour scenic route. Even with the map we managed to get ridiculously lost, avoiding ALL seven lakes and found ourselves in San Marten which we were told was easily a nine hour round trip. San Marten was gorgeous though and we captured some beautiful pictures of sunset. We then took the wrong road back to Bariloche and the four of us sat in dead silence as Jim drove for 2 hours on a dirt road that wound down into the depths of dense forrest with NOTHING and NOONE around us. I could just see the headlines FOUR TOURISTS FOUND FROZEN IN HIRE CAR. Nevertheless, we eventually made it back to Bariloche at 10pm and all our mates were waiting for us with beers and pizza! Woohoo! Never been so excited in my life. We then told everyone what happened and laughed our heads off at the retardedness of what we had done. Ha, all in a day in the life of a backpacker I guess...

So tonight is our last night here and we are going out for a delicious dinner to celebrate. Once again, we face the sadness of saying goodbye to our new friends as we go our separate ways on our journeys. Its hard but a small price to pay for having found such great people who in time you will meet again.

Tomorrow night we fly to Buenos Aires and I am so pumped for it. We have heard that stories though that they eat dinner at midnight and dont go out til 2 or 3am. How are two old nanas from Sydney going to cope with this extrrreeeeeme party culture. I'll let you know next entry.

Ciao for now chicos!

Lessons in Valpariso

So we have been in Valpo Chile for close to 5 days now, almost a full week in Chile! I am in love with this town. Its completely gorgeous, kind of looks like Richie Valenz is going to jump out at any time. It is on the coast, a harbour town like Newcastle but full of bohemians. We got off the bus at the bus station and as soon as you get off the bus, there are people everywhere trying to get you to go with them to hostels, taxis etc. We met the lovely Chris from Chicago, a fluent spanish speaker who took us on the bus to a hostel run by a family, Eduardo and his mum. The house is in the old part of town and is really cool. As soon as we got here we formed a little gang with some other great travellers. Together we have been doing everything together, walking around town, getting some food, going out at night. Eduardo has taken us to some great little local bars, a salsa club, and last night we went to see Chris play a gig at a funky student type bar called El Pajarito (The Little Bird). So we have been lucky to see the other side of town as well as the touristy stuff...

One of the downfalls of being a tourist is that there are so many theifs and today we met our first...

The hostel has been packed to the brim with people and this morning I opened the door for a few girls who came to check in. There was a guy with them asking about accom but everyone was busy with other guests. He was a Chileno guy, very well dressed and polite. Problem was when I went to take a shower he locked himslef in our room and grabbed Jodies camera from her bag. The boys chased himout but didnt catch him. We have become so comfy in the hostel, which is the family home of Eduardo and his mum, we have been very relaxed about our stuff and not locking the door. Nothing else happened or was taken but it was pretty fucked for Jodie to lose her camera. So then the police came over and took us to the police station where Chris translated our statement so Jodie could get a police report. He is our hero!!! The police were very nice and even dropped us home. I felt so bad because I let this little fucker into the house but he was a true con man. It was a good learning experience for me and we are both fine. They say you can basically kiss your camera goodbye in South America and it seems this is true because Barry (the lovely Irishman) had his passport, mobile and wallet on the bed but they took his piece of shit broken camera instead!!!!

Anyway it was good to have this experience straight up because now our senses are more acute and we are more aware of this kind of stuff. I am not freaked out about it because it seems its just a part of life here as everyone is so poor. They look at us and see dollar signs simple as that...

We leave for Bariloche Argentina on Saturday where we are studying Spanish for a week. I am really excited about this but I am already sad to leave Chile!!


Favourite Chilean beer: Escudo
Favourite Chilean food: Seafood empanada
Favourite Football team: ColoColo
Favourite saying: Si claro (yeah right)
Favourite way to travel: Escolar, a wooden box type thing that pulls you up the hill, a bit like a really dodgy version of the Scenic Railway
Favourite Chilean met so far: Titi, the housekeeper at the hostel who scared the thief off by shrieking in him in spanish then called Chris and Eduardo to go and get him. Then we managed to communicate with her that one camera had been stolen and how it all happened.

Day 2 Santiago

So we arrived in Santiago yesterday. After an uncomfortable plane trip and scary incident of a man collapsing and me having to yell out for hosties, we got a taxi to the hostel. On the way through Santiago we just sat there in silence, taking it all in. As with most airports, we travelled through a really poor neighborhood to get into the city and it was amazing to see how these people live. It comes as no surprise that there is a perception that of crime in Latin America when tourists have so much money they they openly flaunt without even knowing it.

So we met the charming and vivacious Darcy from New York at the Hostel and instantly hit it off. She is an incredible 23 year old who has been travelling South America for 6 months alone. We were both overwhelmed by our new surroundings and the lack of language so Darcy was an amazing orientation to the city. We walked to dinner to a cool part of town called Barrio de Belle Vista and while getting lost, watched Darcy approach complete strangers in the most confident and friendly of fashion, even getting us an escort by two cute park cleaners on pushies who wanted to walk with us to make sure we were safe. We also met the Mayor of a small town in Argentina! We eventually made it and had a great night together, eating, drinking and talking. A friend for life already made...

Today we felt much more confident and walked back to Bella Vista for a look in the day, went to the Zoo which was full of families. The children and babies here are SO CUTE it is just unbelievable. Big brown eyes and brown hair and speaking spanish in little squeaky voices. Ohhhhhhh! We then headed further downtown, had lunch, looked around and rode the subway back. We know about 15 words of Spanish which is more than yesterday and are picking it up. We still have no idea what people are saying to us but can at least tell them that!

Now back at the hostel for siesta, chilling out, working out what we will do tonight. Tomorrow we are heading and hour and a half away to Valparaiso, a bohemian beach town that is meant to be very cool.

Your spanish lesson for the day:

Donde esta el baño por favor? Where is the bathroom please
Soltare = single as in, I am ...