Tucan Circuito 3-ARGENTINA

The forth country on my 154 day overland trip around the massive continent of South America.  Lakes, glaciers, National Parks, sealions, the End of the World, Guacho's and BBQ's and the Tango.  Welcome to Argentina.

AND THAT MAKES 12 STAMPS FROM ARGENTINA

WEATHER: HOT HOT HOT

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing Iguassu Falls from all angles

BUMMER OF THE DAY: HOT HOT HOT

WORD OF THE DAY:  Team Swiss

Well there was no message from Zeme when I woke this morning so this has to be good news right?  Hopefully the letter worked and they can finally process his visa…….

We are off to Argentina again for the last time today to see Igusazu Falls from their side.  So this does mean we get another 2 stamps in our passports from Argentina making it a grand total of 12 stamps from the one country.  I don’t think I have ever had that many stamps from the one country in my passport before.

We left camp at 8.30am for our transfer to take us over the border.  Rosita is off to the mechanics today and we have to cross and enter the Falls with an Argentinian guide anyway, so we left in 2 minivans for the 15 minute drive to the Brazil border control.  We just had to hand our passports to our driver/guide and he ran in and got us processed out of Brazil.  It was the quickest border control we have ever done; he was seriously back in 5 minutes!!!  Brazil didn’t stamp us though, so we have just been processed through the computer.  Next stop was the Argentinian border control and it looked a hell of a lot busier, with tourist busses, cars, trucks and lots of minivans like ours all waiting to be processed.  This took longer and as only Argentina knows how, took 50 minutes to complete.  But once again we just had to wait in the van and our driver did all the waiting in line for us. 

So welcome back to Argentina and to Spanish speaking again, we can say gracias and hola without feeling bad that we are saying it in Spanish instead of Portuguese if only for the day anyway.  The National Park was only a 20 minute drive from the border and after getting our tickets and walked through the gates our driver then left us and was to return at 5.30pm to collect us and take us home again.  There is an hour time difference from Brazil to Argentina, but we have decided to stay on Brazil time to not confuse anything, so let’s see if anyone gets confused during the day and if we all turn up at 5.30pm Brazil time, which is 4.30pm Argentina time…..

Most of the group are doing the boat cruise, which is basically a speed boat that gets you pretty much as close to the falls as you can get on the water.  I did the boat last time I was here, so I decided not to do it again, so as they all made their bookings to get on the boat, Sven, Andreas, Elizabeth, Susanne and Angelica were also not doing the boat, so I we all stuck together for the day and headed straight for the train that was to take us to the Devils Throat.  It is approximately a 30 minute train journey, after changing trains 10 minutes into get us to the end of the line and to the start of the grated boardwalks that will take us to the edge of the falls.  The train was busy, and this was why we were getting it done first thing in the morning, as we assumed that as the day wore on it would only get busier.  We thought the train was busy, well when we arrived at the boardwalk there were masses of people already around.  The boardwalk is 1.5KM long and it is just wide enough for one lane of traffic heading in and one lane of traffic heading out.  The system falls down when one person stops and with the constant flow of traffic coming the other way, it is quite difficult to get around these people and you get held up waiting for them to get going again.  I don’t mind stopping for people’s photos, but when they take so long to take a damn picture this is when I get a little stroppy.  So even though it is 1.5KM long, it still takes a while to get out to the viewing platform due to the stoppages.  Looking at the people that were coming back from the falls, they were looking quite wet, which was fine with me as it was starting to get quite hot as it was coming up to 11am.

Iguazu Falls are arranged in a way that seems a reverse J. The border between Brazil and Argentina runs through the Devil's Throat. On the right bank is the Brazilian territory, which has just over 20% of the jumps of these falls, and the left side jumps are Argentines, which make up almost 80% of the falls.

They are amazing from this side.  You get a true indication on just how powerful they are from this view.  It was a little windy, and this was the reason why people were getting drenched as the falls spray was getting blown onto us all.  It was so difficult to take a picture as the mist kept getting on my camera lens.  Looking back at my photos, I didn’t get too many that didn’t have water spots on them which was a little annoying.  Devils Throat has about half of the river's flow falls into a long and narrow chasm.   The Devil's Throat is U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-wide, and 700-meter-long.   About 900 meters of the 2.7-kilometer length does not have water flowing over it. The edge of the basalt cap recedes by 3 mm (0.1 in) per year. The water of the lower Iguazu collects in a canyon that drains in the Paraná River, a short distance downstream from the Itaipu Dam.  Once again there were people pushing and shoving their way for photo opportunities, but the flow of traffic kept moving so it wasn’t too much if an issue to get a vantage point and get some shots, the problem was getting shots without getting spray on your lens.  In Guarani language, the term "Iguazú" means "great waters". It was discovered in 1541 by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and established in 1984 as Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO. 

A legend says that a big snake called "Boi" lived in the river. To calm its ferocity, aborigines sacrificed a woman every year as an offering. But once a brave Guarani aborigine kidnapped the woman and saved her from the traditional rite escaping through the river. Boi burst in anger, bent its body and split the river forming the cataracts separating the man and the woman. 

There are 2 ways that you can get back to the middle section of the falls.  You can catch the train that goes back the same way you came or you can pay 50 pesos (10AUD) and you could get a ride down the upper Iguazú River to look for some animals and plants in the delta in a big yellow zodiac that is rowed by a guide of the National Park.  We decided to take the boat option, something different, it was cheap enough and we had time for the 30 minute cruise.  We were given life jackets and boarded the zodiac 15 minutes after paying with 15 other people for the drift.  It was weird when we first set out that we could see the spray of the falls in the distance and knew we weren’t far from the falls edge.  It was a little scary and cool all at the same time.  We dint see any wildlife but at one point trying to navigate into one of the smaller estuaries we got stuck on some rocks and we all had to move to one side of the zodiac as our guide got out of the boat to try and dislodge us.  All it would have taken was for him to fall over, lose the boat we would be floating without our driver and guide towards the falls drop!!  Okay maybe a little dramatic, but it could have happened right? Well it spiced up the ride and was definitely worth the 10 bucks we paid.

Making it back to the center section of the falls where there are eateries and the train station, it is also the start of the upper and lower sections of the walking trails of the falls.  We decided to do the upper section before a late lunch and then do the lower section after lunch.  Walking on the footbridges there are more than 270 falls in an area where cliffs and islets are scattered in a half moon.  From the upper path you have panoramic views from the footbridge in an unforgettable experience and views of the falls.  These paths were also very busy, but the flow seemed to be better than Devils Throat.  The upper section took us 45 minutes to complete the circuit and got us back to the café for lunch at 2.30pm.    The lunch was a simple affair of spinach and cheese quiche and a bottle of coke to get some juice back in the tank to complete the lower section of the falls.  There wasn’t much left in the way of food by the time we got there, but the quiche was quite tasty considering I don’t really like spinach and then we were off again. 

The lower path leads to the base of the falls, where the spray moistens visitors. It is a unique experience, worth daring the adventure. In this circuit you may also take a boat to Isla San Martín, which was closed today due to the level of the water after some recent rains.  Here are a lot of falls to see on the lower section including Salto Floriano, Salto Deodoro, Salto Benjamín Constant, Salto Unión, Salto Escondido, Salto Mitre, Salto Belgrano, Salto Rivadavia, Salto Tres Mosqueteros, Salto Dos Mosqueteros, Salto San Martín, Salto Adán y Eva, Salto Bozzetti, Salto Ramirez, Salto Chico, Salto Dos Hermanos and Salto Alvar Nuñez .  You must think seem one waterfall seen them all.  But each one was unique and different and definitely worth fighting the heat and humidity to complete the 1.5 hour walk of the lower section.  The last waterfall was probably the highlight as the viewing platform at the base if the waterfall was within a few meters and the spray and noise from the waterfall was surreal.  Apart from waterfalls, the jungle a wide variety of animals and plants. Almost 500 species of wild fowl, 80 species of mammals and an immense variety of reptiles, fish, insects and butterflies live in this ecosystem. 

We got back to the meeting point an hour earlier than required, but it was good to be able to have a look at the shops and have a sit down and rest the weary feet that had been on the go since 10am this morning.  Mark found me to let me know there was Wi-Fi at one of the restaurants to see if I had a reply back from Zeme, so we went over found a bench and this is where I found out the news that the Brazil Consulate did not accept the invitation letter that we sent through yesterday and that the signature had to be known by the government and we had DHL it and email it to Ethiopia.  It is difficult to be able to complete the request when we don’t really know what they are asking for.  Today is Thursday, even if we did have the right paper work, to DHL it to them, assuming there is somewhere in Foz that we could do it from, would take at least 2 days, then for them to complete the visa and get it back to us it is here that it finally hit me that Zeme wouldn’t be coming on the trip.  I was devastated.  Completely devastated.  Clutching at straws, I emailed the consulate myself and asked them to clarify exactly what it was they needed, being nice, because if we could get it all done, I could just date change Zeme’s ticket and he comes a week later just missing Carnival.  There was still a slim chance we could make it work.  Deep down I knew it was a done deal, but it got me through not breaking into tears in front of Mark. 

What a mess……………………..

Going back through the border controls again and leaving Argentina for the very last time was quicker than coming in this morning.  We only had to wait 5 minutes at both controls and we were back to camp just after 6pm.  We also stopped to change out left over Argentinian pesos and Paraguayan guaranies into Brazilian rials with this being the 4^th last currency of the trip. 

Back at camp I now had to make some decisions on what I was going to do about the rest of my trip. 

Option 1 – Ask Tucan if they will credit both our tours till next year less fees

Option 2 - Take a break from tour for a month and fly to see Z and then rejoin the group.

Option 3 - Stay on the trip and see Z in May and try and sell Zemes portion of the trip to someone else

Option 1 for me would be preferable.  Firstly I have a round world ticket that brings me back to South America next year and less fees and price fluctuations I would have another holiday already booked and paid for and we would just need to pay for a new ticket for Zeme and start the visa process a lot earlier and do it all together, just 12 months later.   While I was working all this out, Mark has been emailing the office letting them know what is happening and they said they would need to go to London for a decision on the credit notes.  The upside, if there can be one, is that Deb has expressed an interest to purchase Zeme’s portion of the tour.  It’s not a definite, but to let her know how much and she will see if she can date change her tickets and rejig some things, so we may be able to salvage some money of Zeme section of the trip and recoup some lost cash.  In the meantime I have emailed Beth to get her to read the rules and see what could be salvaged from Zeme airline ticket.

I called Z with the last of my credit on my mobile to speak to him.  It was past 2am in Addis but I didn’t care at this point.  He was so upset about the whole situation and I got a good 8 minutes before my credit ran out.  What a mess.  Maybe things won’t look so bad when I wake up in the morning and there will be a reply from Tucan and a reply from the Brazil Embassy.  Yeah right, what are the odds but we can live and sleep in hope.

What a mess.   

BACK TO ROSITA

WEATHER: Flaming hot and 38C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting back into the truck

BUMMER OF THE DAY: It’s HOT and I want my old sear back

WORD OF THE DAY:  Rustic

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 761KM

We get to see the old girl today.  It has been nearly 2 weeks since we have taken our pews on the big yellow truck aka Rosita.  As there were 3 groups leaving this morning, we staggered ours to leave after the other 2 at 7.30am.  We had a pretty big day head with just an enroute stop, to break the journey before heading into Paraguay tomorrow.  We literally have 3 more ‘main stops of Paraguay, Iguassu Falls and Parati with 4 enroute days thrown in to get us to Rio.  Everything is a countdown to Rio now, as it means a new group, Carnival and the arrival of my boyfriend Zeme.  The good thing also about the next section leaving Rio is that there are only 9 nights of camping out of 25 nights up to Manaus and the Amazon cruise.  I am looking at upgrading to a cabin on the cruise if it is air-conditioned.  Otherwise the sleeping arrangements are in hammocks on deck.  Not really a hammock person myself, always worrying if it will hold my weight, I like the sound of the cabin, if only they are airconed.  The weather as we head further north is only going to get warmer, so I must remember to ask mark about that. 

We really are just hauling arse to get as far as we can today, so we are closer to the border tomorrow and the camp site in Paraguay as it has a pool, so we are trying to get there early in the afternoon to make sure we get some use of that.  With an hour for lunch Mark and Gray decided to just keep driving as far as we could and pass the original place where we had intended to stop.  We were all okay with this with the image of the pool in our heads, we were all more than happy to just keep on going.  The weather today has been insanely hot.  My temperature gauge said 38C and it felt even hotter than that. 

At 7.30pm and 12 hours later we pulled into a truck side stop for the night.  With some controlled fires going on around us and a massive storm making it our way, we put the tents up quick smart before the heavens opened and the tent up for the food prep area.  There was a toilet at the site where we had stopped, but apparently it was ‘rustic’ and no shower facilities.  We were lucky enough to have a service station 200m away on the same side of the road, so we were able to use their toilet facilities and PM found out for .71 cents you could use their showers.  They had Wi-Fi at the service station as well as a large range of drinks and nibbles for purchase.  It wasn’t a bad roadside camp after all. 

The storm blew over but we were lucky it cooled us all down for a short time.  After dinner I headed to bed, it was 10.30pm, as the others played cards for a little while.  Sleeping in the tent after 10 nights was okay, I have to say I don’t mind camping.  I also have my new mini pillow to try out tonight, but man it is hot in the tent.  I am in a little bit of an unorganized mess at the moment, as I don’t have all my ‘camping’ things together, but I will be able to get this sorted in the next few days and back into the swing of things again pretty easily. 

Not much too really report today, but welcome back to Rosita, we have missed you gal and goodbye to Argentina.  Its not the last time as we do have one more visit when we get to Iguassu Falls.  We view then from both the Brazil and Argentinian sides, but Adios for now....

ITS TIME TO LEAVE BUENOS AIRES

WEATHER: Hot and 35C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Finally getting credit on my UK sim card

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Watching the movie J Edgar – boring **snore snore**

WORD OF THE DAY:  Gracias – thank-you

It’s our last day in Buenos Aires.  As much as it is a beautiful city and we have enjoyed our time here, we are now well rested and ready to get back on the move again.  It will also be able good to save some money again as this city has just drained the moula out of us.  The main outgoing expense was the food as we really didn’t buy too much stuff.  A new bag, wallet, watch, mini pillows for the tents and my leather diary cover were the big ticket items over the 10 days.  I didn’t go over budget, but pretty much spent it to the penny here. 

I interneted for the last time down in the common room.  We had access to free Wi-Fi in our room on the 10^th floor till last night when the external connection Speedywifi must have cottoned on that there was excess usage for the last 5 days and finally password protected the network.  Sneaky devils.  Well it was good while it lasted and we leave tomorrow, so no big deal……  There was a message from Z and he mentioned that the Brazil Consulate was after some additional information. Ummmm you leave in 2 weeks, this is starting to cut it a little fine now with a Venezuela visa to also obtain, I am starting to feel sick to my stomach that we may be running out of time for it to be issued.  I feel SICK.  So Kate and I left the hotel and I placed a call to Z to get the full story and with another appointment tomorrow at the Embassy in Addis, hopefully that thing can be finally issued.  Zeme is going to message me once he has been and seen them.  Bloody hell, I can’t believe I am still worrying about this damn Brazil visa, even after mine finally got done!  The saga continues……

The other piece of good news was that I finally got some credit back onto my UK sim card.  Paps back in London had tried all avenues, from online, to phoning Vodafone to finally finding some sort of machine that he could do it through, all in the process of moving house.  So I THANKYOU Paps for going the extra mile so that I got some credit on my phone. This has really been a drama for me topping up this sim, when I head back in August I will look at another carrier that will let me top up with an international credit card.  Besides the Brazil visa this has been the other biggest thorn in my side.  I guess I can’t complain if these are the only issued I have on my trip, but they are still annoying. 

The common room seemed busier today and Mark said there were another 2 Tucan tours starting tomorrow.  They are both doing the same itinerary and shadowing/travelling together from BA to Rio over the next 14 days.  We apparently will seem them in Brazil in Parati, where a lot of the trucks converge for a few days before the final run into Rio and Carnival.  Its funny looking at other groups and sussing them all out.  Like Liz said, everything is booked on dates and one of us could have easily been on these tours instead.  Our group still looks pretty cool. 

With the afternoon free as a bird, Kate and I decided to catch yet another movie to wile away our last day.  There was a new batch of movies that had been released so we decided to get some culture and saw J Edgar.  After all it had Leonardo de Caprio in it, how bad could it be.  Well it was a little snoozy, but he certainly accomplished a lot and set up the FBI amongst other things over his 40+ years of service.  I actually though he had been one of the Presidents of the United States, so that movie if nothing else cleared that up for me.  The positive side was I got my last bucket of proper popcorn for goodness knows how long and I enjoyed every last salty morsel.  Back home I would just drive to the movies to purchase popcorn and then drive straight back home.  I LOVE it, and only the salted variety. 

We lost another one of the group today as Anna heads back to the UK making us a group of 16 now.  It will be difficult once we get to Rio having a group of 24 after having 12-18 for the last 3 months.  The good thing is it isn’t a big deal for me to be sharing my seats as I am sharing with Zeme, the others will have to decide who they will share with or try and wangle a seat to themselves.  Mark is thinking of having open seating every day, which I am not a big fan of, unless I don’t get a window on the first day, and then I will become a big fan!!!

So that is how we spent our last day in Buenos Aires.  I’m on the final count down now to when (and if) Zeme gets here and I just cannot contain my excitement.  14 days and counting.  Good-bye BA, you were awesome and we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. 

DAY 8 IN BA

WEATHER: Overcast and humid with spots of rain 32C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Sleeping in till 2pm

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Feeling a little hung over in the morning

WORD OF THE DAY:  Chicken nuggets

I was happy to see that when I first woke up at 9am that I had managed to get into my PJ’s.  I had consumed a fair bit of wine and beer last night and I remember saying goodnight and all my conversations but I don’t remember getting into the lift or getting changed.  Well at least I lost my alcohol memory on my way back to my room.  Phew.  Getting in at 3am, waking at 9am I think I was still drunk.  Sharon and Anna had already left for the morning, so Kate and I made the most of the piece and quiet and the air conditioning and we slept till 2pm.  Ahhhhhhhhh it was an awesome feeling and sleeping that day away was a bonus as I then woke up, again, feeling pretty damn fine! 

We showered and changed and then walked to Lavelle Street, which is another pedestrian shopping street that has more restaurants than Florida Street and found a pizza and pasta place and had a bite to eat.  Felt good to not be having Macca’s and the pizza I had was one of the best I have had yet.  It is exactly what the alcohol doctor ordered. 

On our way back to the hotel we collected our washing from the previous day and then went back to the hotel to while away the afternoon ready and getting on the free internet we could access from our room.  That is the one good thing about switching rooms; we could get Wi-Fi from an outside source from level 10 that we didn’t have access to on level 5.

Kate made a dash to Macca’s late in the afternoon for a McFlurry, so I got a large soft drink, so our no Macca’s day had just been destroyed, so I didn’t feel so bad at 9pm I did a Macca’s run and had chicken nuggets again for the, I’ve lost count, time for dinner.  I was a little hungry, but as we were having a really early start tomorrow as we were off to Uruguay for the days, I wanted to put something into my stomach.  Macca’s was the only thing open in my defence.

So not much to report today, a typical hung-over day and I loved it, well not the hung-over bit, but to sleep till 2pm was a luxury.  It is easy to see why Buenos Aires is seen as a party town, it knows how to literally tango and dance the night away! 

WELCOME BACK TO THE TUCAN FAMILY

WEATHER: Hot and 35C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing the crew again

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Getting moved from the 5^th floor to the 10^th floor!!

WORD OF THE DAY:  Senior ‘Slick’ – Paul fluffed down for Tango

Kate and I have been in Buenos Aires for 6 nights now and our Tucan Family arrive in this afternoon around 3pm all going well for 4 nights.  The location of the hostel is amazing, the facilities they offer are awesome and we have totally been so lucky with our accommodation here.  As KWT and I had booked in a twin room, we had to check out this morning and change rooms into dorms which is the configuration that Tucan have here.  When I went down this morning I asked if there was a dorm ready for the group, if not then we would have to check out by 11am, leave our bags in the luggage room and then check back in at 3pm, which was the official check-in time.  I was lucky we got someone really nice and she gave us the key to the dorm room straight up, so we could move our gear straight from one room to the other.  We were currently on floor 5, which was good as we could walk up (well Kate would walk up) I only walked down, if the lifts were busy or out of service.  The only bad thing about the hostel was the lifts.  They only had 2, and over the 6 nights lift 2 was out of action more than it was working, which when we were on floor 5 wasn’t too bad.  Well our new room was on the top level, level 10.  The lift only went to level 9 and then we had to walk a flight of stairs to get to the top level.  This was going to be a test of fitness to walk 11 flights of stairs if the lifts shit themselves.  Anyway, it was we were allowed in early and the good thing being the first we had first choice of beds, which Kate and I took both the bottoms.  It is a 4 share and we have our own bathroom which was also a nice surprise. 

We left the hostel at 10.30am and went to get some lunch and to drop off some washing for the second time in BA.  The downside of hot weather is that you sweat more, requiring more washing and losing the potential to possibly wear tops and bottoms more than once before requiring a wash.  We have well and truly left the cold weather behind as the further north we go the hotter and humid it is going to get.  The Laundromat isn’t that far and it is always ready the same day for a cost of 32pesos (7.60AUD) for a basket.  Can’t argue with that. 

We wanted something quick for brunch, as we had looked up movie times and it was raining outside, so what a better way to spend the afternoon than in a cinema and eating popcorn.  So we had Macca’a again.  I have to say I am addicted to their chicken nuggets at the moment and I normally don’t like their fries, but they have always been fresh and they have lots of salt on them which I love.  Around our area of Florida there are 2 McDonalds within an 8 minute walk of each other, a BK (Burger King) and another Macca’s up past the laundry around a 15 minute walk, so in our defence they are all over the place and I can always hear the chicken nuggets calling my name – seriously, they are delicious. 

So after lunch we caught a taxi to Puerto Maderno, where ‘our’ cinema was and we were hoping that they would have on different staff as it is a little embarrassing that this was the third trip to the movies in 5 days but we enjoy it, it is cheap, so I guess it doesn’t matter what people think.  We were a little early and after purchasing our popcorn and drinks, they let us into the theater early to wait for it to begin.  We had 35 minutes to wait.  So needless to say all our popcorn was just about gone by the time the movie started, but we were watching Mission Impossible 4, so I needed to have all my concentration to watch the man of the moment Tom Cruise.  I have loved TC since I was a kid in primary school.  I know a lot of people think he is weird, strange and just because you believe in aliens running the world or whatever Scientology believes in, he is still hot and you can NOT take that away from him.  My favorite TC movies have to include Top Gun, Cocktail and A Few Good Men, oh and The Firm, and Days of Thunder.  I have seen one of the MI movies but they didn’t interest me as much, but I do have to say MI4 was actually really good and had a lot of laughs in it and was glad that there really wasn’t a romantic liaison in this one.  It was a long movie which we didn’t realize till we got out that it was just over 2.5 hours long!  That certainly killed the afternoon for us and as I waited for Kate to go to the bathroom I jumped on the free Wi-Fi from the restaurant upstairs and saw status updates from the guys.  They had arrived in BA.  I was really excited to see them all again so we high tailed it back to the hotel in yet another taxi that always seems ready for us no matter where we have been travelling to. 

We were lucky when we got back the guys were in reception and had already dropped off their bags to their rooms.  They all looked tired and looked like they had had a tough 5 nights, which we later found out that they had and some people said they wished they had of taken out lead and also flown up.  The highlight was the 2 night stay in Puerto Madryn where they did see some sea lions and some seals, but no whales and no killer whales which is what Kate was worried about missing out on and the other 3 days of driving there was nothing, not even a tree to look at on the drive.  The last day they had before arriving into Buenos Aires was the longest of the whole trip to date with 14 hours.  Granted there was an hour for lunch and toilet stops on the way, but that is a long day in anyone’s books.  Yep Kate and I were still glad we had flown up and was worth the 530AUD it cost us for the flight and accommodation.

We have 2 people leaving us in BA.  Kate (not my Kate) and Anna and as it was Kate’s last night, Mark decided to do the Tango show tonight so that she could come along.  Talking to Paul, it was also the night that made sense to have a few drinks, with day tours booked and truck day on Friday, there was a chance for them to have a small lie in tomorrow before hitting the sites of BA.  Gee we get to get a little dolled up tonight; wear a dress, put on some makeup!!  Man we are going to feel like a new woman.  A shame I don’t have my hair straighter, but we can’t have it all and with a little bit of bling on the ears we all scrubbed up okay and we really do look like different people.  It’s nice to feel like a lady.  I can’t guarantee I’ll look like one later in the evening but it was a good start.

The Tango show was 60AUD for the ticket, which included a 3 course dinner, a bottle of wine between 2 and the show.  Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata (which is between Argentina and Uruguay), and spread to the rest of the world soon after.  Early tango was known as tango criollo, or simply tango. Today, there are many tango dance styles, including Argentine tango, Uruguayan tango, Ballroom tango (American and International styles), Finnish tango, and vintage tangos. What many consider to be the authentic tango is that closest to that originally danced in Argentina and Uruguay, though other types of tango have developed into mature dances in their own right.  In 2009, Argentina and Uruguay suggested that the Tango be inscribed onto the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists and in October of the same year UNESCO approved it.

Tango is a dance that has influences from European and African culture. Dances from the candombe ceremonies of former slave peoples helped shape the modern day Tango. The dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The music derived from the fusion of various forms of music from Europe. The word "tango" seems to have first been used in connection with the dance in the 1890s. Initially it was just one of the many dances, but it soon became popular throughout society, as theatres and street barrel organs spread it from the suburbs to the working-class slums, which were packed with hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, primarily Italians, Spanish and French.  

In the early years of the 20th century, dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires travelled to Europe, and the first European tango craze took place in Paris, soon followed by London, Berlin, and other capitals. Towards the end of 1913 it hit New York in the USA, and Finland. In the USA around 1911 the word "tango" was often applied to dances in a 2/4 or 4/4 rhythm such as the one-step.  It was an amazing show and certainly worth the 60AUD that we paid.

It was a 20 minute walk from the hotel and when we got to the Tangueria it was a swishy looking place.  It was 5 star the whole way, from the building, service, food and then the show.  The show went for around 1.5 hours and started after we had finished dinner and it was amazing.  My favorite 2 parts was the folklore section where they played traditional flutes and drums and at the end there was a single female singer that say Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.  They also had a few dancers that joined in the end waving flags etc., that a few people thought was a little corny, but she is a national icon here and they are just showing their love for her.  I think if you had of said a bad word about Eva Peron in front of an Argentinian I think you would get your block knocked off.  Kate and Liz had stopped drinking the wine, so I pretty much had the whole bottle to myself, so we left the Tango show just after midnight and went back to the hostel.  They have a bar downstairs, so we continued to drink the night away till 3am when Mark and I called it a night and the girls then partied on till 7am!  Great effort and the good thing was we only had to go up one flight of stairs to the hostel entrance and then up in a lift to the room. 

So welcome back to our Tucan Family.  We have missed you and look forward to getting back on Rosita in 4 day’s time.

  

Don't Cry For Me Argentina

[Eva:]
It won't be easy, you'll think it strange
When I try to explain how I feel
That I still need your love after all that I've done

You won't believe me
All you will see is a girl you once knew
Although she's dressed up to the nines
At sixes and sevens with you

I had to let it happen, I had to change
Couldn't stay all my life down at heel
Looking out of the window, staying out of the sun

So I chose freedom
Running around, trying everything new
But nothing impressed me at all
I never expected it to

[Chorus:]

Don't cry for me Argentina
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance

And as for fortune, and as for fame
I never invited them in
Though it seemed to the world they were all I desired

They are illusions
They are not the solutions they promised to be
The answer was here all the time
I love you and hope you love me

Don't cry for me Argentina

[chorus]

Have I said too much?
There's nothing more I can think of to say to you.
But all you have to do is look at me to know
That every word is true

THE GHOST TOWN OF BUENOS AIRES ON A SUNDAY

WEATHER: HOT HOT BOILING HOT 36C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Just about have my Photos of the Day loaded

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Hot walking around the markets

WORD OF THE DAY:  I’m Hot – Kate said this a thousand times

I got a little bit of a sleep in till 7.30am this morning.  Princess Kate was still sleeping, so I had a shower and made my way downstairs to the common room to keep plodding on with My Photos of the Day series.  Once I start something I need to see it through to the end and it can’t wait a few days it is now, now, now.  So I was on a mission this morning to create new Facebook Albums (which I am sure FB are cringing that I could possibly have more photos) and I am going to do the pictures in continents and I am literally picking a photo for every single day I have been away.  So once the folders were done and I had uploaded them all into their respective series, I then, using my diary, worked out what days were missing a photo and I will need to go back to my SD cards and then pull out the missing days.  All in all there are 36 days missing which isn’t too bad I don’t rekon. My SD cards are all labeled and looking at the day and what we did, I know where to find them, it is a matter of just scrolling through the 1600 pictures I have on each card.  So needless to say that kept me busy till 11.30am.  It’s nice to have the time to do it.  Kate had come down and was watching the Australian Open tennis final with a bunch of other people and it was weird to hear the commentating in Spanish.  How old is Rod Laver looking these days and what was with that blue bowtie?

Going from previous days a lot of the restaurants don’t start serving food/lunch till 12 noon.  We were heading to the San Telmo markets to spend the afternoon down there and they didn’t start till 11am.  We had to pass ‘our’ restaurant again to get to San Telmo so we planned on having lunch there, say hi to our mates and then keep walking to the markets.  You can imagine our surprise when we came out of the hotel and the normally very busy pedestrian mall had 3 people in it.  Obviously Buenos Aires is a day of rest on a Sunday with only a handful of shops open it was literally like a ghost town, it was just missing the tumble weeds.  It was a little surreal after seeing the mall with hundreds of people each day to come out and find 3 people.  Well there may have been more than 3, but hardly anyone compared to what there normally is.  It’s a good thing that the group gets into town tomorrow, on a Monday, rather than arrive today to not much atmosphere.  There wasn’t even much traffic on the roads and we could stand in the middle of the 8 lane street and get some great photos of the Casa Rosada (Pink Palace) and also the other end of the Obelisk.  It was actually quite nice to be able to walk around and not having to worry about dodging people, people banging into you or people stopping right in front of you…..

The walk to the San Telmo markets, which are only on Sundays, was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel but boy it was a hot day today.  They were predicting 36C and I rekon we were pretty close to that by 1.30pm.  It is a dry heat though, so it could be a lot worse if you threw in humidity, so we were lucky there, but man it was hot and Kate kept reminding me every 10 minutes that she was hot.  I told her I didn’t want to hear her complain as the first 2 months she has been saying she couldn’t wait for the warmer weather, well sister it’s here!!  It was HOT though in Kate defence.

San Telmo is the oldest barrio (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires.  It is a well-preserved area of the Argentine metropolis and is characterized by its colonial buildings. Cafes, tango parlors and antique shops that line the cobblestone streets, which are often filled with artists and dancers.    Known for its bohemian charm, and slightly run down historic appeal, San Telmo is the neighborhood of Arts and Antiques, Tango and timelessness. San Telmo is energy-filled, quaint and funky on any day of the week, but on Sundays it truly comes to life. Centered around the Antiques Fair in Plaza Dorrego, and stretching down the cobblestone Calle Defensa. 

Artisans, musicians, street performers, and elderly antiques vendors come from near and far to share their treasures and their talents with the public. Start at the antiques market, which overflows in the Plaza Dorrego. From jewelry and dresses, to army helmets and tango records, you could spend hours sorting through the plethora of ancient goods. Even if antiques aren’t your thing, exploring the market is like having a key to your grandmother’s attic, or a window into Argentina’s past. If you aren’t satisfied with what is on offer in the Plaza, stroll down Defensa and there are dozens of well-established and stylish Antique stores to cater to your desires.  Calle Defensa, San Telmo’s main drag, becomes a pedestrian nightmare for most of the day on Sunday. You can take a long and mellow stroll down this classic street, and enjoy all that it has to offer in peace. Musicians and artists set up all along the avenue, from full scale Tango orchestras to solitary singers and everything in between. The traditional bevy of street artists are there to entertain, human statues painted in gold, clowns on stilts, and the most entertaining, the man caught in the storm, complete with blowing jacket and inverted umbrella.

Arts and crafts from local artisans are for sale up and down the strip and are fun to peruse. Dozens of artists set up on Humberto Primo, running west of Plaza Dorrego, selling every manner of Tango art, paintings, pictures, sculptures, etc. And in a warehouse space, off the corner of the plaza, you can find inexpensive and handmade clothes, great for updating your wardrobe with typical Argentine fashions.

It was pretty cool, the only bummer that there wasn’t any shade when on Calle Defensa so with the sun beating down and walking on the old cobblestones it was a mission to spend any length of time at any of the stalls.  Even the merchandise, after sitting in the sun was too hot to touch with some of the jewelry when picked up was scorching.  At one point we were on a little rise of the road and we could see all the way to the end of the street, like 1km away, and it was just packed with people!  It was a pretty cool sight to see. 

I bought a leather diary cover and I nearly bought a coin bracelet, but 60AUD was a little steep I thought, even though what he had done with the coins was amazing.  The faces or pictures were cut out of the coin with the outside of the pictures removed.  He had all types of country’s coins and he even had an Australian 50 cent piece with the Kangaroo and the Emu with the coat of arms cut, it looked pretty cool, but I said I would have a think about it and I never returned.  So after spending nearly 2 hours at the markets we decided to toughen up and we walked back to the hotel to get out of the sun and with nothing else open it really was a day of rest for us as well. 

We tried dinner at a different restaurant tonight and then it was back to the hotel for the night.  The group arrives tomorrow, so it will be good to see them again.  Kate and I feel refreshed and recharged to tackle the next 14 days till we get to Rio.  It really was the best thing we could have done.  It will be interesting to see how the guys went on that section and if missed out on anything.  I hope not.   

OUR BLUDGE DAY IN BUENOS AIRES

WEATHER: HOT and 36C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Speaking to Zeme  

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing

WORD OF THE DAY: I LOVE BA  

Today was a bludge day.  No consulates to visit, no jobs to be done.  It is a Saturday and Kate and I briefly thought about doing one of the hostel pub crawls that was on tonight at 10pm, but we both know we will be buggered and not make it, but it was a plan.

With no alarm set again, my body clock woke me up at 6.30am and with the sunlight streaming straight into our room it was tough to get back to sleep, so I decided to shower and change and leaving a note for Kate went downstairs to spend some time on the computer.  7am in a hostel in Buenos Aires is a quite affair, so I decided to try and call Zeme from the hotel phones.  For whatever reason, I think it maybe the carrier they use, I couldn’t get through, but at least I tried and I will try again later when we head out for lunch.

I checked my blog this morning and I have had 24,999 hits on it since leaving home 10 months ago and I am chuffed that I am still getting so many people coming back to read my stuff.  When I first started the blog I would have never have thought that I would get so many people following my journey, but I am glad, as it keeps me enthused to keep it up to date, which is a good thing as I will have something pretty impressive to read once my Odyssey comes to end, whenever that will be.  I am thinking of keeping my blog going once I move to Ethiopia and write about the highs and hopefully the not too many lows on integrating myself into a new culture, a new home with a new man.  I know I won’t be writing a daily post, but I think it will be interesting for people to know about how things work in a different country and as unusual as Ethiopia.  What do you think?  So even though my travel odyssey may close, or not be as jammed pack, as I am sure we will still be travelling, I will still be able to keep in touch with the world with some African stories.  I am sure I am going to have some crackers as I try and also learn their language called Amharic, which is a little like Arabic and it is written with Cyrillic letters, so I will have a tough road ahead that is for sure.  I know I have said it several times before, but thank-you to the people who read my blog and come back and I know it has been referred a lot as well.  It is a labor of love and me and my little laptop and my trusty notebook will continue to share the world with you where we can.  BlogSpot is an awesome host.  It is very user friendly and they give you a whole bunch of stats that you can always look at, from where the traffic is coming from, where the clicks are coming from, the stats can be found on a now, this week, this month and all time basis and also which blogs have been the most read.  So the top five blog entries are: 

BIG CITY, BOYFRIEND, SEATING SAGAS AND GOODBYES

http://berniesworldodyssey.blogspot.com/2012/01/big-city-boyfriend-seating-saga-and.html

WELCOME TO THE LAND OF KEBAB YIROS AND GYROS

http://berniesworldodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/06/welcome-to-land-of-kebab-yiros-and.html

EKATERINBURG – MILITARY VERSUS ROMANOV’S

http://berniesworldodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/04/ekaterinburg-military-versus-romanovs.html

GOODBYE TO MY SPANISH CONTIKI-ERS

http://berniesworldodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/06/goodbye-to-my-spanish-contiki-ers.html

A NIGHT SPENT IN A MONGOLIAN GER

http://berniesworldodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/04/night-spent-in-mongolian-ger.html

So some surprises there for 4 of the top 5.  But interesting all the same.

Since my blog was up to date and all my pictures were loaded up, I thought I better put some work into my actual blog site, tabs, information and pictures that have been long neglected.  As I now have time and great internet speed.  So I was updating and busy loading all my Bernstar jumps, I had a look at my Photo of the Day album that was also quite far behind with photos only loaded to Madagascar, which was day 175, and I am currently up to day 306 of my trip.  So I needed to find 131 of my best pictures from each day.  The annoying thing is I have corrupted my external hard drive where all my photos had been saved, categorized into countries and then days, so I had to put in the raw mini SD cards, that has all the original photos, in their original format that haven’t been turned, cropped or touched and look for the best ones that way.  So you can imagine the time it takes to trawl through my thousands of photos to get the ‘winning’ pictures.  TIME CONSUMING.  But the longer I leave it the BIGGER the job will get, so I stuck with it and I think I now have all my days accounted for.  I am still thinking of a way to categorize them all and I think I put them into Continent albums.  That will make them nice and easy to look at, a lot more work for me as I will have to download and reload what I currently have into new albums, but I think that will be a nifty way for people to look at them.  I will save that job for tomorrow though, as it was 10.30am when Princess Kate arrived into the common room where we started to plan our day. 

I wanted to speak to Zeme today, so we headed out from the hotel to look for a cabina that would work to start with and then we were going to have a bite to eat and then attack the rest of the day.  I have worked out the Claro (phone company) doesn’t let me  call out to Ethiopia, but I have found there are cabina’s that use another phone company called Telefonica, and I can get through with them.  It does take a few tries to get through to Ethiopia, I find this all the time, no matter what country I have been in, but by the third or fourth try I normally get through.  Patience is of a virtue making these calls and just makes you think that we take something as simple as making a phone call for granted back home.  I think that is where my frustration lays; I’m not used to it.  So the good news is that Zeme's passport went in yesterday to the Brazil Consulate, Friday, and will be back in 5-6 working days.  Thank goodness it is finally in.  That will give him a week to get his visa for Venezuela when he gets his passport back from Brazil, which apparently they won’t need all that time and then he will be on a jet plane to Rio!!  So that is awesome news and has put my mind to rest.  There are only 19 days till I see him, which is 18 days till he leaves and I know it will be here before we both know it!

There was a jewelry shop that Kate’s mum had recommended so we were going to have a look at that and if we ran out of things to do, we had checked the movie times for Sherlock Holmes and we would head back to the river front if we didn’t find something better.  After finding the shop, we were lucky we didn’t have to walk too far as it was on our street, Florida, but it was closed.  I think it may have been a blessing in disguise, as they looked like they had some nice stuff through the window, and I got to keep some money in my purse for a while longer. 

We were starting to get hungry as we had skipped breakfast when Kate piped up about eating at TGI Fridays which we saw on our last taxi ride along the river front a few days ago.  What a great idea, I was starting to think about their potato skins and the large Kahlua milk shake things you can get from there as well.  Yeah let’s have TGI Fridays for lunch.  So we hailed a taxi, which I have to say is never an issue getting one in this city, and paid the very worth it 5AUD to get us to the waterfront.  It has been so hot the last few days with temperatures around the 35C.  It is a dry heat, but it’s still bloody hot and there isn’t a cloud in the sky to even give you a small reprieve, so we are also getting some colour as we do all our walking.  I had the cinema address written down in my notebook so we got dropped down there again not knowing what number TGI Fridays was, but we knew we saw it along here somewhere, how far can it be?  It was a little like Newfarm where they have converted wharf sheds into shops, restaurants and a Catholic University.  So we walked and walked and walked and after 25 minutes walking we decided it was a little further than first thought and with a time to keep of a 2.30pm for the movie, we turned around and went to one of the 50 restaurants we passed in the hunt for TGI Fridays. The restaurant we picked was a pasta pizza set up that had river views, so we had a leisurely lunch in the shade as we watched people walk the boardwalk and a single rower rowing back and forth up and down the river.  The beauty of this restaurant was it had free Wi-Fi, a great waiter who spoke enough English and kept on bringing out stacks of ice for our drinks and it was right next door to the cinema.

It is a pretty cool movie theater and to ask for tickets in Spanish for Sherlock Holmes was Sherlock Holmes, not too hard this time.  We decided not to buy the popcorn package this time as I was not sure after a chicken Caesar salad for lunch with some calamari rings that I could eat a monster bag again, so I went for the mini monster (which wasn’t that much smaller) and a bigger drink and we had 5 minutes to spare till the start of the movie.  It’s all in the timing people, all in the timing.  The movie was great, but I still think that Tower Heist was better.  I am lucky as Kate and the guys have seen 2 other movies on the trip so far in Salta and Santiago and apparently they were both busts!!!

So back to the hotel and back to some more internet.  I kept plodding on with my Photo of the Day pictures and the updating of my blog till 8pm when we decided we better get something to eat but couldn’t be bothered going to a proper restaurant, so we walked 5 minutes out the front of the hotel and had Macca’s.  I know, I know again, but it is quick and simple and it was good and we were back again within 40 minutes.  A quick one sometimes is a good one.  That also included a stop at the Pharmacy to get some new shampoo and conditioner.  I have been using the same brand since July and I think my poor hair needs a change as it just has a mind of its own after it has been washed and feels like straw.  So I lashed out and bought Pantene, its only 2.50AUD a bottle here, so I doubly lashed out and bought a bottle of conditioner as well.  I haven’t even had a conditioner bottle in my toiletry bag since leaving home, so this will be a little luxury that I hope that my hair will enjoy! 

I was then up until midnight still pulling off photos from my thousands in preparation of loading them all in the morning pre-empting that my internal alarm clock would be getting me up and not letting me have a sleep in no matter how late you go to bed……  

Another glorious day in Buenos Aires 

OUR CITY TOUR OF BUENOS AIRES

WEATHER: Hot and 33C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing some more of Buenos Aires

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Trying to get credit on my UK sim card

WORD OF THE DAY: Its hot, hot hot today......  

We had to be ready by 9am this morning in reception for our pickup for the half day city tour.  We were feeling great that we were getting out and about more and looking forward to seeing all the colorful buildings at La Boca. 

Our first stop was Floralis Genérica is a sculpture made of steel and aluminum located in Plaza de las Naciones Unidas.  It was a gift to the city by the Argentine architect Eduardo Catalano. Catalano once said that the flower "is a synthesis of all the flowers and is both a hope that is reborn every day to open."  It was created in 2002. The sculpture moves closing its petals in the evening and opening them in the morning.  The sculpture is located in the center of a park of four acres of wooded boundaries, surrounded by paths that get closer and provide different perspectives of the monument, and placed above a reflecting pool, which apart from fulfilling its aesthetic function, protects it. It represents a large flower made of stainless steel with aluminum skeleton and reinforced concrete, which looks at the sky, extending to it its six petals. It weighs eighteen tons and is 23 meters high.  One of the characteristics of the flower is an electrical system that automatically opens and closes the petals depending on the time of the day. At night the flower closes, emanating a red glow from inside, and reopens ("...is reborn...") the following morning. This mechanism also closes the flower if strong winds blow.  It opens every morning at 8 and closes at sunset, on a schedule that changes according to season. When its petals were inaugurated, they didn't close due to technical problems which were solved two months later.  There are four special nights in which the petals are open: May 25, September 21, December 24 and December 31.  It was pretty cool but apparently the opening and closing function is broken again it stay permanently open at the current minute. 

We got a drive through the Recoleta, which is a downtown residential neighborhood in the city.  It is an area of great historical and architectural interest, due, particularly to the Recoleta Cemetery located there. It is also an important tourist destination and cultural center of the city.  It is also considered one of the more affluent neighborhoods, and the cost per square meter/foot of real estate is one of the highest in the city. 

From here we drove through Palermo.  It is located in the northeast of the city with a total area of 17.4 km²; Palermo is the largest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. As of 1991 it had a population of 256,927 inhabitants. The "Bosques de Palermo" (Palermo Woods) as is popularly known, on the north-east side of Palermo was inspired by the "Bois de Boulogne" in Paris and the Prater (or Vienna Meadow) in Vienna. It is the largest green area in the city of Buenos Aires.

We travelled along Avenida del Libertador, which is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires and it points north, extending 25 km from the Retiro District of Buenos Aires to the northern suburb of San Fernando.  It is one of the longest streets in the world.  We then arrived at The Plaza de Mayo which is the main square in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since being the scene of the 25 May 1810 revolution that led to independence, the plaza has been a hub of political life in Argentina.  Several of the city's major landmarks are located around the Plaza: the Cabildo (the city council during the colonial era), the Casa Rosada(home of the executive branch of the federal government), the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires, the May Pyramid, the Equestrian monument to General Manuel Belgrano, the current city hall or municipalidad, and the headquarters of the Nación Bank. The Buenos Aires financial district (microcentro), affectionately known as la City (sic) also lies besides the Plaza.  We got 20 minutes here to have a quick walk around and the most famous building being the pink Casa Rosada when Eva Peron did her famous waves from one of the balconies facing into the square.

Our next stop was at La Boca which is another neighborhood, or barrio of Buenos Aires.   It retains a strong European flavor, with many of its early settlers being from the Italian city of Genoa. In fact the name has a strong assonance with the Genoese neighborhood of Boccadasse, and some people believe that the Buenos Aires barrio was indeed named after it. The conventional explanation is that the neighborhood sits at the mouth ("boca" in Spanish) of the Riachuelo.  In 1882, after a lengthy general strike, La Boca seceded from Argentina, and the rebels raised the Genoese flag, which was immediately torn down personally by then President Julio Argentino Roca. 

The first stop in la Boca was at La Bombonera Stadium.  People on the tour got a chance to go inside if they wanted at an additional cost for 15 minutes, but we decided we didn’t love football that much and just walked around some of the shops they had outside the gates that were obviously geared for their teams colours.  It is known among sports fans that La Bombonera is the home of Boca Juniors, one of the world's best known football clubs. Club Atlético Boca Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Boca.  Although many activities are hosted by the club, Boca Juniors is mostly known for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División. Boca Juniors is the current champion of football in Argentina, and is historically considered one of the greatest football clubs in the world.  Boca Juniors is the most successful football team in Argentina and one of the most in the world, having won 51 official titles at the national and international level. Internationally, the team has won eighteen international titles, a record shared with A.C. Milan.

We then travelled 4 blocks, still in the La Boca neighborhood to see all the colorful houses and Pedestrian Street, and the most famous, the Caminito, where tango artists perform and tango-related memorabilia is sold.  It was quite busy here, with a lot of tourist’s busses coming and going, but we got 30 minutes to walk around and get some great photos with all the colours of the buildings it was like a photographer’s paradise.  So of the buildings are a little worse for wear and the area reminded me of a travelling show long forgotten or the streets of New Orleans.   There were markets, and tango dancers all vying for a photo opportunity, restaurants and shops all selling ‘tango’ related merchandise and lots and lots of local artesian selling all sorts of paintings, from oil, paint, 3D to framed and chalk.  It was a lively area but I am not sure I would want to be down here after dark.  As one of Buenos Aires's 48 barrios, La Boca is located in the city's south-east near its old port. In La Boca many of the residents are of mixed European descent. Mainly Italian, Spanish, German, French, Arab and Basque.

Back on the bus again, and we then travelled down Avenida 9 de Julio.  It is a wide avenue in the city and its name honors Argentina's Independence Day, July 9, 1816.  The avenue runs roughly 1 km to the west of the Río de la Plata Waterfront, from the Retiro district in the north to Constitución station in the south. The avenue has up to seven lanes in each direction and is flanked on either side by parallel streets of two lanes each.  The avenue's unusual width is because it spans an entire city block, the distance between two streets in the checkerboard pattern used in Buenos Aires. The distance between adjacent streets is roughly 110 m, greater than the equivalent distance in Manhattan, New York, USA.  The avenue was first planned in 1888, with the name of Ayohuma; but the road was long opposed by affected landlords and residents, so work did not start until 1935. The initial phase was inaugurated on 9 July 1937 and the main stretch of the avenue was completed in the 1960s. The southern connections were completed after 1980, when the downtown portion of the toll way system was completed. Clearing the right-of-way for these intersections required massive condemnations in the Constitución area.

Crossing the avenue at street level often requires a few minutes, as all intersections have traffic lights. Under normal walking speed, it takes pedestrians normally two to three green lights to cross it. Some urban planners have submitted projects to move the central part of the avenue underground to alleviate the perceived "chasm" between the two sides of the avenue.  Kate and I are going to see if we can make it over in one cross, which means we will have to run and also jaywalk across some of the lights.  Stay tuned and we will let you know if we can do it or not!  It is a damn bus road that is for sure.

It is on Avenida 9 de Julio that you can see and find The Obelisk of Buenos Aires.  It is a national historic monument and icon of the city.  Located in the Plaza de la República, in the intersection of avenues Corrientes and 9 de Julio, it was built to commemorate the fourth centenary of the first foundation of the city.  Construction began on March 20, 1936 and was inaugurated on May 23 of the same year. It was designed by architect Alberto Prebisch (one of the main architects of the Argentine modernism who also designed the Teatro Gran Rex, in Corrientes and Suipacha) at the request of the mayor Mariano de Vedia y Mitre. For its construction, which cost 200,000 pesos, 680 m³ of concrete and 1360 m² of Olaen white stone from Córdoba were used.  The obelisk was built by the German company Siemens Bauunion - Grün & Bilfinger, which completed its work in a record time of 31 days, with 157 workers. The rapid hardening Incor cement was used and was built in sections of 2 meters to facilitate the dumping of concrete.  Its height is 67.5 m, and 63 m of these are up to the initiation of the apex, which is 3.5 m by 3.5 m. The tip is blunt, measuring 40 cm and ends in a lightning rod that cannot be seen because of the height, whose cables run through the interior of the obelisk.  It has only one entrance (in its west side) and on its top there are four windows, that can only be reached by a straight staircase of 206 steps with 7 breaks every 8–6 m.

So this pretty much concluded the city tour at 1.30pm.  We got dropped off at the Obelisk, as we had to may hay to the Paraguay Consulate before they closed at 3pm.  With another 20 minute walk under our cap, we made it to the consulate and only after a 20 minute wait we had our passports and our Paraguay visa tucked safely in our bags.  That is the last visa I need to pre-get, besides my US visa waiver when I head to the States in May and I believe we need a visa for Venezuela, but this can be done on the border as we enter.  Goodbye Consulates.  I WILL not miss dealing with you.  Oh my next dealings will be with the Ethiopian Consulate in Melbourne in July, but they seemed quite helpful and I am hoping things will be pretty straight forward there, but knowing consulates this may not always be the case but I do have a god vibe about them.

Since I made the call back home a few days ago to the girls it sucked all my credit out of my UK sim account.  As Paul and Liz are still currently travelling on the truck, I have lost my ‘credit line’ of getting money onto my account.  So I messaged Em and Paps in the UK and also Dave in Ireland to see if they could pop some credit onto my card for me, which I got replies back from both of them that the system wouldn’t let them do it.  Oh for God’s sake.  Thanks for trying guys, and I still have Paps on the case for me but how hard can it be to get some bloody credit onto a mobile phone?  So I am credit less at the moment and not liking the feeling of not being able to send text messages.  I checked at a few phone shops here on the way back and there are only certain shops that sell the pre-paid sims here and with only another week in Argentina I need to weight up if it is worth the bother.  Damn UK sim card.

The afternoon was spent blogging and I am happy to say I am now UP TO DATE!  The Wi-Fi at the hostel is amazing, considering they have 20 computers that always seem to be busy and a damn lot of people all on the Wi-Fi, they must have some sized account is all I can say.  I was able to load today’s photos, punch out a few messages, emails and generally just have a play around on the internet which is a luxury when you are travelling as most sites are not this good.  I still rekon the internet access I had in Vic Falls and Cape Town have been the best and fastest on my whole trip.  This is the way of the world now. 

So another day down and we have some cruisy days ahead, with a little shopping, a visit to the San Telmo markets on Sunday and the group arriving Monday afternoon, we are now in chill mode as we have seen just about all the sites that BA has to offer.  Barr the museums of course, but we really aren’t museum goers, so this isn’t on our hit list.  I am thinking of getting my haircut as I am getting a little bushy and maybe my eyebrows waxed, but otherwise we were talking about seeing another movie and just chillaxing. 

Its buenos nachos from me and buenos nachos from Kate in Buenos Aires.