I have just arrived in Chile after spending 4 or 5
days in Argentina. The reason I cannot work out exactly the number is
because a 12 hour time shift plus lots of late night drinks has thrown
off the remnants of the body clock I thought I had. Firstly let m
comment on the the city of Argentina: architecturally the city seems to
be quiet old there are lots of old buildings with a bit more character
than the normal concrete jungle. I suspect that many of the buildings
are the original ones- but what do I know! The city seems to have a few
main arterial roads each six to seven lanes that cut through the city in
multiples of roughly 20- 30 square blocks. there are some bike paths on
a few roads but no the majority of them. in fact biking is relativly
unheard of or not done- which i found strange seening it was nice flat
terrain. I would have thought bikes would have been an ideal method of
transport. The traffic is fairly hectic and people seem to have the
habit of leaning on their car horns for an extended period of time when
they are stuck in one spot for to long. Whether it is the car in fronts
fault or not, they love to use the ole horn that's for sure!
The people of argentine are a mixed bunch. I couldn't day it was the
most accessible place for non Spanish speakers, it was pretty often that
shop owners and and some resturants would make you feel like an idiot
rather than trying to help. But saying that I could imagine it would be
even worse for a non english speaker in Perth or prob Australia for that
point.
One of the most interesting thing i did while in Argentina was a
street art tour. a group of us got bikes and went around with a English
bloke who volunteered in some official leg of the Argentinian street art
scene. the tour was the good part of a day and we got to explore most
of the city via bike as well as getting to see some very impressive
street art. because a lot of the art reflected the culture and political
environment of argintina both (present and past) it was as much of a
history tour as it was a art tour. I learnt alot about the very
turbulent history of argintina and some of its more darker periods where
many people were killed for speaking out against their leaders. i took
the gopro out for a while during the tour also so should have some good
fottage to check out when i get home, and also aaron was manning the SLR
for theday.
On this same day i also learnt and tried mate´(pronounced marrtayy).
it is a herbal tera type drink thatis traditional in many parts of south
america and pople carry around their mate leaves (looks like marajuina)
as well as a flask of hot water and mix them together in a special cup
and drink it. it was explained to us as being a very social thing where
the host (the one carrying the gear) firstly makes themselves a drink,
then sharesd it with all other people around, same cup samemate leaves
and everything.
I havent really touched on my condition to date.In the space of
roughly 5 days I have gone from full health to having a sleep
deprecating and a bit if a cough then to having a full chest cold and
hallucinating from lack of sleep. To put it in perspective I was having
those micro sleep things you get when your really tired while standing
at a sth American national soccer game amongst the supporters. the time
zone changes was masssive and really difficult to aclimatise to. this
also doesnt help when you stay up all night drinking! the Ok so the
hostel was a major party hostel in argentine and it was normal to get to
bed at 6 am. There were massive "predrinks" session at the hostel and
then at 2am you left to go out! Shit is crazy. So three days in a row I
ended up getting home at almost 8 am. One day I actually grabbed the
breakfast before going to bed for a few hours. In all seriousness tho it
has taken it's toll substantially and now I prob have to have a few
days off the booze totally with some early nights too.
While in BA I met and hung around with a couple of chicks from Sydney
and we went to the tourist area of la boca where there were the more
stereotypical Argintinian things like tango, leather shops etc. The
brigtly colored houses make for a good picture however you have to pay
to have a photo taken in one of those wooden characture cutouts.
In summary, i really liked Beunos Airiesand iwould love to come back with a bit more spanish under my belt.
