Backpacking

As we tend to like the tropics in summer, we experienced a LITTLE rain today! Luckily we were next to a bar when it started.... just as we sat down the rain poured down and soon the street was flooded!!! Local kids outside were standing on the chairs to avoid getting their feet soaked and the bar staff were frantically trying to stop the water coming in to the bar area! There was lots of lightening.... sheet lightening.... quite impressive!!!
Well we asked for a litre of cerveza and got comfy.... what else could we do!
Its just a shame we had left the camera at the hostel, thinking this would be an uneventful trip to the internet!!!

The next day we caught the bus back from sleepy little Puerto Iguazu to happening Buenos Aires! This was pretty uneventful, apart from the bus stopping every 100 miles or so, and the army boarding the bus twice to check for drugs and checking passports!! It was fine though and we got the usual looking after with plenty of vino tinto for Alan and vino blanco for steph!!!!

We arrived back in Buenos Aires and jumped in a taxi back to the hostel. The guy asked us if we´d like to put our bags in the back but we insisted on keeping them with us in the cab.... which was a good decision we think !!!

To get from Retiro to the hostel was a maximum $8 peso journey, however, by the time we arrived outside the hostel the meter was reading $18 pesos!!! We weren´t sure if there was an extra rate for a sunday, so although we knew it was more expensive we gave the taxi man two $10 peso notes. Now we´d heard of the scams that the taxi drivers try on tourists... so when the man showed me one of "alleged" ten peso notes I´d given him indicating it was a forgery... we were taken aback and after some too-ing and fro-ing we eventually got out of the taxi and had told the git to F off (in not so many words!) He mumbled something when we got out and that was that.

It´s only 10 pesos we know, however, it´s a point of the matter that he tried to indicate that we´d given him a forgery! Rogue or what!

Anyway, we got back in the hostel and checked into our room... which had a fan in it this time we were glad to see!

We then went down stairs and met up with Bert and Ans, a dutch couple we´d met earlier whilst in BA. We were sat downstairs chatting when we heard a bang outside... we thought nothing of it until Ans pointed out that there was a load of smoke passing the window. We looked outside and right by the obelisk in the centre of town a car was on fire!!! Within seconds the fire engines were hurtling down the street and having grabbed our camera to get some priceless shots of Avenida Corrientes empty apart from a flaming car we watched as the fire service guys put the fire out.

Eventful start to BA again or what !!!

We then decided to go shopping for some last minutes things before we went out for tea and got ready to head to Puerto Madryn the following day.

We were walking down Av Florida (the main shopping concourse) when suddenly, a motorbike shot past us, almost running over Steph´s foot! We thought this was strange until hot on it´s heals was a gun toting Policeman... cocked and ready to fire!

We watched as the police sped down the streets after the hoodlums... however... it wasn´t until we got to another street that we saw the guys on the motorbike had been apprehended... and more surprisingly... were still alive!

Now don´t get us wrong... Although Steph wasn´t too enamoured with Ba, Alan thought it was OK (like any other city in the world!) just a few more guns.. rogues and fortunately police!

So we´ve now pretty much done BA and so we leave tomorrow for Puerto Madryn to meet up with the Welsh who migrated there a century or two ago... Steph can´t wait .... NOT!

We stayed at the hostel Iguazu... which the night we arrived seemed to be the partry place in town... which after a 17 hour bus drive... we could do without!

We dropped our bags and went for a nosey around town!

Puerto Iguazu is a lovely little town and we felt secure and safe around the place!

As a result, we stopped and had something to eat in town in a little restaurant and then walked home later that evening.

The Hostel had quietened the next day as a group of Brits and Israeli´s had left which meant the hostel was much, much more quiet.

The girl at reception was brilliant and told us all the options we had for Iguazu (both the Brazilian and the Argentinian) and the relative costs of each... cheap Options included. If we needed to reserve anything we could do it with her.... however... there was no overhead with this and she´d also quite happily cancel anything we´d booked with a phone call should we change our minds.

So we booked for the next day to go to the Argentinian side of the falls.

The yellow bus left from the bus station at 7:30am... and every half hour thereafter. We caught the first one and got to the falls just as it was opening! We payed our $30 each and then went into a relatively quiet park (This would change as the day progressed!)

We jumped on the little train to the first stop and then walked along a gang way to view the falls!

They were fantastic! and since it was early morning... we had them pretty much to ourselves!

We spent the rest of the day walking around and viewing the numerous water falls in the park before we headed down to the Island in the centre of the falls from where we were to get our Jet Boat Tour "under" the falls which we´d bought from the girl in reception!

This was brilliant and relatively cheap $45 peso´s per person, however it was fairly short lived (some 15 minutes) however we were thoroughly soaked, having been dunked under two water falls! They luckily gave us a water proof bag for our stuff, and Steph got to use her xmas present from me... the Underwater bag for her camera... which I´m happy to say worked perfectly!

After a long day at the falls we decided to head home at about 4pm and then on the way out got out tickets stamped, which meant we had the option to return another day for only $15 pesos!

So we´re now ready to head off... where ???

Hmm.... We´ve agreed to travel up to Iguazu (while we´re on the East coast of Argentina) and then we´re going to travel back down south heading towards ushuaia (ready to pick up the boat on the 28th)

To get anywhere in Argentina... you either fly (exensive) or you can get an overnight bus (less expensive)

So we´re getting the overnight bus from Buenos Aires to Iguiazu (some 17hours on a bus!)

Lubkily over here though it´s not like jumping on a Greyhound or a National Express bus and they offer different classes of seat.

Semi-Cama, Cama and Cama Superior!

Cama is Castellano for bed... so you should be able to work it out for yourselves what sort of seats each is.

We´re going Cama class as the journey´s so long!

costs are $160 one way each which works out about 26 pounds sterling (which I´m assured is far more expensive than it was about two or three years ago!) Obviously the bus companies have cottened onto the fact that all these gringo´s visiting south America can afford the extra costs.. seems a pity for the locals though!

Anyway, so we´ve got our tickets purchased already. We´ve packed up and we know how to get to Retiro (buenos Aires bus Station)

Now all we´ve got to do is make sure we don´t get scammed before we get to our hostel tomorrow morning!

Unfortunately for us the football season doesn´t start for another four weeks or so.... so we decided to take a tour of the Boca Juniors Stadium which is in the district of Boca.

Having read the tour giudes and heard the stories.. you would believe that Boca is the Baghdad of Buenos Aires... so Armed with a 6 foot cousin of Steph´s and his girlfriend as support the three of us decided to walk from Centro BA, down through San Telmo and into Boca.

Having walked for some twenty minutes, we thought we were beginning to get lost as we´d not seent he stadium yet and the areas we were walking through were becoming less pleasant.
Suddenly we stumbled upon some playing fields and in the distance was the Stadium!!!

We arrived and we´d timed it brilliantly as the stadium tour in Englishwas about to start and so we bought our tickets ($15 peso´s) each and wandered around all the Maradona and Boca parafanalia.

The man is a legend in his own right in terms of footballing genius... however... down here.... the man´s a god! Statues, pendents, photo´s, shirts, t'shirts... you can practically get anything you wanted with a little magicians cheesy grin plastered all over it!

So... our tour guide arrived and everyone gathered together for the tour.... there were about fifty or so people all clustered together ready and waiting for the tour to start.... however.. our tour guide was waving us through.... through to where??? so, apologetically and to the disgust of those true avid Argentinian Boca fans, we were hearded to the front of the rabble.. and then off in the direction of the stadium.

I could feel the eyes burning my back as we slid away to begin, what turned out, to be our own private tour of the stadium!

Our guide was very congenial and spoke English very well...

He sat us down in the exectuive section of the stadia overlooking the pitch and explained some of the finer points of the history and construction, consequent destruction, consequent reconstruction, consequent proposed redevelopment, consequent proposed relocation, consequent deadlock and finally consequent expansion of the stadium.

here´s some interesting facts about the place :

At the top of the third tier the stadium currently moves 4cm during a game due to the fans bouncing up and down.

Boca is the team of the workers

River is the team of the bosses

They were once the same team and then decided to split.

They played each other for their red shirt colours. River won.

Three years later they played each other for the Stadium. Boca Won.

Since Boca had no shirt... they went down to the docks and agreed that whichever ship came into dock next.. they would use it´s colours on their shirt... The ship that docked next was from Sweden hence the Blue and Gold.

Never describe their shirt as blue and yellow... It´s GOLD !!! as I found out to my cost!

Coca Cola had to change perhaps one of the most famous logo´s in the world so as to not have any red in it (River Plate´s shirts are red!) Coca Cola is written in white on a black background.

In a local derby some years ago the River Manager found himself getting wet as a result of some "over exuberance" on behalf of the Boca fans and as a result needed to have a special plastic cover put over his bench on the sidelines. However, just incase any of the local fans couldn´t see where he would be anymore... they put the Managers Name on the top of the plastic to allow the Local fans to "take aim" a bit better

When they knocked down the old stadium to build a new one.. some of the fans started to buy bits of the old stadium from the builders. The owners cottened onto this and them sold the stadium for $1 a block.

They made $6 million pesos.

The New stadium only cost $5 million pesos.

Boca Stadium is for the fans and is owned by the fans.... never have I heard something that´s so true with regards to football Stadiums!

I loved the place and would highly recommend either going to a game or if not, doing the Stadium tour! There people down here are mad !!!!

I´ve actually started to really enjoy BA and like anywhere in the world (especially cities) once you become familiar with them... their appeal begins to grow and you also begin to feel far more at home.

Buenos Aires is a lovely city. It has it´s problems and dodgy areas, however, which city doesn´t?

We met Steph´s cousin (who was travelling with his girlfriend and happened to be staying here in BA) Dave and Katie had been here a month and to be honest were god sends when it came to shedding a different light on Buenos Aires.

They´d rented a flat and as such were more like locals than anything. As a result we got to ask them all those important questions that had been running through our minds....

1. How much does the bus cost?
Ans: 80c to anywhere in the city (you put it in the mahcine when you board)

2. Why do the kids walk around in the evening collecting rubbish?
Ans: As the government pay them to collect the plastic and cardboard and take it to the recycling plant where they get some money (Not much I expect though)

3. What´s "Que Bos" mean?
Ans: The Linguistics in BA are funny with LL´s being pronounced Sh in Castellano (Latin American Spanish) as opposed to "ja" as in European Spanish. Also in Castallano there´s no "tu" for you... instead you use "Vos" for you.
And so ... the answer is, in reply to being asked Que Tal? or Como Esta? you reply "Bien Gracias, Que Vos" meaning "fine thanks.. and you?"

4. How much is a beer?
Ans: ranges between $3.50 for a Chop (a chop is about a half pint in a handled glass) to $6, $7 for a Litre bottle of Quilmes (the local Lager)...
current Ex Rate : 1 pound Stirling = $6 pesos

5. What´s with the dollar sign?
The Argentinian Peso also uses the Dollar sign and once you´re here, everything is in peso´s. Forget USD etc.
The Lonely planet makes it very misleading as to how useful the USD is, however from our experience, hostels, restaurants, and tourist tours all prefer Peso´s and you´re less likely to get ripped off or highlighted as a "gringo" also

6. Taxis.... well we thought they were all fine, until we recently got one from Retiro to the Hostel and he charged quite a bit on the meter... which was about twice what it normally was... I gave him two 10 peso notes for the fare and he then did a quick swap of one and tried to infer that I´d given him a photocopy!!! and a bad one at that !!!!
Now since I´d seen him try the quick swap option I told him "No Entiendo"!!!
To which I got a blank response and then he tried it again.... to which I replied "No Entiendo!"
After about five time of this, he eventually gave up on his little scam and We got out of the taxi! Imagine if I´d really given him a forgery!!! He´d have been ranting and raving and taken me to the nearest police oifficer.... which he didn´t!
So the moral..... if they try this with you... act dumb and eventually they give up!!!

unfortunately, Dave and Katie had to head off to Uruguay last Friday... so we joined them for a night out on the Wednesday (which lasted til 6am) and then the next day, Dave, Katie and I went to the Boca Juniors Stadium (Steph stayed in bed all day... apparently she´d eaten something that had disagreed with her the night before.... yeh right..... eaten far too many vodka´s I reckon!)