Journey to Iguazu

Hello and welcome to my first post. It's Saturday 31st October and we're currently 13.5 hours into our 17 hr bus journey. We've woken up to another glorious morning in Argentina. Now I know what you're thinking, the bus sounds HIDEOUS but this is no ordinary bus. Think closer to Business Class on a plane rather than the school trip to Germany!

On rather interesting discovery is that if you sit for this long without really moving, your feet swell up like a couple of balloons (very attractive I'm sure you'll agree. Apologies for the photo but seeing is believing).






(this one's for you Zoe!)

Today we're heading to see one of the top ten wonders of the world; Iguazu Falls. It's 24 stories high and 2.2 miles wide. It spans Brazil and Argentina, we're off to experience it from the Argentina side today and if we have time Brazil tomorow. It's set right in the heart of a big national park so there's plenty of other stuff to see and do there other than the Falls. If you're really 'lucky' you can come face to face with a wild big cat. Their advice is to try and seem as big and confident as you can and to stay calm. I'm fairly sure that's easier said than done.

More to come later...
-- Posted from Miranda's iPhone

29th/30th October - BA

Yesterday we explored the ciudad (city) some more.

Our next scheduled flight from is from Sao Paulo to Bogota on Nov 17th, and we've a number of places we want to see before then (Iguazu Falls/Florianopolis/Rio). Yesterday after strolling the streets and spending some time kicking back in the park, we went about planning our escape from BA... For this we needed to locate the retiro (station).

The station area is a particularly busy "in your face" area, here we found plenty of traders and truckstop style snackstops. I'd read about some of the street food on offer, and under recommendation of Lonely Planet ordered a Carne Empanada (basically a small (Cornish) Beef Pasty) at San Maria cafe. We instantly took a liking to these little things, I think one of them and 2 drinks came to 8 pescos (£1.20).

I digress, we got supreme tickets with Viabariroche for 270 pescos (£45), the service includes a hot dinner (which was good) and breakfast, with inclusive drinks. It's a good 1000 miles/17hrs (approx) so decided to upgrade the seats, basically fully reclining armchairs... We managed to bag the front seats on top deck!

So after that we headed home and decided to take the tube (confusing), where we happily stumbled into some 9st drunk retard who after briefly saying "hello" and offering me some of his beer, decided to stand repeatedly in front of the tube map. I'd be a liar if I said I didn't want to manually move him!

Anyway, we got back to San Telmo and decided to have a drink (see yesterdays post), £3 a cocktail, yaaaaar!

Now at Dorrengo Plaza (famous square), we bumped into 2 Americans (that we saw at the last bar, but hadn't spoke to). So suffice to say they were camper than a row of tents, but we shared a laugh, Miranda had eaten at this guys favourite restuarant in NY, which they found funny. It turned out they weren't a couple, but one guy had clear intentions. We kinda felt for the guy... lol.

As it turned out, while we talked about Ab Fab and Yorkshire Pudding an artist called Frazer was sketching the four of us. He approached us, and we sent him away, we felt kinda bad so Miranda went and spoke to him, he came and finished the sketch whilst we looked through his portfolio. We decided to enquire about another sketch in his 'folio. As it transpired the picture was one he drew retrospectively after a night with a Ballerina... We liked it and ended up paying 45 pescos (£6), just need a bathroom to hang them in now heh.

Dinner tonight was Steak (it's everywhere) at Desnivel (Defensa Av), sort of place you'd never knowingly go to, but having read a few tips on tinterweb we went for it. Wow is all I can say... Seriously, steak in the UK just doesn't taste this good, in fact it's like comparing Corned Beef to a Fillet, we handed over our £15 and retired.

Today, was another scorcher. We ended up going on a tour bus, figured for £4 it was a good way to see the City as a whole, fortunately lunch consisted of a steak sandwich from a roadside parilla (restuarant), for £1.50 how could you not?




Observations of BA:
- Cheap.
- Wonderful Beef!
- They don't eat vegetables.
- Friendly city to walk around, slower than London.
- Some of the cars are deathtraps!
- Noticable (perceived) wealth differential.

Next up... Iguazu/National Park.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Quick drink? No work... Sure!

Fresh from wondering the town in stifling 30+ degree heat, we decided to stop for a drink. More later...





Oh and one for Dan!





(Yes, they are my Jesus sandals!)

-- Posted from my iPhone

Test / Meal

So we just got back from Don Ernesto in San Telmo, we paid £11.50 each for a bottle of Malbec and a massive Steak... Can't go wrong, superb meat, muy bien!!

Half of the point of this post was to test the new Blog app on my iPhone, hopefully make it a little easier to post spontaneously - WIFI permitting.

Buenas noches!

Hola de Buenos Aires!

Well, we made it, and pretty much without a hiccup!

Our journey started at Heathrow airport at 9:25pm, we managed to arrive in plenty of time for the flight after the getting a lift down to with mi padre (my dad). We also managed to meet with Zoe and Nick, at which point we headed for some grub.

The plane departed a little late after some initial problems starting the propellers, luckily they managed to bodge it, so there wasn't too much of a delay. Actually the 747 was fine, though there were shades of irony after being excitedly told how much in-flight entertainment had moved on in the last 18 years (the last time I did longhaul) and finding the forking thing had conveniently broken for 90% of our 15 hour flight... luckily we both slept for a fair stretch of the flight. Four meals later, we arrived in Buenos Aires, after briefly touching down in a miserable looking Sao Paulo.

We managed to get a bus/taxi ride to our hostel (Carlos Gardel) for 70 pescos (£11 - 1 hour drive), take note Great Britain. On arriving we were greeted by a helpful girl, who showed us to our basic, but clean double room. After dropping our bags, we went for a walk in the local area (San Telmo, famed for cobbled old streets and Tango) before grabbing some lunch at a local Cafe and later heading to downtown (Florida Av.) and taking a look around the busy shopping district. Miranda successfully managed to grab herself a watch (hopefully she can stop being late now) and while handbags and leather goods are barato (cheap), watches are not... think 100% mark-up on UK prices!

We headed back to the hostel earlyish for a much needed shower (did I mention it was 25 degrees?), and while I now tap away, Miranda is doing what she does best and grabbing 40 winks. People apparently don't eat until around 10pm here, which is a little late, but I'd wait all day for a decent Steak and a bottle of Malbec...

Finally, we checked out the timescales today for travelling to Iguassu Falls, it's a 16 hour bus journey, the cost is £50 each (full reclining seats/beds, including dinner/breakfast).The plan I thnk is to spend another day/or two here in BA, then the following day take the bus to cataratas (waterfall) Iguazu. We'd also love to see a Polo game, and watch Boca play, but I guess it may all be weekend fare... Answers on a postcard!

Hope everybody is well at home, talk soon. But for now...

Reality check

Well, today was my final day of work for the next 6 months. Leaving my now familiar desk (and mug) was a little strange, very strange in fact! Nothing a few days in the Sun won't fix I hope...

Today I also needed to get my final jabs, pick up my Malaria tablets (I reckon £350 on jabs/meds so far) and buy a few other bits I'd neglected to buy... Yes, I'm the proud owner of some 'Jesus Sandals', sandals I'd promised myself I'd never wear!

Tonight we've spent the whole evening packing our stuff into boxes ready to move out tomorrow morning (the last morning we'll wake up in London until well into 2010). All pretty much sorted, bar the important bits like laptop, PS3 and TV. Speaking of which tonight was the first time I'd packed all my travel stuff into one bag... I think I need to prioritise, it's going to break my back!

Right, time for bed... actually no, time for another episode of Ultimate Fighter ;o)

First post...

Just a quick test run :o)