Buenos Aires

The spirit of Tango, Evita, and Maradona is well and truly alive in the streets of Buenos Aires. The city is incredible, with enough culture and nightlife to rival any city anywhere on the planet. The inhabitants of BsAs sure know how to enjoy life, dinner consisting of a huge steak, salad, red wine or beer doesn't begin until 10pm with non stop partying till the early hours. How they actually get any work done during daylight hours is beyond me. It's probably why the banks open at 10am and promptly close at 3pm. BsAs really belongs in the grouping of Paris, Barcelona and Rome, but it is stuck at the bottom end of South America and the locals seem generally pissed off about the whole thing. How it is possible to financially ruin a country that is self-sufficient in energy and agriculture is beyond me and a good porportion of the Argentinian population agree. Most Argentinians walk around with a rather large chip on their shoulder, but who can blame them. They have definitely been dealt the sort end of the stick by political incompetence, but are slowly and surely pulling themselves back up.
On recommendation from Matt Springate we found lodging in the San Telmo suburb of BsAs and it was superb. A very cool and hip hostel only minutes from an overflowing selection of bars and restuarants. On our first night we met Fay and Jamie, friends from England, and took in a positively tacky Tango show. Full of high-slit dresses and knowing looks the tango show was everything that a tourist show could be, but it was still fun and afterwards we headed to one of BsAs famous parillas (aka carnivore heaven) for steak. San Telmo is the birthplace of tango and can be seen live in many bars and restuarants in the area. However, the best place to see tango is on Sunday when the Plaza Dorrego holds it weekly antiques market. Enterprising locals put on free tango shows in the street, all for a little spare change in the hat.

The nightlife in BsAs is legendary and we managed to sample a bit of it on a few nights. In our old age a big night out takes days to get over so we didn't indulge everynight. A couple days before leaving we met up with Johan, a nomadic Norwegian who used to work with Leighanne in London. He now as the lifestyle everyone dreams off living in one of the worlds great cities. He has the envious job of writing articles for international and local papers and magazine on the best of BsAs culture, entertainment and sports. Can you believe people actually get paid to do this? We met him out in Palermo for a few seemingly simple drinks, but didn't manage to get home till 4am.
Football in all of South America is passionate to say the lest, one only needs to remember the fate of the Colombian player who scored an own-goal against the US in the 94 World Cup and ended up on the end of few 9mm bullets. As one of the great footballing nations, the sport is of a serious nature in Argentina. In recent weeks there had been news reports of increasing violence at football matches in Argentina. River Plate, one of the biggest clubs in the country, had been playing their domestic matches almost behind closed doors. On our Thursday in BsAs we decided to get the full cultural experience and go and watch a match. River Plate was playing Caracas of Venezuala in the Copa Libertadores, South Americas version of the Champions League. River Plate is the club of the elite of BsAs with their stadium 'El Monumental' located in the plush suburb of Palermo. We managed to get seats to the match and although the traveling support from Caracas was limited the atmosphere in the stadium was immense. The support for all clubs in South America is passionate with 'social clubs' providing the main fan base. These social clubs have incredible importance and power. The former captain of River Plate used to donate a decent proportion of his salary to one such social club so they would treat him nicely with huge banners and songs in his honour. Big clubs such as Boca Juniors and River Plate can have social clubs with memberships exceeding 50,000 people, enough to have any owner or manager pay attention. The actual game was a bit dire with River Plate getting beaten 1-0, but the fans didn't stop singing and chanting for the full 90min. The sight of 60,000 people jumping up and down in unison can be quite spectacular.

BsAs is a big city and in order to see a good proportion of it we decided to sign up for a bike tour. It turned out to be great fun cruising along the wide boulevards that typify BsAs. We cycled through Puerto Madero, the redeveloped docklands area, and into Palermo, Recoleta, and Belgrano the ritzy end of BsAs.

On our last day in BsAs we decided not to see any of BsAs and instead boarded a ferry for the short trip across the Rio de Plata to Uruguay and the beautiful town of Colonia de Sacramento. Originally founded to facilitate the smuggling of illegal goods into BsAs, Colonia is now a very quiet cobblestone street town of great cafes and restuarants on the banks of the river. We had a great fish lunch then wandered the streets until the rain started to fall in sheets. It was a perfect day trip to escape the hustle and bustle of BsAs.

Our original plan of taking our time visiting the beaches along the coast on our way to Sao Paulo quickly vanished after visiting the demons that seem to inhabit every Brasilian Consulate. What should of been a simple process of getting a tourist visa for Brasil dragged into a weeks worth of waiting. So instead we opted for a sure bet of a beach and boarded the bus for Florianopolis in Brasil. After 31 hours we arrived to pouring rain. Luckily it cleared the next day and we spent 4 glorious days working on our tans and me trying to learn to surf, rather unsuccessfully as my new scars attest.

After Florianopolis it was onto Sao Paulo and our very last stop on the trip. Time to start thinking about the real world and what changes our lives will encounter in the near future.