Mendoza-Happy New Year!!!!

96 hours on buses in 10 days meant we deserved a hostel with a pool and some relaxing time. So it was off to Mendoza the home of sunshine and fine wine.


2 days turned into a week after meeting a wicked bunch of people and drinking way too much to actually do anything. There is the excuse that it was stupidly hot too, and it´d be rude not to have a BBQ or two

After our drinking chums had left and we stopped discussing how truly terrible the ham and cheese sarnies are here ( it is a re-occurring theme, literally all you can get if you want a snack is a sarnie, an empanada, a pizza topping, or pasta filling based on ham and cheeeeeeese) we actually went out and did something more constructive with our time.

1st up Ed and Julian and Ricky and Miguel (brazilians from the hostel) gave some argentinian teenagers with amazing fashion mullets a lesson in football.
Given we´re in Mendoza, we then went to a bodega (winery) on a bike ride, and got drunk on a bike....
After that, we decided to hire a car with some new French friends we had met and drove south to San Rafael and the Laguna Del Diamante

The 4 hr trip up to 3700m was pretty arduous given that the road was unpaved, and we´d hired a Suzuki Fun, not a 4x4 (I don't think that car will ever be quite the same after the punishment we gave it). Getting to the lake was well worth the effort as the scenery on the way was amazing (hard to do justice with words or pictures) and the lake was truly beautiful. Swimming in it wasn't the brightest as it was colder than a brass monkeys...

Have a look at Stephanie and Clements blog. It pisses all over ours

stephetclem.over-blog.com

Gaiman

The tourist info for Gaiman (a small village a few miles from Trelew) had really bigged up how Gaiman was a little corner of Wales in Patagonia.

It was a bit rubbish really but the afternoon tea was a pretty damn good and the street names were funny.

Punto Tombo

After Christmas day we headed up to Trelew on yet another overnight 24hr bus journey. Andesmar were our firm of choice, and they certainly were a shower.

Lunch - ham and cheese sandwich,
Dinner - ham and cheese sandwich with ham and cheese in a swiss roll for dessert,
Breakfast - coffee and a biscuit.
All served by a fat sweaty fella, who got out of breath walking up the aisle.

We did play bingo though, which to the disappointment of the fat bloke, was won by a gringo at the front of the bus.

Anyway, Trelew is fairly average, and there´s not much sign of it´s Welsh heritage. What was good though was Punto Tomba. The parque is an hour and a half out of town on yet another unpaved ´ripio´ road, and is home to a million strong colony of Magellan penguins.

The cheeky little fellas did stink but were very funny; standing about with head in the air and beak open trying to get cool in the heat of the afternoon, or waddling about looking like Liam Gallagher wannabees.

Patagonia - Ruta Cuarenta

For some reason we thought 5 days on an unpaved road would be a good idea, and signed up for travelling from Bariloche to el Calafate on the ´famous´Ruta 40.

It was fun but sore given the basic nature of the bus and impossible to read, write or play cards or travel scrabble. With acres and acres of barren scrub land as a view (and the odd guanaco) the only thing to do was sleep and moan about the travel company we were with. Note to all, do not book with Chalten Travel ever.

There was some real odd kids on the tour too; one´s of note were a guy with a voice box which had no volume control, who drank beers for breakfast, and a psycho Israali guy who just stared at you and didnt say a word when you spoke to him.

1st night in the town Perito Moreno-truly a one horse town, where we stayed at the Hotel Belgrano, the most disgusting hotel in the world. Good feed tho at a place round the corner, where the steaks are as big as dinner plates.

On the way down we went to Cuevos de Los Manos. 7000yr old paintings on cliffs of Rio de los manos, made by indigenous Mapuche people.

We got to El Chalten, a tiny village, 2 days later and stayed to do the Fitz Roy mountain hike. The best thing we have done so far! Climbed to 1500 metres all by ourselves!

This last pic was just moments before I fell over and gave myself the biggest bruise of my life all over my left thigh. Should have brought walking boots.....

After another day of recovery (we are just not the outdoorsy types you see here all the time) we got back on the crappy bus to El Calafate and arrived on Xmas eve. Xmas lunch was a ham and cheese sarnie, no joke, but the pay off was trekking the Perito Moreno Glaciar. Its advancing glaciar the size of london, which heads down a valley and into a lake below. It was properly magical especially to watch huge iceberg sized chunks crashed off into the Lago Argentina below.

Note Ed´s Shackleton-esque beard that he´s been cultivating especially for this part of the trip.

Patagonia- Bariloche and El Bolson

Well 1st stop was San Carlos de Bariloche in the Lake District after 20 hours on a bus and a whole lot of ham and cheese.

It is a hikers and adrenalin junkies haven. Given we are neither a 35km bike ride sufficed for a few days!

Given that I ( Nicky) had not ridden a bike for 15 years and never a mountain bike with gears I couldn´t really move to do a lot the following day and pretty much waddled around Bariloche eating chocolate ( it is famous for it but no way near as good as Dairy Milk!)

We went 2 hours south to El Bolson and hiked in the Cañon de Azul for 8 hours being adventurous on Indiana Jones style rope bridges. Yes that is me below believe it or not.

The best way to relax afterwards.................

I love BA

So, onto pastures new...in the mantime need to share a few highlights-mostly Argentine TV

Main talk show host pictured below-spent a lot of money on surgery! Kinda the Argentinian Cilla Black but not as classy.

Main talk show guest pictured below-again spent a lot of money and is not really una chica if you see what I mean

Argentine Dancing on Ice-legendary. Especially when they strip down to underwear in the final in order to win votes? ¿Por que? See a man with a fergie Bow below.

Secondly is what we have seen on mopeds-as you know we love them but would not ride them here. Reasons being.... seen a man texting while riding, a woman holding a new born baby on one, a heavily heavily preganant woman riding one and several with children sandwiched between parents. Oh and by the way no need for helmets here-so they tell us.

Couldn´t get any pics of them as goes without saying they zoom by too fast.

Offal and Palmitos at the DISCO

Offal

Palmitos (pal hearts)

Are you dancing? Are you asking?

Me, Nicky and Yetta (dutch girl from school) went to a milonga, or public dance, in the basement hall of an Armenian social club. It sounds random, and was in many ways, but all in all it was a brilliant night. There was 300 odd people in this quite sweaty hall. Only 10 pesos to get in, and went on from 9pm to 4am.

1st off there was general salsa dancing, then salsa lessons for everyone, and then some more salsa. Nic and Yetta were good, and I was poor but none of my dance partners complained. Prob coz they were all old girls in beginners class that I was in, and therfore their hips couldnt actually move hence matching my lack of samba sway.

After some fairly tragic 200 strong salsa line dancing to some story and a fisherman, with the dance moves trying to match the story, there was a Tango show with these world class dancers (or so we were told. It was pretty impressive so I´m not doubting it.) then tango free for all and then salsa again. It was incredible to see it in a natural environment, not one just for the tourists. We were very lucky to find it.

It made me feel sad that nobody dances in England. Seeing old and young mixing, and dancing together and enjoying themselves seemed do much better than people getting wasted and then dancing badly. It not being sleazy was the big thing. Nobody seemed to be on the pull, despite salsa and tango both being pretty sexy dances. The other thing was that the older the guys were the more in demand they were, because it´s such a difficult dance and the guy does all the hard work leading the girl.

We met a chap called Pancho. A top drawer comedy name, and a nice bloke too. He did some impressive salsa with the girls, and we had some good banter with him. Over a few beers and some pizza, he indulged us with our pigeon spanish and gave us the ins and outs of what was going on.

Boca Juniors vs Lanus at the Bombonera

Went to a Boca Juniors game yesterday. Absolutely crazy atmos. We were in terraced section with the proper ´hinchas´. We figured that some top boy must have been taking a cut of our fee for this group of tourists to be let in. Our guide had to ´clear it´ with somone before we ushered through the crowd to our spot. There was no way we should have been there really.

Loads of noise and jumping up and down. The floor was shaking. People climbing up the fences. Riot police. Bottles of piss being thrown at police and at players at the end when they were celebrating. A shower of spit from away fans above us (thankfully we were under the roof). Huge drum section opposite under the flags. loads and loads of banners. Alot of love for maradona (who was up in the corporate stand). There was a fella with massive tattoo of him on his back.

We were trying to work out what songs were being sung, but didnt get far. One was boca we love you, blah blah blah, and another was saying that Lanus is full of bitches. Much the same as at home really.... There were some cool ones to ´cumbia´ beats from the drum section.

It was last game of season and Boca had to win in order that Lanus didnt win the championship at the Bombonera. It was a draw in the end, so Boca werent too impressed.

The standard of footy was pretty good, from Lanus at least. Boca seemed to just stand still waiting for whover had the ball to do something special. Lanus had alot more movement and invention. Pretty aggressive too. Loads of niggly fouls and a Boca player got straight red in 2nd half for horrific scithing down of Lanus´ best player, Sand.

Argentine rap???????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4ycR4YhpWg

Just a quick post today to send anyone who wants a good laugh the above link. Los Sultanes seem to be muchos populares in the land of rubbish music, oh yes it is bad.

Watch right to the end and you will be lucky enough to see 2 of their hits- the latter performed for Aids awareness day here today.

As for the gratuitous bum shots? That´s par for the course here.