Post #99 - the "Pooh Pot"

Warning - do not read whilst eating

Ick.

Nothing to do with A.A.Milne, the "Pooh Pot" is someting that we've had to come to terms with everywhere on our travels except in 5 star western hotels and Buenos Aires.

I'd been to Mexico once before and seen signs in a couple of public toilets asking one not to put paper in the WC, but in the bin provided. I'd half assumed, but mostly hoped that they meant the hand-drying towels. They didn't.

It is the norm here to place all paper products in a little bin that is placed beside the toilet; thus only allowing strictly organic waste to be flushed away with the water.

This means that there is a little bin in each and every toilet that is full of used toilet paper.

I'll be honest, it took quite a while to actually start to do this. For the first few days I was strictly in denial. Somehow it seemed quite appropriate in Guatemala (it is, after all, a 3rd world country) and so I gradually overcame 40 years of indoctrination and started to go native. However, it doesn't feel right.

BsAs, which probably has a sewer system (like their railway system) designed by the British, offered a brief - and welcome - return to the natural order of things. But Argentinian hostels and Chile has brought us back to earth with a bump.

I hope our ferry is a Pooh Pot free zone.

Torres del Paine

We got up and boarded the truck to drive to Torres del Paine National Park. It was a long drive there (2 hrs) and then an exorbitant entrance fee (15 quid each). Most of the road was dirt track. I'm glad we got a truck and not the Ford Sierra that was the alternative.

The weather wasn't the best, but it was, at least, dry. At one point we had to stop to let a herd of cattle pass. They were being driven by three blokes on horses and about a dozen dogs.

Cows

Once in the park, we drove up to Lago Grey and stopped to admire the view in numerous places.

Pretty Mountains and stuff

At Lago Grey we had luncheon at the hotel (which looked a bit more like Maplins holiday camp than a hotel charging 150 quid for a double chalet (room)). It did have a nice view of the glacier in the distance. And there was a convenient iceberg too.

We went for a walk and got pretty close to the iceberg. It was a bit chilly (geddit?)

An iceberg

T was stoic during the journey there and back. Only a couple of "Jesus!" and other, more graphic, expletives passed her lips as the Truck careered out of control towards the gully of the dirt track at a great rate of knots.

To be fair to the driver, the roads took a great deal of concentration and sometimes just took you where they wanted you to go, whatever you did. I may have been going a soupcon faster than strictly necessary at some points though.

One the way back, we stopped at the Milodon caves. The cave itself was massive, and pretty damned impressive.

For dinner, we decided to try the hotel again and it was very nice.

T went to bed early and I'm here typing up our last blog entries before setting off on the (Internet free) ferry trip.

Puero Natales

We crossed into Chile without incicdent and descended into Puerto Natales. There are signs on the way in that inform you what there is to do.

Things to do in Puerto Natales

• Go to a Hotel
  
• Eat
  
• Play cards
  
• Use a telephone
  
• Go to Hospital
  
• Write a letter
  
• Get petrol
  
• Fly a plane
  
• Wash your hands
  

However, the metropolis is clearly too diverse to be described by one sign, so another one pops up a bit down the road:

More things to do in Puerto Natales

• Fish
  
• Go to church
  
• Go on a boat
  
• Eat fish and get drunk on cheap Chilean wine
  
• Ask a question
  
• Take a photograph (of bizarre street signs, presumably)
  
• See birds
  
• Go to a museum
  
• See a mountain
  

We are staying in a lovely hotel, just outside town and overlooking the bay. The weather isn't perfect (a bit chilly (geddit?) and windy) but the place is a wonder. It is so quiet and peaceful, we a sleeping brilliantly. The staff are amazingly helpful. Not only did they pick us up from the bus stop, they have helped us decide our itinerary (we are going to drive to the national park) and also helped track down "Chile Woman" who has been helping to organise the part of our trip once we get off the ferry. Wonderful.

Did I mention that we hired a car - OK - a truck. Or a truckio, as the locals don't call it. It's a monster.

Truckio

The first thing we did once we got the truck was to go 15km North to Puerto Prat, to take a picture of the town sign. For those with good eyesight, you actually get two for the price of one in the following picture (look right in the middle of the obvious one and see the back of the other one.)

Puerto Prat is not a big place.

Puerto Prat

Tomorrow we drive to Torres del Paine National Park.

For Sale

I'm not sure what the issue is, but Argentina has some very old and knackered cars on the roads (most of the really old ones are Peugeot and Citroen; France seems to have found a market for their cars in Argentina earlier than most). I'm not sure if there is a local equivalent of the M.O.T. test, but it certainly isn't enforced. Cars without silencers (mufflers, for my internation audience) are not as rare as one would like (esp. at 2 in the morning) and the fumes kicking out of the buses and lorries is a sight to turn even the most avid Global Warming denier into a fit of remorse, never mind the rest of us.

The sign in the back of this car says "For Sale" (in Spanish, obviously).

A good little runner

I don't know what the spanish for "One Lady Owner" is.

El Chalten

We got up early to get the bus to El Chalten. The taxi dropped us off in plenty of time and we boarded a reasonably posh bus. The roads were a mixture of tarmac and shingle-y stuff. The trip took four hours and we arrived in time for luncheon.

After lunch we went on a short (2hr) walk to the local waterfall. It was pretty.

A waterfall reached

I was a little concrned about the threat of rain and so we hurried back (in the dry - hmm). The wind in the valley was something to behold. We had been warned about the wind in Patagonia, however this was our first experience of it. When it picked up the dust, the only thing to do was turn your back on it until the gust died down.

We returned to our hostel.

Our Hostel

And went out for something to eat. The restaurant we chose was OK, but seemed to not be doing most of the things we ordered from the menu.

Suitably refreshed and tired from the early mornings and outdoor activities - we went to bed.

T fell fast asleep and I read for a bit. The bathroom floor had been a bit wet when we got back, so I got up to check it - to find that it was starting to flood. I quickly grabbed our (only very slightly damp) stuff off the floor and went to reception to see what they could do about it.

They were very quick and moved us to another room with very little fuss. (Apart from the semi-slumbering T scaring the living daylights out of the nice man). Unfortunately, our new room was near the common room and was very noisy until about 1am and then from about 5am onwards. This time it was I who had difficulty sleeping - T slept the sleep of the just.

We had breakfast; got packed lunches and set off for another walk. This was a much longer affair. After about two hours up hill and down dale, we were rewarded with the sight of some pretty peaks.

Torre and friends

We sat and had our packed lunches with a lovely view.

Savouring the view

Upon returning to the hostel, we were assured that the flooding problem was fixed and we returned to our quiet location.

Food was Locro (me) and Pizza (T) in a nice little bistro. (You have to understand that El Chalten is tiny (pop. 317) and the tourist season is almost over - so finding a nice place wasn't as easy as it should have been.)

After rescheduling our return to 8am (instead of 6pm), we returned to the hostel. After learning our lesson from yesterday, we mad sure that none of our stuff was on the floor and went to bed.

Sure enough, the water did come back a bit (not as bad as the day before though) and we were assured that it was under control.

About an hour later, just as I was dropping off, our neighbours across the hall returned to find their room flooded. They were not quiet about it either. It took about an hour of shouting, talking loudly and other noises before they had finally moved into another room. (It had taken us about 5 mins - including waking T up). I did think about popping my head out to tell them to shut up, but felt that they were stressed enough and that there might be a language barrier preventing me telling them that we had the same problem last night and managed not to wake up half of Patagonia.

Up early (this is not a good pattern we developed here) again and back to another hostel in El Calafate.

This one was nice and it did not flood. Chile tomorrow.

El Calafate - Trip 2 - Perito Moreno minitrekking

Up early again (this time we did make breakfast) and then off to a different port (1 1/2 hours away) to get on a boat beside the Perito Mereno Glacier (the famous one - probably as it is the most accessible).

After alghting and heading to the ice, we had crampons strapped to our feet.We then set off onto the Glacier.

A Glacier to trek upon

T (Antarctic explorer Wiseman) and I had not done our shoes up tightly, so we were a bit uncomfortable until the first stop. This made us the slowest. Our guide then decided to promote T to "co-pilot", which meant she had to follow him.

Antarctic explorer Wiseman trekking on a Glacier

After tying shoelaces more tightly (schoolboy error) we were marching as fast as the best of them.

A bar with a unique location

In fact, towards the end of the trek, T was practically running - for some reason.

Filling the ice bucket

On this occasion, I had ice in my whisky. It wasn't a single malt, so I didn't worry too much.

After the drinkies, we returned to the boat and then were taken by coach to a lookout point, an hour there passed in no time at all.

Pictures cannot capture the scale of this thing, nor does it even try to recall this most impressive demonstration of the power of nature - so, I would recommend a visit in person.

And home to a well earned bath.

El Calafate - Trip 1 - All the Glaciers

We got up early (but not early enough to get breakfast) and set off on the hour's drive to the port. It was raining. Picking up our boat, we headed of into lago Argentino in not very nice weather. We were taken to the Spegazzini Glacier, which we got quite close to. It was quite dramatic - the noise that is made when a chunk of ice falls off is quite astounding.

Spegazzini Glacier and ice flow

We then set off for the larger Upsala glacier, passing some pretty impressive icebergs on the way.

An impressive iceberg - on the way

Upsala is slightly different to the others, as the water undermines the face of the glacier and so the ice can break off in the big chunks of icebergs that we see dotted around lago Argentino.

Antarctic Explorer Wiseman in front of an iceberg

Finally, we were set down on land near another glacier-fed lake and walked for a bit (in the rain) to sit and eat our packed lunches with a view (but in the rain).

Lunch with a (damp) view

We then trudged back to the boat (in the rain) and returned to port and to the hotel. We had an early tea and wet to bed. We had to be up early in the morning.

It was nice to see the glaciers, but the whole mass herding of inconsiderate people thing spoiled it a little.

Golf

We have arrived in El Calafate and it is quite a lovely town. Small, wide streets and unashamedly touristy (I am typing this blog in the bar of the hotel as a Tango show passes in the background).

T hasn't been feeling so well, so we have had a quiet day today. (Apparently I wasn't sympathetic enough yesterday. Mea Culpa). It has been nice doing little but organising the next week.

Tomorrow we are going to see glaciers by boat. On Thursday we are going to walk on one (A Glacier, not a Boat - gosh - pronouns can be _so_ imprecise). We are going North to El Chalten for the weekend. And we have booked our bus to Chile (don't know if it is Argentinian or not.)

Oh - and breking news - We are staying in a hostel in El Chalten.

The weather is cold, but dry, clear and crisp. Very nice indeed.

El Calafate

Our hotel has a golf course, so when T decided to relax in bed reading for the afternoon, I played Billy-no-mates on the course. It cost more to buy the balls than the green fees :-) And they lent me clubs for free.

The 'course' is actually 9 tees and three greens. All par 3. They gave me a 2 wood. Heaven only knows why - but I did use it to get from off the green to within an inch of the hole on one hole though :-)

Golf 'course'

Given that I hadn't hit a ball for 18 months I felt I didn't do too bad:

• Only one duffed tee shot
  
• Only 2 blobs (Stableford)
  
• no three putts (putts off green don't count)
  
• No holes in double figures
  
• No lost balls
  
• No lost tees
  

In the end - 11 Stableford points for my nominal 28 handicap.

And - another Spanisheo ...

Dropeo

Scorchio.

Finally, it seems like BsAs is being flooded - TV pictures of cars stranded in Pelermo on TV. Good job we left a week early.

Tomorrow we are up early for a big boat trip. Goodnight.

Ushuaia - Trip 3 - National Park

Our final trip was to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. Again we were picked up early, but this time in a coach. After a trawl around town for some others, we then set off for the National Park. We passed the most Southerly golf course and arrived at the station for the Train at the End of the world. Where we took pictures ...

T at the Union Jack

The Union Jack is outside the toilets. I presume this is no accident, as the other flags there are Uruguay (Gents) and Brazil (Ladies). Ours lies between them.

We boarded the train and were treated to a narrative from the most plummy Ennglish accent this side of 1950. We were saved from boredom by the screaming child in our compartment - bless.

A train

After the train, we were taken to a few places in the park and wandered about a bit. The park contains the end of the 18,000 Km long Pan-American highway, an almost contiguous route from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. I guess I need to go to Alaska now :-)

T at the end of the Pan-American highway

The afternoon was spent at leisure (i.e. T had a massage) in the hotel.

You may have read between the lines that we have become hyper-sensitive to noise for some reason (sleep) and the fact that we seemed to have the cast to "Stomp" living above us (on a wooden floor) in our apartment didn't help. When we arrived in our lovely, 5 star, middle of nowhere, suite at the end of the world we had expectations of silence. As we settled in the peace and quiet we heard a dog, barking right outside our room. Here we go again - San Marcos La Laguna here we come.

To be fair - the dog never barked much after that 10 minute session and turned out to be quite cute.

Cute Perro

We guessed it had been barking at a sealion in the channel - as the following morning - much to our delight, we saw a sealion right in fornt of us as we sat down to breakfast. Quite a treat.

And that pretty much ends the trip to Ushuaia.

For those dedicated enough to read this far, Ushuaia is pronounced oos-why-ah.

Chilly (Argentinian) Plane

We had been amazingly lucky with the weather: The fantastic view on our arrival; no rain for any trips at all and some amazing views across the channel, however, our last day was quite inclement. It was a bit of a snow-storm. The planes had to be de-iced before take-off and we saw pretty much nothing but cotton wool as we departed.

Ushuaia was certainly an amazing place to visit. Off to El Calafate now.

Ushuaia - Trip 2 - Off-Road

We were picked up from our hotel at the crack of dawn by Bismark - our driver/chef/guide/entertainer who then went to pick up the other six people that filled our Defender 110 (a newer version of my. now sold, Land-Rover). We were the 'English' group. 2 Brits, 2 from the USA, 1 New Zealander (who lives in Lavender Hill in London-town) and three Brazillians.

We were then taken across a pass that goes North-South over the Andes (the only one) and stopped at a pretty place.

P and T in front of picturesque lakes

Apparently, the English are Pirates. To be fair - it does seem that we played that role around the Latin Americas quite alot in olden times. However, I somehow doubt that it refers to Henry Morgan.

The English are pirates

We then went down into the valley, to a hotel that - we were informed - had the last toilets that we would see that day. And they sold coffee. We did both.

A picturesque lake

We then 4x4'd along very muddy tracks and along the shore (and sometimes in the edge) of a pretty lake. Our driver got out at one point and left the L-R steering itself in the deep ruts. It was probably more impressive for the less mechanically minded, as the car went left and right for a few hundred yards - apprently by itself whilst the drivers (we had 2 L-Rs in convoy) pretented to push from behind with their little fingers.

Our Land-Rover

We walked along the lakeside for 30 mins whilst they prepared our food (the best steak we have had so far) and we were treated to the sight of three foxes (who, presumably know that they get fed once a day.)

After returning to town, we ate in a nice bar where they were promoting Chandon 187 (a 1/4 bottle of fizz). Our demonstrably nutty waiter stated that Bismark was the maddest man he had ever met. I had burnt a CD of Hitch Hiker's Guide mp3 files for him - he had a penchant for quoting films and HHGTTG was one of his favourites. (No, that lot doesn't make sense - never mind).

Ushuaia - Trip 1 - Catamaran

So, we move into a new phase of travel - on the tourist trail of Patagonia. We seem to be living an oxymoronic lifestyle. Shacking up each night at strictly top-notch accomodation and then railing against the mass tourism trip that we seem channelled towards. Sometimes we manage to grab a more out of the way excursion, sometimes we just shuffle along with the hordes, the main respite being that, as this is low season, the hordes are thinner (though no less annoying).

Our first trip was the mass-market of the catamaran trip on the Beagle Channel. We saw sea lions and birds...

Sealions and Cormorants

We saw a lighthouse...

Lighthouse

We took pretty pictures of each other...

Pretty T in front of a picturesque mountain

We took pretty pictures of ourselves...

P and T - on a boat

All the boats (there were five out at once - there were many more in harbour - presumably for high season) leave the harbour within 30 minutes of each other and perform a well choreographed (and twice daily run) dance around the four stops of interest.

Things I noticed:

• Sealions smell of fish
  
• Sealions piss at boats (OK one did - it was quite funny)
  
• People cannot follow simple instructions (e.g. please be quiet near the animals)
  
• People with big cameras are slightly more annoying than people with small cameras.
  
• People with small or no cameras can still be pretty damned annoying.
  
• People with video cameras are very annoying too.
  
• I guess the last four points can be summed up by: people are, in general, quite annoying when they don't know or care about the other people that they are temporarily inhabiting a shared space with.
  
• T and I, of course, did not annoy anyone, no - not us.
  

We returned to our hotel after booking more trips.

Oh, and we adopted a very friendly big black dog for a bit. He tried to come shopping with us. The staff of the shop shooed him out (we tried to stop him following us, but after a couple of minutes of Mr Bean-esque comedy - trying to run into the shop (which had automatic doors) without our tail - we just gave up and let him follow us in.)

Last days in Buenos Aires

We decided to go on a trip to Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay (which is just across the river from BsAs) and so went to the Buquebus shop to book the ferry, the hotel, the tour of the city, the hotel transfers and a voucher for lunch (no drinks). It was an excercise in losing time - but it did all get sorted out, did cost less than we expected and - in general - turned out pretty much as described.

We got a taxi down to the ferry terminal and got onto quite a small (no cars, perhaps 150 people) catamaran and were in Colonia in less than an hour.

After a bit of as kerfuffle, we got to our hotel to be greeted with "You were told that we have renovations going on next door weren't you?" - T wasn't best pleased. As it turned out it was OK - not good, but OK.

We then went for our lunch (no drinks) which was 'interesting'. And then we were taken on a tour of Colonia by a Uruguayan woman with the most amazing English intonation. T decided she must have studied Marjorie Dawes (Fat Fighters) of Little Britain fame.

Colonia port is the entry point for 70% of the tourists visiting Uruguay - you'd have thought they'd have made a better effort of it really.

Colonia has a bull ring - which was used 8 times before bull fighting was outlawed.

Colonia has an old town. A mixture of Portuguese and Spanish

Colonia has slightly more mosquitoes than BsAs - if that were possible.

We had a lovely dinner and retired for a peacful night's sleep. When we awoke it was raining (a bit) so we decided to stay in the hotel until our 4pm ferry. Reading books and just chilling.

At about midday, the most amazing rain shower came across the bay. At its height, you couldn't see more than about 20 yards for torrential rain. Buquebus called to say that our original ferry was cancelled and that we'd be picked up at five instead.

The ferry back was massive and packed with locals. very different to the one on the way out - but still a quick catamaran. We got a taxi back from the docks and went out for a final meal at a place we had enjoyed twice previously - unfortunately it was quite a disappointment.

Up in good time on Thursday for our check-out and departure for Ushuaia, we packed and breakfasted. Our landlady was prompt and so we had a bit of time to kill before getting the taxi to the airport. The flight to Ushuaia was notable because:

It was the first time I've ever had to pay for Excess baggage (and chose the wromg queue to pay it in too - grr)

We were accompanied by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Oh, those wacky German musicians.

The clouds opened up for us as we approached Ushuaia and we had the most spectacular view as we crossed the Andes (which go East-West down here) and flew over the Beagle channel, turned round and landed at the Airport - quite stunning.

Our hotel is amazing. T decided that we needed to upgrade to a channel view (the 'mountain' side isn't that inspiring. It has cost a little more - but we are in a Suite (Junior) with breathtaking views.

View from our room down the Beagle channel towards Ushuaia

View from our room across the Beagle channel to Chile

As Chile is so close, we now have the joke that just keeps on giving.

• Is it Chilly out there? No, that's Argentina
  
• What's it like out there? Chile
  
• etc...
  

Oh how we laugh.

And the hotel has an in/out pool. most of it is inside, but some of it is outside. It's loveley and warm and quite fun to stand in warm water in the freezing cold.

Shameless stupidity

Would you like to know John and Debbie's Japanese trip blog address?

John and Debbie in Japan

Ooops

Shameless plug

One of the things we've seen as a mixed blessing on this extended trip is that we had more time than we had things we really wanted to see. This means that we spend some time seeing things we don't care about and some time doing absolutely bugger all.

My friends John and Debbie are currently in Japan. They have a fortnight's holiday. (O.K. John is staying out there afterwards for a bit - but that is work).

They are also doing a travel blog. Theirs is very different to ours:

• John posts every day
  
• They take many more pictures
  
• John talks about food a little more than one might reasonably expect (although, in his defence, getting fed does start to take on much more importance when one is in a place where they don't understand "Fish and Chips"; "Yorkshire Pudding"; "Steak and Kidney Pie" or "A cup of Tea". Or, in our current situation "Fresh Milk". Argentina: Lots of dead cows - not much in the way of extract of live cow - go figure.)
  

But this is a superficial difference. Today I sat down and read the blog from start to now - it took an hour. The thing that I really loved was that here were a couple who clearly had a knowledge and admiration for a culture; but only a second hand view of it. They are taking something that they have an affinity for (John has spent three years learning Japanese) and going there to experience it first hand.

If (when) you have an hour to put aside to read a travel blog - go and have a read (don't dip in for 10 mins - it just won't seem interesting) and revel in your vicarious view of people discovering first hand, things that they wondered about from afar.

But don't come back to this blog and moan about style. John's been at the travel writing game longer than I.

Oh, and now for the funny bit: I read their blog up to today, which ended with dinner and so to bed. I was having breakfast - on the same day. Wierd. J & D had had Monday; I was yet to see what it would bring.

Murdering the English Language

Yes, I do know how to spell peaceful. Yes, I do know the difference between to, too and two. But there is only so much proof reading one can be bothered to do before pressing Post.

And I don't want to bore people by correcting English grammar/spelling in posts and sending them out all over again.

Think of it as Art

Murdering the English Language

Yes, I do know how to spell peaceful. Yes, I do know the difference between to, too and two. But there is only so much proof reading one can be bothered to do before pressing Post.

And I don't want to bore people by correcting English grammar/spelling in posts and sending them out all over again.

Think of it as Art

Plans

Tomorrow we are going to Colonia in Uruguay. It is supposed to be very nice and peacful. We are going on the fast ferry across the River and are staying in a nice hotel.

I have also just had an email from the Chilean ferry company telling us that the ferry has been cancelled. That rather screws up our Patagonian exit plans. Ho hum.

River vs Belgrano

We went to the football. Rather than buy tickets and work out how to get there and all that tricky stuff, we went to a company, Tangol who organised a bus to/from the game; tickets for the game and a local who could speak English to explain the game, the teams, the ground and anything else you cared about. A bit more expensive, but worth it.

We were picked up in good time and taken to the stadium. I had done a little research to find out who was playing who; where they were in the league; where the teams were from and who was expected to win. I played top swot in the bus - T tried to hide. The guide filled us in on other stuff like the fact that River were doing rubbish; River had just been eliminated from the S.American cup (Copa Liberatadores) that week and that their manager was under pressure. Oh, and the hated rivals - Boca - were above them in the league.

We were in the ground early and saw the juniors of the respective clubs grind through a 0-0 draw.

What was quite amazing was the noise that the away fans (Cordoba, for that is where Belgrano hailed is a good 10 hour drive - yet the away support was not insignificant).

Away fans

The presence of drums made their noise quite impressive and gave them something to rally the singing around.

The home fans didn't bother turning up until just before kick-off, but there were an impressive number of them too.

Home Fans

There was also a pitch for the players to use

The Pitch

The game was quite good fun. River gave away a silly penalty with a handball from a corner (I still don't know why the defender stuck his hand up) about half way through the first half. River were the stronger side but did let the away team have a few too many breaks for comfort.

After half time nothing much changed (except Yellow boots for the away side, who had been booked in the first half, was substituted). After about 20 mins, both managers started a flurry of substitutions; a Belgrano player was sent off for a second yellow and River started pressing more and more.

Eventually the home team scored and the crowd went wild. River spent the last ten minutes (and an impressive amount of injury time) with ten men in the Belgrano half (and nearly paid the price - twice) - but a 1-1 draw was the final result. The rather well behaved American six-year old beside us, bemoaned the fact that he didn;t like draws - our guide manfully responded that he preferred to see two goals than just the one :-)

I know we didn't see a grudge match (Think Liverpool vs Portsmouth), but I was quite suprised that it wasn't as loud as it could have been. The crowd only really got going twice. Once just after kick-off and once after River scored. In their defence - the stadium is open-air and alot of the sound will not be being captured and reflected by the roof.

Next week River are playing Boca at Boca - That would be something to see, however we will be in Patagonia and the tickets were sold out months ago.

Waxing lyrical

I loved the title I came up with for this post so much that I can't wait until T gets around to writing about the actual content :-)

Now, women and blokes have different things to worry about when going on extended trips. I need to worry about travel chargers; different electricity voltages and sockets; maps; GPS units, you know important stuff.

T needs to worry about hair cuts; hair colour; numbers of pairs of shorts; bras; access to Grazia magazine and leg waxing.

One of the things that is interesting about travelling abroad is that things that go together in shops at home, do not always go together in the same shops abroad. In Argentina, every beauty salon that T asked in didn't do waxing, and no, they didn't know anywhere nearby that did.

What they didn't mention (perhaps because it was to bleeding obvious to warrant a mention) was that there were whole shops dedicated to depilation. (One thing you do when abroad is learn posh English words for everyday things - as they usually come back to their Latin roots which then appear in the Latin languages).

Apparently the whole "Jessica" approach to waxing would go down very well in London. I will leave T to fill in the actual details in the fullness of time. Suffice it to say that I had a fifteen minute wait on the sofa in the lobby of a shop where I was the only bloke. I tried to look as foreign as possible.

Politics - update

On the day we took the Political Tour (I refer you to the rather wordy post from a few days ago) it appears that a schoolteacher was killed during a protest.

see This Reuters line about it

We did go into town today and didn't notice anything unusual. But maybe we missed the hour that they were all on strike.

It is interesting being in a place where politics is so close to making impact on day-to-day life.

As an aside, I did stumble across a Public Art work in a major (tourist, as well as local) square which was there to commemorate the Falklands War. The thrust of the work seemed to be showing pictures of everyday soldier life - without any real attempt to put it into contemporary political context. It was quite disturbing; of course the actual squaddies putting thier lives on the line couldn't care less about how unpopular their respective govenments were at the time.

Part of the Public Art work

It's not clear if this poster is contemporary of the war or is modern. There is certainly a feeling here that it is still true.

Just a quickie

We are just about to go to the football match. River vs Belgrano.

According to the bookies, this is a walk in the park for the home team (River)

We've been Tango'd

No, it's not a fizzy drink. Nor is it a slap in the face - Tango is a way of life.

It's a dance - that I knew. It's a fashion and a musical style - that I kind of knew. But it's a bit more than that. Or at least, that's what the whole Tango industry would have you believe.

Last night we finally 'did' Tango. There are two basic ways to 'do' Tango. Either go to a show or go to a dance. As the latter involved dancing ourselves, we did the former.

We elected to go to a show that was billed as 'intimate', at Bar Sur (the oldest Tango show in San Telmo - so there). This meant that it was small - and that every time the dancers kicked (which they did alot) everyone had to scramble to grab hold of their wine glasses. (Actually that's not true. The dancers were very good and kicking nothing but the air and the band.)

It all started quite worryingly, as we arrived at 8 prompt. Clearly the performers were not expecting punctuality and so we were treated to the oldest pianist in the world, plonking away for a while. Then the scariest woman in the world (who was so scary I didn't dare take a picture) started belting out songs in Spanish.

The oldest pianist in the world

After about an hour of this, other people started to arrive. T visibly relaxed, now that we were not alone.

At this point, the demonstration dancing started. They were very good. Lots of sultry looks, kicking and that sort of thing. It then turned into "The Generation Game" (sorry to those who don't recall Bruce-y "nice to see you, to see you ..." Forsyth) As they dragged people up from their tables to try to copy their moves. We steadfastly refused (T is shy, no really) and spent the rest of the night avoiding eye contact - just in case we were forced to participate (we escaped unscathed). One interesting side-show was watching the waiting staff dodging in and out of the dancers and dancer-copiers, whilst trying to serve food and drinks - most amusing.

Dancing

Aside from scary people singing, lithe people dancing and the near dead playing piano; we were treated to other people playing in a band and other (not quite so scary) people singing.

Singing

O.K. he looks scary - but at least he looked like he wouldn't kill you for ruining his concentration with a flash photograph.

All in all, the whole thing was most entertaining, the second set of dancers were probably better than the first - but the fellow did scowl rather too much.

At about 11:30 pm (yes 3 and 1/2 hours) we all got issued with some fizz and toasted the restaurant, the owner, the dancers, the singers, the band, the audience and pretty much everything, before people started skulking off (before the really scary woman got back on).

We left after midnight. It was still going strong.

Politics

We'd decided to do a 'political tour' of Buenos Aires. As a country that has had so much upheaval in fairly recent times, it seemed like an interesting way to find out more about where we were and what had gone on.

We were met by a driver and a guide at our apartment and taken on a tour of some of the more important, historically speaking, parts of the city.

According to our guide, Argentina's recent history falls into four eras. (Forgive my lack of exactness in the dates and my paraphrasing of her titling)

1. 1880 - 1930: The halcyon days
   
2. 1930 - 1980: The military days
   
3. 1980 - 2001: Head in the sand days
   
4. 2001 - present day: Renewal
   

So, Argentina was a Spanish colony and all that, but the real fun starts in the 1930's when the world recession starts to bite exports and there is a real downtrun in the economy that causes the military (and, for periods, weak elected governments) to take over.

This period inculdes the Eva Peron (Evita) days, popularised by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and includes the creation of the Peronist movement, which seems to be something of a mix of National Socialism, Pragmatism, Union manipulation and out and out corruption. The movement is named after her manipulative husband (she was wife two of three) and not her - just for the record.

Things seemed to get pretty hairy every now and then, with the military bombing the president's palace; people being arrested left-right and centre and mass demonstrations seeming to be de-riguer.

By far the most sinister of the things that happened was the whole 'disappearing' thing. Where thousands of people were dissappeared; usually killed; without trial or, indeed, any records being made. Also, pregnant women were incarcerated and, once they had given birth, 'dissappeared' whilst their children were given to high-ranking officals and their wives. All pretty scary stuff.

Once this had all come to and en, there proceeded to be a period of 'let's just forget about it'. Which didn't really help to heal the wounds. Laws were passed that limited culpability ("I was just following orders") and some ex-military types, after being arrested, were simply released.

After moves by various human rights groups, including the graffiti-ing of former illicit detention centres and political lobbying - the current government has started to make moves to acknowledge the state terrorism that went on and preserve buildings 'lest we forget' and create monuments in public spaces to the dissappeared. All quite moving, as this is clearly a very sore, open wound that a society is trying to deal with.

On a more parochial note, it was quite interesting to see the 'Englishman's Tower' (as it is known) - a present from the British goverment in 1910 (a centannial of something) as bearing logos of the various British countries. President Menem (who, according to our guide was a manipulative Peronist) had built the memorial to the dead of the Falklands war directly facing the tower. A big - "screw you". The whole issue of the Falklands (Islas Malvinas) war is still very topical. Last Monday (2nd) was the first Veteran's day holiday - a public holiday created to commemorate the Falklands war. There seems to be a populist feeling that the islands rightfully belong to Argentina and that they will again some day.

Kosher Kapers

OK, OK I've stretched the alliteration thing way past any "funny by" date, but humour me please. I promise I will stop.

We were in a shopping mall yesterday, looking for some suitable clothing to go and visit Patagonia in. We went up to the food court to obtain some calories and fat and spotted a "McDonald's Kosher" restaurant. It was closed, but looked like it might be open some of the time.

I half-assumed that there were hundreds of these around the world and that I'd just been walking around with my eyes shut. I reckon there must be one in Prestwich (the mainly Jewish bit of Manchester) - but, according to Wikipedia this is the only one outside Israel. Curious.

Argentina, although an ex-Spanish colony, only seems to nod towards Catholicism; which suprised me a little. According to our "Political Tour" guide today, Presidents had to be Catholic until about 17 years ago (when an ex Muslim, turned Catholic president got the law changed).

We have seen quite a representation of Jewish culture here. A couple of weekends ago there was a "Jewish Festival" in a local park. (We walked past lots of Matzo bread and other typical fare before realising what was going on - mainly by the music!).

Posh Ports

No modern city can hold its head up high in a world competition of cities without having a rejuvinated dock area. Buenos Aires is no different.

Last night we went to the Puerto Madero area of Buenos Aires. We came within a whisker of blowing four months insect-repellent budget on one night in an amazingly posh hotel - but decided against it in the end.

It was a pleasant enough place to stroll around. The pizza place we decided to eat in seemed to have the surliest staff in Argentina - but the food was OK.

Anyway - the signature architectural item is the bridge of the women.

Pretty enough I suppose.

Oh, and there is a building (unphotographed - as it wasn't lit up) that looks like a very small Sydney Opera House. Strange but true.

Planning Patagonia

Alliteration, what a great way to title a post. Anyway ...

Today was planning day. After lots of thinking and mulling over the options, we decide what we are going to do next. We actually decided yesterday, but it was a bank holiday - so we did all the booking today.

We are going to Patagonia.

T has decided that a few things need to change with respect to the planning process. Namely:

1. There is one
   
2. We decide how we are getting from A to B rather than just turn up at A wondering where B might be (geddit?)
   
3. We pre-book accomodation
   
4. Pre-booked accomodation has to proportionally good to the coldness of the expected weather. (I think she just made this one up)
   
5. Umm - that's all I can figure out at the moment - but I think there may be new ones popping up.
   

So, we are going to fly to Ushuaia (at the bottom of S.America - how cool is that?); stay there for four nights and do some trips; fly up to El Calafate (where there are glaciers and stuff); stay there for three nights; get a bus to Puerto Natales; Get on a ferry for four nights through the Chilean coast up to Puerto Montt; get a bus to Puerto Varas; Take a two day bus and boat journey back across the Andes to Bariloche.

Wish us luck. We are going to spend the next week in BsAs sight-seeing and buying warm clothes.

Mini-break

Like any sensible Helen Fielding reading bloke (if that isn't an oxymoron) I realise the importance of the mini-break. So, notwithstanding the fact that we are on holiday, on holiday already, we booked a couple of days out of town at an Estancia (Argentinian ranch). We chose one based solely on the looks of the pictures. This one looked like a castle.

Sort of looks like a French castle

Sadly, we didn't actually stay in the castle-y bit, which was OK as it was both hot and a good 500 yard dash through mosquito infested bog to the dining room. Given that it persisted itself down for about 80% of the time we were there - the closer, cooler, quiet and perfectly pleasant room we were allocated was just fine.

The place was very nice though. There was a long drive ...

A Drive - long

And there were horses that we could have ridden on, but T is scared and I wasn't willing to get that wet or that bitten by mossies to find out if I was scared or not.

Horses - for riding

The food was very nice. Here is half a cow, on a stick. That was a mid-morning snackette.

Half a cow - on a stick

Our main aim was to get peace and quiet. As we were the only guests on Thursday night and two of four guests on Friday night - that aim was met quite fully. The thunderstorm that nature laid on for us on Thursday night was something to behold.

Given the rain and mosquito count - we spent alot of the time that we were not eating or sleeping, watching TV. US sitcoms. It was great.