Mini-pasties

Oh, yes - I forgot to tell you about Empanadas. They are like little mini Cornish Pasties with lots of (actually, just a few really) different fillings. The great thing is that you can have about 4 at once (instead of just one Cornish pasty) and get meat, mushroom, sweetcorn and chicken all at the same time - without o.d.ing on any one given flavour. Yummety yum.

It's kind of like a Kellogg's Variety pack but with pasties instead of coco-pops.

We didn't fancy the 'Tuna' filling that was in the posh bakery near our apartment though - A tuna pasty is just plain wrong.

That's enough about the food - sorry.

Pillowgate

After one night in our apartment, I decided that I'd get a pillow. Partially because the ones in the apartment were lumpy and horrible, but mainly because there was a bedding shop next door that was having a closing down sale. (Probably going to turn itself into a clothes shop - there aren't quite enough of them here!) Given that we were going to stay put for 30 days - I thought this to be a sound investment.

I asked T if she wanted one too (you know where this is going already, don't you?)

She said 'no' - the ones there were fine.

I had a lovely nights sleep.

I had a second lovely night's sleep.

I asked T if she also wanted a new pillow - while the shop was open. "No thanks" was the reply.

After watching some DVDs (MI:III and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) - where she had 'borrowed' my pillow "Just to see what it's like", she decided that she'd try it out for the night (Of course, the shop had now shut).

Guess who didn't sleep well that night?

We now have two new, cheap pillows. A bargain.

Meat and sweets (not sweetmeats)

Argentina is big on meat, I guess that some of you knew that - but just for those who didn't - let me tell you that it's true.

On Saturday we went to "La Boca", which is a gentrified (i.e. Touristificated) island in the middle of a run down neighbourhood. The guide books recommend getting a cab in and out - so we did. I'm not sure that walking would have felt any less dangerous than the taxi we took in there anyway!

After a little wander around some arty stalls, we dropped into a Parrilla (A meat restaurant) and ordered the house special.

The house special appeared to be a cow - cut up and stuck on a mini barbecue it might have been - but I'm pretty sure we got a goodly percentage of a whole cow. The picture below shows the parts of the animal that we couldn't manage. I hope that the 'wasted' meat got a good home.

The size of a cow

Another local foodstuff that appears to be de rigeur is a caramel sauce known as "Dulce de Leche". It tastes a lot like the home-mad butterscotch sauce my mother used to make (in the days when she made such types of food) consisting of heated sugar and evaporated milk. Around here, there are whole supermarket aisles dedicated to different brands of it. I'm not 100% sure what differentiates them, but the one(s) I have tried all taste yummy (but not quite as nice as my mum's sauce - natch). Here is a pancake (panqueque - pan-kay-kay) full of it. Yum Yum - in my tum.

A pancake - full of Dulce

For those concerned about such things, I promise that this blog will veer away from food once more and not turn into a "Things I ate abroad" list that some blogs have been accused of.

(almost) one week in BsAs

We have decided to slow the pace right down now and have rented an apartment in the Palermo Viejo district of Buenos Aires for a month. We have been in it for two nights so far. Our first morning wasn't as quiet as we'd hoped, but this morning was lovely and peaceful.

We don't have internet access in the apartment, so I am forced to nip out to a local bar and avail myself of the free wifi. This will be a terrible chore - I can tell.

On our last day in the hotel (we stayed in a hotel for our first four nights) T decided to call her friends and mum from the hotel room. Deciding that discertion was the better part, I didn't complain about the hundred quid bill that came our way for the telephone. T was mortified and decided that it shouldn't be paid from joint pennies. Hopefully she now understands the concept of phone cards and we'll use one _next_ time. :-)

So far we have done alot of wandering about. Palermo Viejo is a mass of posh bars and posher clothes shops. It's Argentina's version of Notting Hill (says a little voice to my left). Our travelling garb isn't quite what the locals are wearing - but we haven't been chucked out of any of the painfully trendy bars - yet.

We are all kitted out to communicate now - I got a chip for my mobile and we got T a thirty quid PAYG phone. So we should be able to keep in touch when T nips off to the galleries and museums and I sit around reading & chilling out.

Our aim in BsAs is to do lots of chilin and try and fit in a Tango show; a football game; some walking tours; some excercise and that kind of thing. We have four weeks to decide what to do next: Patagonia (cold), Mendoza (Wine), Meontevideo (Uruguay) and Iguazu Falls (falls) are on the horizon, we may do some of these as tours during the month - who knows.

I'm sure there will be pictures of BsAs - but we haven't got any just yet. Watch this space.

BsAs on St Guinness day

Day one in Beunos Aires (BsAs) arrived - we took a nice walking tour of the city.

The Recoleta cemetary is quite astounding, and our guide made it (to pardon the expression) come alive.

Unfortunately BsAs sems to be in the grip of a mossie epidemic. We had left our industrial strength insect repellant in our hotel under the stupid assumption that we wouldn't need it. What fools.

After a siesta after our tour - we trooped off to the Irish quarter to celebrate St Patrick's day in style. We stayed for about an hour from 10 - 11 pm (apparently quite early for the locals). When we left there seemed to be a street full of Argentinians milling around as if to say "O.K. We've come for the party - where is it?" not realising that they were supposed to _be_ the party and providing entertainment for each other by being so drunk that they couldn't stand up.

Maybe they got into the swing of things later - but, somehow, I doubt it.

Copa

The flight from Panama City to Buenos Aires was notable by a few things:

1. T and I were not sitting together, we both had middle seats - I drew the short straw and sat next to the widest thin bloke in Christendom
   
2. We had Metallic cutlery with our meal
   
3. A goodly portion of the passengers applauded a perfectly ordinary landing from a perfectly ordinary flight. Something I thought had died out about 15 years ago. (I have been on a flight where the landing was applauded reasonably recently, but the mitigating circumstances were that we had been told to adopt the brace position as the pilot thought there was a good chance that the front landing gear was broken.)
   
4. Most amazing, however, was that fact that, when the plane stopped at the airbridge, not one single person stood up and messed about in the lockers. We had been asked (in Spanish) to remain in our seats until a disabled chap had got off the plane - and everyone politely stayed firmly seated until he had passed. All hell broke loose at that point - as if to reaffirm one's belief in the human spirit.
   

We arrived in Argentina, got some cash and then got the world's most distracted taxi driver to our hotel.

Panama continued

We took a local bus up to Colon, where we visited the Free Trade Zone - which, to be honest, was pretty rubbish. For our amusement, there was a good shop sign - make whatever joke you feel is appropriate. (Best keep it to yourself, though)

Schoolboy humour

We then went to the New Washington hotel (which wasn't - new, that is). We sat and watched some locals being taught to swim and observed a whole bunch of ships waiting to enter the canal from the Atlantic side.

Boats, waiting

A train - in Panama

We returned to Panama City in style on the train - T decided to act local and ignore requests to move, so we had a fantastic view of the canal scenery. The group of French people, who were supposed to have our seats, spent the whole time trying to take pictures of the poor girls who were acting as waitresses. They seemed to be unhappy about not being next to the windows that they didn't bother to look through - we studiously ignored them - luckily, ignoring French people is something that the English find quite easy to do :-)

Palindrome

A Man

Not so much a man as the sun. But, as sun and son are homonyms and a son is male, I am stretching the point to claim that a sunset is a man.

Sunset over the bridge of the Americas, from the Casco Viejo

A Plan

Our plan in Panama was to be tourists. We touristed as follows:

• Visited the old town of Panama (Panama Viejo - the town that was built on the river and desroyed by a pirate)
  
• Visited the slightly less old town (Casco Viejo - the town that was created after the end of Panama Viejo,but before the creation of Panama City)
  
• Visited the locks of the canal at Miraflores.
  
• Got driven around in a taxi in Panama city - an exprience in itself.
  

A Canal

A ship entering the Miraflores locks

Panama

From Casco Viejo

From Panama Viejo

Whistle Stop Central America

After a lazy morning by the pool, we packed and set off to the airport. Our flight was quite long, but uneventful. A couple of hours stop in San Salvador, where we got off the plane, and a 45 minute stop in San Jose (Costa Rica). where we didn't.

San Salvador looked amazing - the whole Volcano thing is quite impressive when you fly so close to them.

Costa Rica may also have been impressive - it was dark.

We arrived at about midnight in Panama and got a taxi to our hotel.

Panama's currency is the Balboa (Written B/.), which is interesting, because it isn't. Panama doesn't print notes - it chooses to steal them from America (the US of), so dollars are the currency. Luckily for all concerned 1 Balboa is worth exactly one US dollar.

Our hotel wasn't the poshest, and it wasn't in the nicest place. However I was amazed about how noisy the street outside was - until I realised (after we had woken up and got dressed by 7am) that the window was wide open. It was tolerably quiet when shut.

Our first day in Panama was spent lookng for somewhere to base our tourism from.

After traipsing through the heat - we settled on the Backpacker enclave of the Panama Mariott.