Arrived in Buenos Aires (alone) yesterday. Came a day before my friends arrive tomorrow.
Yesterday really was a day of setbacks:
- My flight arrived 90mins late
- Some of us were sent to the wrong immigration line and had to queue up again, making it take over an hour to clear immigration
- The hotel lost my reservation, so lost 2hrs looking for somewhere else to stay (everywhere was booked)
- I was too late to take a ferry to Uruguay that i wanted. I was sent to the bus terminal to check if they had anything. Buses do not travel there (ever). Another hour lost trying to find the bus terminal and find that out.
- Tried to find a restaurant/bar i was recommended in the evening. Turns out I had been given the wrong address. 30mins lost.
So not that much fun. And the weather is quite cold! But today has been going good. We went to a soccer match and it was amazing (to see Boca Juniors, Maradonnas old club). We were both quite nervous (given we stand out), but it was so much fun. The crowd and music were very good there - great spirit. Looking forward to some famous steak tonight. I have a place staked out. No more mis-stakes. Ohhh dear.... what a stake you must be in now...
PART TWO:
On my way back from argentina now after a fun 10 day break. Spent 3 days in Buenos Aires, eating steak, watching a soccer match, sightseeing, partying and shopping. There were anti-bush riots going on, but we managed to avoid those.
We flew down to Patagonia and hired a Jeep to drive across into Chile. Saw some stunning mountain landscape in Torres Del Paine, near the southernmost city in the world. After 2 days in Chile, I drove us back to argentina. I did all the driving since the others cant drive manual, which was a lot of work - 8hrs driving a day on gravel roads.We went horse riding down there and did some treks around. On our way back to Argentina we ran out of petrol just before the final town we were heading to - we didnt pass a petrol station all day. Luckily we were only 20km from our final destination and the car people drove out with some gas for us.
Then we saw the Moreno glacier, which was amazing. Overall the landscape reminded me a lot of New Zealand, but this glacier was far more impressive than the ones there. Then we flew from the very south to the very north of the country (from snow to tropics) to Iguazu Falls. I think these are the best waterfalls in the world. Not as much water as Victoria Falls (where there is so much water you cannot ever see the whole thing there), not as high as Angel Falls, but the best overall views. We did a boat trip at the bottom and went right up the falls, getting
very very soaked.
Now sitting in the american airlines lounge in new york, about to go have brunch with some bain folks that are in town. On my flight back the woman next to me opened the overhead bin during the flight and dropped her laptop on the head of the guy sitting in front of me. You know you're having a good flight when over the PA system if there is a doctor onboard the plane... He was bleeding quite heavily.
