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Hello from Buenos Aires - December 7, 2006 Here we are in Buenos Aires and we are settling in well after just a week here. We are having our intensive Spanish lessons "Hola. ”Esta Bien? for 4 hours a day and we hate Spanish learning already...no, only joking, but it is hard work trying to be a student again after so long! New York was exciting and exhausing at the same time. Our hotel just off Times Square was perfectly situated at the centre of New York life and the tourist things, so we could just fall out of the hotel and be in the middle of Broadway. However, we did pay the price for being so centrally located by having a tiny room where John and I had to literally squeeze past eachother to get anywhere....still,not a bad start to married life!! Highlights: 1. The view from the Empire State - fanstatic (if a little chilly) 2. The Chrysler Building - perfect example of art deco and beautiful.... 3. The bustle of Central Station, made famous in many films and just as interesting in real life 4. Watching John eat an ENORMOUS salted pretzel from one of the many street stalls 5. The Ellis Island tour for seeing the Statue of Liberty close up and hearing about the history of the immigrants. 6. Enjoying an indulgent bottle of bubbly on the revolving restaurant in the Marriott in Times Square - very posh!! 7. Many, many more things (mostly involving food and seeing our friends Mark and Darlene and their little 2-month old baby, Dillon. Then to Argentina where at every corner is a BBQ steak house....Steak, steak everwhere...and not just any steak, this is the best we have ever tasted! John is in heaven and I was too for the first 5 days but now I want to find a vegetarian restaurant! Our first proper trip out of Buenos Aires will be to the Igazzu Falls which is an 18 hour bus trip North....mmmm... let's hope it is not a local bus shared with chickens! The Igazu Falls are described in one of the books as...."if you have seen Niagra, that will appear a trickle compared to the sights of Igazu"....well,I don't know if that is true, but we will let you know! I would try my Spanish skills on this blog, but seeing as all we can do is order steak and wine, I think I'll leave that til later on in the learning process! That's all for now. Mel |
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| Welsh heartland in Argentina!
We're not Welsh, we may have got married there, Pat my mum may have been born there but we're not Welsh.... For some reason I just like Wales and many of the people..... So hearing that there was a pretty Welsh heartland close to the Penguins (meaning white head in Welsh) we made the decision to come and have a look. It may be a bit harsh to say that Trelew (meaning "Village of Lewis") (in Spanish pronounced, Tre-le-oo) is as Welsh as Slough or Mansfield...... It may have some road names such as "Lewis Jones Avenue", "Robert Berwin Road" and "Lloyd Jones" but that's about it... So off we went to Gaiman which we were lead to believe was the most Welsh of the villages with Welsh Tea Houses, so Welsh in fact that Lady Diana came in 1995.... And to be fair there is a very typical Welsh house that looks as if it came out of the Valleys "The Evan's House" and a Welsh Chapel that it did make it more interesting and for a whole days budget we could have had Welsh tea and cakes but we abstained, putting the money instead towards the Penguin trip.... But we did wish them a "Blwddyn newydd dda"! |
| Mel goes Camping..... And Hiking (John's version)
So I picked the town...... A small set of hills, the only separation in 2000km along the eastern coast of Argentina (of totally, totally flat ) before our next main stop to the Welsh heartland & the Penguins. A perfect way to try out a bit of climbing and look down across the flat Pampas.... How was I to know there was a festival, how was I to know the it doubled the population of the town and all the buses for 4 days would be booked up..... How was I to know that all the hotels in the area would be booked up and search as we might, there would be no room at any hotels.... So we stumbled ( I had to carry / drag Mel) into a campsite that rented out tents...... But for 20 minutes it was a scene from Challenge Anika with the owners finding English speakers to confirm that it was true, two people had turned up, not only without a tent but no mats, no sleeping bags, no cooking equipment, not even any plates or knives or forks...... Surely our Spanish was wrong..... So, an hour later and it looked like something from the ideal home exhibition, a large tent erected for us, everything a camper could ever want with a wood delivery arranged for later. All we had to do was get the steaks and we had it made (similar to the £6,000 tents at Glastonbury last year....) The main part of the trip was a 5 hour return hike up a mountain (only 1450m) which I know Mel was dreading..... but we had a stroll the day before and Mel seemed OK, and when it came to the walk she was off.... flying up the hill it was hard to keep up... a 2 hour climb up was fairly hard with a very gentle final 1/2 hour along the ridge of the mountain...it's like doing the Miners path on Snowden for 2 hours... But there were kids and flipflop clad ladies doing it, so I think we were rather well equipped. Especially as I was loaded up like a pack mule, 4 litres of water, camera and food, plus emergency clothes encase the weather changed... But we got there and it was amazing.... Shattered as we were on the way down Mel decided that we should take another 1 1/2 hour diversion to a water pool to freshen up. Totally freezing but well worth it.... So in the evening we returned shattered and tired, crashed early to bed to be up for the 7am bus back the next day.... Only to find as we waited at the bus stop that it was Sunday and the first bus wasn't for another 2 hours, so, back to bed and a change of plan. A stroll around town followed by a small hill climb overlooking the town.... Returning to the campsite to pack and sadly for me a little too quick on the old packing front and this gave chance for the old Fat Camp Instructor to demand I go for an afternoon run back up the hill and back before we get on the bus for a few days!!!! I think there will be no rest until I'm challenging Kate Moss for skinny malinky of the year..... Only a couple of kilos to go! |
| New Years Day - Iguazu Falls
So you think you have seen a waterfall, one is surely like another.... River high up, river below...... Water falls from one to the other..... Easy..... It“s hard not to sound pretentious and I am trying not to be. I've been to Niagra and to Victoria falls and they're both great in their own way, and with Victoria falls you get to truely experience the power of the water but Iguazu, it truly makes Niagra look like you've left the bath running over. As you walk along the Brazilian side of the falls you are amazed, only to find out that that was just a small off-shoot. Then the falls..... except this is also just another off-shoot.... And so you go on five or six times until you see the main falls..... But its not until the following day that we were able to truly experiance the wonder of the falls as we trekked through the Argentinian side and felt the power. This is another great instance where the wedding gift list has made our experience so much more unique and amazing.... Before we climbed into the speed boat we had to place our bags, wallets, cameras etc., in a drybag. It may have only been 15 Minutes but as I said to Mel, hold on, this could be an amazing 15 minutes for me... (She's scared of water) but she loved it....Screamed her head off as we sped up past some of the smaller falls to get an amazing view of the main falls. Your heart is pumping and you truly know you're alive when you race into one of the smaller falls and the boat is swamped and pounded by the power. Talk about a power shower..... The whole day was amazing, just sitting watching the falls, swimming close to the falls, hiking through jungle passes to smaller falls and water pools and even Mel swam across a freezing pond to sit under what appeared to be a 3 ft wide trickle but with a 30 ft drop was an amazing back pummle....Walking back and seeing Tucans and other wild life (Mel says she saw 18 Pumas but she didn't get any on camera....and I just happened to miss them all!) All this followed by the evening which we spent in the park with Steak and a buffet followed by a romantic moonlit midnight excursion walking 2~3 km to the main falls in darkness, only possible when there is a full moon..... How lucky are we..... ( Mel loved it but I think the overpowering smell of Eau de Mozzy repellent put a dampner on many kisses) ...... |
| Spanish Boot Camp and the Silver Fox Well, sorry its late, but we've / I've been unable to get us on here... I'm sure you'd much rather know about all the exciting things we've been up to.... But we've been at spanish boot camp. 100 miles an hour whether we understand it or not!! And for me, who can't even read or write, let alone spell in English, Spanish is a slow start. Mel says its the similarity to French that has helped her, I think its just because she's cleaverer than I at getting these things, plus the apple she gives the teacher every morning... Funny its only when you learn another language that you start to understand your own. What is a perfect tense, the imperative, the subjunctive.... So now I'm having some time off clearing my mind and figuring out how to say certain things. Like, I have a grey hair. For many people could be considered easy, but when you don't have much hair could it be considered one out of the two hairs that I do have is grey thus : I have grey hair. And then how would you say that in Spanish.... Anyway, found my first grey hair a couple of days ago, and another today!!! Must be getting old, I'll be the silver fox by the time I return..... Must be the stress over here.... |
| John“s Diet
Ok so I told myself, lose weight for the wedding, and well, not too sucessfull there shall we say.... Ok, so then it was lose weight when we're on holiday.... And as Gerry said "Not with all that beef".... And, well, how can it be the same price to have a top notch sirloin steak as a small bowl of pasta, how can a T-bone stake cost less than a salad!!! And how can a country make salads so bad...T-bone steaks the size of you plate from £1.50 to £2.00.... And boy do they taste good.... A litre of beer for £1.20... And a salad from £2.00.... But as we've got to last 6 months we're on a budget of £12 a day for the two of us. So can have steak every day, and sorry to say definately can't afford salad.... (Shame) especially as half the budget goes on fruit every morning.... Well the othe option is a typical Argentinian breakfast of fried chorizo.... Our budget lunch was at the local greasy spoon where we can have a"chori-pan" - a bbq'ed chorizo the size of your forarm in a french stick and a glass of wine, for £0.50 per person. They know us so well now we've become known as the "Luna de Meil" the honeymooners...... So as the six pack that I had nurtured into a small keg headed towards the size of a silo, I was convinced (nagged) into buying a pair of runners and hitting the pavements..... Unfortunately its been cold here, (about 26-28) so B Aires has been spared from the sight of an unshirted body beautiful.... So enough rambling, I have to combine my two greatest loves, learning some more spanish verbs whilst running past the wrinkley old neuvo rich with their bling in the park.... Did I realy run the London marathon...... |
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| Seeing pingu and his friends You may or may not know that penguins are my favourite animal / bird and so I made sure that our travel itinerary included a trip down the east coast of argentina where the largest colony of megellanic penguins breed and bring up their young. So we arrived in trelew and found out from the tourist info that we could only access the colony by joining an organised tour, which we duly did for the following day. So, cameras in hand we set off for a day with pingu and his friends. January is the perfect time of year to see the penguins as the parents gave birth to their young about two months ago, so we were able to see adults, omne year olds and the chicks too (which were actually almost as big as their parents because they are fed all the food to fatten up whilst the parents practically starve themselves to feed their young). We were overwhelmed when we arrived to see thousands of penguins mixed with an interesting and somewhat overpowering smell which is common in colonies of this size. What was amazing is that there were no restrictions on being able to wander amongst them, watching the young sleep in their nests or a noisy feeding session between parents and chicks. You could safely come within three feet of them to observe them without upsetting them. It was an amazing experience seeing them tottering along the beach and then flinging themselves into the ocean. Needless to say we snapped away with our cameras and I had a permanent grin on my face as I was in my element to be surrounded by these cute creatures. In fact I loved it so much (and john did too) so that when we got further south to ushuaia we booked on another penguin tour to see another colony, which was equally as good..........so we are nw all penguined out and feel very lucky to have experienced this.....twice! |
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| Christmas on the Beach As slade said "Well this is this is Christmas"...... We're lying here an a wind swept beach, the waves are lapping at the shore and all is idyllic.... (Well actually they're crashing at the shore and it's not a sea but the largest river estuary in the world, (it took 3 hours by ferry to cross from BA) it's not salty water but fresh silt filled water....and brown...) But hey, you guys have got cold, wet, damp foggy conditions so I'd swap for this..... We've been able to turn our visit here from a day trip to a three day beach holiday in Uruguay....including Christmas. We thought we needed some chill out time!! The town is like the "The lanes" in Brighton or "whitmar whatmar gate" in York, lovely old houses, cobbled streets and lovely very old cars passing by, Austin Sevens, Plymouth town cars and other amazing ones. Some restuarants even have them outside as private dining cars/tables. So Christmas eve was spent on the beach, Mel reading, me darning socks and practicing the scene in the Casino Royale when Mel wasn't looking to appear like her " Mr Bond"..... More like Mr Blobby, large, red where the sun had got me and white where the factor 50 cream had landed. Lunch was a posh picnic with breads, cheeses, parma style ham, olives and little things that we still can't identify but were lovely and expensive...So much so that it all cost more than our meal the night before and that had 1.5L of sangria.... But it was lovely... We knew, honestly we knew, as in many European countries its the 24th not the 25th that is the big day..... But everything was open on the way to the beach, everything was open on the way back. A couple of places had signs upsaying they were closed, and they were. So, why when we came out after our shower was it like a ghost town...... Tumbleweed blowing down the streets, the only thing to be seen was frantic tourists running around trying to find a restuarent to eat in.... After about an hour we met all the same tourists in the supermarket before if closed buying bread, cheese, parma style ham..... So our Christmas eve meal was spent sitting in the marina looking over the boats to the town with a picnic, danish pastries and a cold bottle of beer...... Fantastic as the christmas fireworks went off overhead.... So, Christmas morning down to breakfast, and as its christmas, not the usual but sponge cake... with multi-coloured glacia cherries in..... But then the whole point of traveling is to see how things are done in different places. So you can keep you sausage rolls, sausage and bacon sandwiches, (with butter and tommy K) no we had it Uruguayan style.... Sponge cake with glacia cherries... And then off we went for our lunch, we'd read about this in the book. Posh hotel, buffet lunch, pool.....and it might have been nice but I think half the town had the same idea and the tranquil pool seemed like a butlins adventure park for dive bombing teenagers..... So temped by the beach again, we poped into the shop next door and loaded up for picnic...again. Gutted to hear that the hot chickens had just gone on and they were closing so they'd be ready for 9.30 tomorrow morning (well rough spanish translation). Instead we opted for the half a baby pig. (About a quarter once I got the lady to cut the head off, mel wasn't looking forward to Christmas picnic with babe looking at her!) And off we headed to the beach..... Untill the heavens opened..... Hard to get the smell of roast herb and garlic piglet out of your hotel room...... So, the suns come out again, we're at the beach again. Mel's reading some..... Paulo Coelho.... and I'm just writing to say thanks to everyone so far that has made our holiday so much more special. And hopefully tonight a slap up meal..... P.S. Well no problems getting food on the 25th.... much like any other day!!!! So we went to the funkest and livelyest place in town, and after previously eating more meat than the Atkins weightloss champions we opted for some amazing pasta dishes.... And with all the Italian immigrants, we can honestly say that it was better than our food in Rome..... Maybe that was also due to the sticky toffee pudding I had for desert and an amazing coffee.... Oh the jugs of rather nice white wine might of helped too.... |
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| BOCA, Mighty BOCA Who ate all the pies, who ate all the pies....... Well for once not I, nor did I snort my way through the GDP of a small South American country in bolivian marching powder...... But then again nor did I slip one past Peter Shilton in Mexico 86 with the hand of God and go on to be considered second only to Pele as the worlds greatest footballer....But then Maradonna wasn't able to snap up the most wonderful women in the world and marry her...... So, unfortunately the season had ended by the time we got out of Spanish boot camp. And the last game of the season had tickets in the safe end of the stadium going for £100+ each.... But then it was a playoff for league champion position between BOCA and one of their arch rivals. The first time in 38 years a playoff had been required... We watched the game at the bus station and when BOCA lost it was like Evita had risen and died again in the same moment with millions in mourning.. And in a way its possibly a good thing we weren“t able to go, its hard to say stadium and not ..... Roman ampitheatre..... With opposing teams being thrown to the fans like Christians to the Lions.... Whilst BOCA get to have the team tals in a plush dressing room and warm upon sprung astro turf, the opponents have a cell under the stand of the home fans 15, 000 of them, all standing above them. And to warm up a 10" square concrete room...... Then as the BOCA team and the refs enter through a tunnel by the centre line of the pitch the opposing team head at eye level past the corner flag between the standing fans behind the goal and BOCAs hooligans who have their own segmented pen the other side... Despite Hillsbrough it still has 30,000 standing room and all sides are penned in!!! Even if you are lucky enough to have a seat, only one side of the ground has seats so 28,000 more people fit into that side. Crampons and ropes are required to get you to the highest of the seats with the angle of ascent set at 89 degrees.... I think wheel chair acess is some time off... I think even Wrexham town have a better stadium....but not such an impressive legalised torture chamber. But it was an interesting tour of the ground and once we'd seen the grounds and the pitch we were left to watch the secuirty gards have a knock about (fags in hand) then head to the museum to see the impressive list of achievements, making Man United look like a Sunday league team it was then off to the gift shop to see the Maradonna signed T-shirts, sandles, bottles of wine & crisps...... I think even the pope would be impressed with his money making merchandise. But all in all a great experience and lesson in mental oppression..... |
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| Can it get any better that this..... There must be something in the water, we've traveled for about 30 hours on a crapppppppy bus. We arrived at our hostel at 2am to find that our bookinghad been canceled as they were full, but after begging (and selling Mel to the owners uncle) (only joking Carol, she's fine, really) they let us stayin the end room that was under repair......then the guy on the door started to sell us the package tours they run as he's showing us to the room!!! All the other travelers got up at 6am to get their early buses and breakfast was cold toast microwaved!!! But hey, it had been nearly 40 hours without coffee so things were looking up.....as the black gold arrived..... But as I said, can things get any better than this. That was yesterday and today is another day.... We're in El Calafate, a small tourist town close to the border with Chile and home to the Glaciers in Argentina. We have done an organised tour (our third and by far the best) a day on a boat sailing across the 3rd largest lake in South America to see glaciers, lots of them! Blew the budget out of the water but once again the gift list came into play and made it possible... To break up the day you get off at midday to hike through a forest to a lake with a couple of other glaciers feeding a lake and iceburgs floating in the lake. A great place to find a little nook and break some bread for a picnic. Then back on the boat to get up close and personal to the last couple of glaciers, the big momma and puppa of the all the widest and tallest. With the creaks and cracks that they made they even dround out the sound of my joints! And then to watch iceburgs fall from them and come crashing into the lake... Amazing.... Then a couple of hours ride back under the blazing sun taking in the snow caped mountains and lakes filled with iceburgs......perfect.... But then maybe there's something in the water because Mel has decided that we should buy a TENT! And stay near the snow capped peaks!!! Our first point of call being Mount Fitzroy base camp..... For me who loves camping and doesn't feel the cold anywhere near as much as Mel is a dream come true.... The only down side is that I am to be renamed Sherpa Tensing as I have to carry the lot including Mels electric blanket and 4 mile cable back to the power point in the local town..... |
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| The earth moved for me.... Imagine the scene, you've hiked for four hours up over forests and mountains into a beautiful valley. You pitch the tent on a bit of a flat by a river at the edge of a forest and are surrounded on 3 sided by lovely picture postcard snow capped mountains and as you look out of the tent onto mount Fitzroy, 3500m high peaks glowing in the clear sky.....you think camping, isn't it wonderful... After a wonderful meal had cooked over an open calor gas fire of pasta and veg soup you lie back to sleep and rest your weary bones pleasantly content and looking forward to the 7 hour walk you have the following day..... Then at 2am..... BOOM.... Can thunder be so loud it lifts you off the floor.... As fork lightning lights up the snow capped mountains like the dodgy light show at a school disco and the thunder hits you so hard that your chest vibrates and the items in the tent jump off the ground as if in free fall... Even through her 64 fleeces and 19 thermal leggings and balaklava Mel knows this is not natural as you try and convince her "everthing in a tent feels closer to nature" and "in the UK double glazing stops us from feeling thunder like this..." Whilst all the time you're praying to any God that will listen that you're too young to die in an avalanche...... So from 2am until 5am the earth shakes, the tent jumps, your wife lookes like a puma backed into a corner and ready to pounce and you...... Well I'm sitting there thanking mu lucky stars that I opted to buy the heavier tent with the thicker flysheet as unlike the French couple to our right and the Americans to our left somehow, at least we are still dry...... A plus point somehow lost on Mel..... |
| Blogs that never made it.....
Do I need shoes.... "the soles of my feet are as tough as rocks" Sorry sir this is the ladies toilets..... "Oh, sorry madam, ....." Said to Mel after her Buenos Aires haircut.....!!!!! Is that a dead rat in your shoe... "I never thought something could smell so bad...." Finest honeymoon cuisine.... "15 nights camping with boil in the bag pasta again......" Honeymoon passion.... "Are you having a laugh....John's asleep before Mel's got half her 64 fleeces and 19 thermal leggings off, not to mention the balaklava that her mum gave her!!!" "Who sleeps in a balaklave anyway" Come on John, its only an 8 hour walk..... "Sure but I'm the one carrying the tent, equipment and 15 nights worth of pasta" Bed head "Even bald men get a bed head if their three hairs grow long enough" Mels fat camp update. "Cut an inch off the belt, must be all the hiking...." Spanish is improving... "15 packetes de pasta, por favor" |
| So it starts last first ......start at the bottom and read upwards ...if that makes sence,,,, the others will start the right way round.... Move on to Chile to see how our adventures have continued..... |