the wheel of fortune

Unsurprisingly it took the week to recover in BsAs from tango, polo, bomba (again), new arrivals, fake birthdays and far too many palmitos than generally considered socially acceptable to sustain me through my final weeks spanish. But energy restored (perhaps on speed induced impulsiveness) I ran off to Mendoza for the weekend.

Bus arriving 2 hours late of course we had missed the morning activities and to make matters that little bit more interesting my bank card wasn´t having any of it so i had to blindly make my own merry way across mendoza on foot. It soon became apparent why the card wasn´t working - insufficient funds for which i shall squarely blame O2 whom i´m certain drained my account in a full out assault on funds (Diane at Natwest agreed it was criminal).

Anyway, arrived to a distinctly peeved Felix wondering why exactly he´d been waiting at obscenely early hours for my non-arrival but no matter we were off to the wineries without a moments rest (or time for a shower). Somewhat rashly, given my recent biking history, we arrived at Mr Hugos (having failed to flirt our way onto a shuttle service) who initially rented us a tandem bicycle and gave us a map of the local wineries. The tandem was a bad idea and after approximately 180seconds of potentially fatal wobbling across a motorway we pulled off a U-turn without dying and shamefacedly exchanged it for some very uncomfortable, but less lethal, bikes.

15km, 2 wine museums, a couple of chocolate/hazlenut liquers, moonshine, absinthe, a little olive oil, three more wineries and large chunks of parrilla we managed to wind our (very) merry way to a final winery which turned out to have a lovely owner who gave us free brownies to sober up a little and then suggested he call the police to pack our bikes in the boot and drive us back to the refuge of Mr Hugos. Gallantly we declined the escort service as the girls looked like the 12km would be a pedal too far although not exactly sure what did become of them as several hours later the boys in blue still hadnt dropped them off at base camp Hugo where miraculously we had arrived unscathed and were celebrating the sabbath with dudu, josef and noi with the most repulsive free wine imaginable.

Very unwisely we decided that the hotel happy hour pisco sours were needed and promptly nearly nodded off into our steaks. Eventually managing to miss the 20,000 strong electronica festival in the forested ampitheatre apparently taking place. Aching muscles probably appreciated it though and a well deserved sleep later we awoke to mendoza the ghost-town. Literally not a sole to be seen or shop open combined with grey as they come skies made for a forlorn little waltz about the plaza independencia until the bright lights of a travel agency welcomed us in.

Not 40minutes later we were in a taxi speeding through the andes towards the next shot of adrenaline. Freezing, we arrived at the most beautiful lake where Argentine Rafting would soon be sending us a couple of km´s at speeds of 60mph with only a handheld piece of leather for a break. Whilst zipping up and down mountains and across lakes the sun did make an appearance and by our return to basecamp the gloriously blue skies were only surpassed by the electric azul of the lake below. Having to make the bus back to BsAs we had to give up the opportunity to sample one of the entire animals on the parilla and the chance for a cool Quilmes, at least a quick sunbathe at the hostel was afforded pre-semi camaing (although due to my fresh empanadas not exactly cheaper) the 15 hours back to BsAs. A last gourmet picnic in the park and a slight debacle over the keys (thank god for mr nice taxidriver) i was off to Lima.

speed

speed (the energy drink) is my saviour, its like red bull and i´m pretty sure it would result in cardiac arrest if taken for an extended period but fortunately i´m headed for the wilds of Peru soon so am presuming that speed wont be powering me up to machu picchu which apparently we will be seeing, even if on a rather different route.

the weekend saw another burst of energy as my first lie-in wiped out much of saturday a viewing of a dance festival in rivadavia and drinks in recoleta where the only activities undertaken but sunday witnessed tennis by nunez (y alguinos routas colectivos rados), a run around san telmo market (brilliant if youre furnishing a house otherwise overpriced, although i did my grocery shop pretty economically in the covered market away from the tourists in plaza dorrego) and fortunately i found out that the ferria de materdores is held on saturdays in feb/march so went round to arthostel with the girls and ended up heading out for a tango class, dinner and tango show. ocho ocho ocho ocho ganas. on it. I even made it to school on time on monday and despite heading out to bomba a nuevo and to bahrein yesterday i haven´t yet pulled a sicky and have managed a polo lesson and to get an argentine boy to cook me a steak - yes mum and dad spanish lessons are paying off brilliantly. Perfect; think I might just have to stay in BsAs!

quiet before the storm

well, having had an energy spurt last weekend i´ve been shattered for most of the week and aside from visits to la Bomba de tiempo, polo on tuesday and wonderland with an oversized alice i´ve been pretty lazy. This said due to the polo i have a ridiculous tan line (clarify I´m tanned enough to look quite ridiculous naked but not nearly tanned enough to warrant admiring remarks). Polo is interesting; essentially they throw you on a horse without breaks or english and start thawking balls at you before they set you loose in your very first chukkas. exhilarating but the rock hard saddles result in distinct problems in sitting down the next day.

I´ve attached a couple of photos; one from the Boca match which was incredible if rather a rip-off and another from the Graffitmundo tour. This weekend´s lining up to be similarly exhausting especially with a whole troop of westminsters passing through meaning that sleep will be severely rationed. hopefully we´ll get out to tigre on saturday, failing that we´ll pay homage to tierra santa in palermo and on sunday i´ve managed to promise to play tennis before san telmo market and the market of the ferria de mataderos on sunday so not much!

Lady Luck

Sweet, although might I add distinctly fickle, lady luck has returned, if fleetingly, to me. The Sanchez Elias are absolutely lovely and their home beautiful. In addition the other students staying are fun too and I can waltz along Marcello T Alvear to school in the blazing sunshine feeling like a French aristocrat. I have disgracefully indulged myself last week by squandering the luxury of time in BsAs. So this weekend I atoned for my sins by packing it in, I even turned down friday night at Crobar.

On friday after a much needed siesta (thursday is a big night out here) i ran off to palermo, in true porteno tradition i stuck to the rule of thumb that 1/2 late is a hora, and took a graffetti tour around the 3 districts of palermo (viejo/soho/proper) by way of the street art that appears there. It was quite incredible and a brilliant way to understand the issues facing argentinians today since the artists are in fact situated all over the demographic - in terms of age, sex and wealth they come from diverse backgrounds but, largely, are able to work alongside eachother happily.

Saturday got off to an affrontively early start in order to catch the 10am to Lobos (thankfully camilla told me reservations necessary and booked for me), which fortunately turned out to leave at 10.30 since i arrived at 10 needing to get out money. Not so fortunately lady luck had not frequented Serena who was coming adrenaline hunting too. 10.30 came and went and serena awoke to the not so blissful ignorance of my trail of messages. ahhh... although she arrived an hour after me nursing a particularly hateful `resaca´ as a souvenir from the previous nights adventures it wasn´t of any consequence as the paracadismo (hanggliding) was a very argentine outift and consequently we slept in the sunshine and ate under the canopy of parachutes and discoballs in the clubhouse until disturbed from our slumbers with a slew of thickly accented spanish from which we understood vamos and little else. I think it must of been the safety talk.

getting in the tiny little hawk and gradually climbing, watching the earth disappear intermittently as a cloud encompassed us was strange. at several points i thought it was time to bail out now; quite high enough. It was quite incredible to see somewhere so completely flat as well. a patchwork of fields broken only by an erratic display of lakes and rivers, the odd clump of forest as far as the eye could see. time to jump and remembering the simple tasks of jump 2nd, legs together, arch your back and hold onto the harness was pretty darn intellectually demanding! tumbling the 1st few seconds was simply surreal and so much so that you´re not afraid, after that it was amazing to voom towards terra firma and have absolutely no responsibility for pulling the zipcord. parachute out we circled about happily trying to catch the attention of Serena and chatting abouts superpowers and landing procedures (FAIL). Slight crash landing (no te preoccupades - todo es un el pericula) and greeted a similarly poor lander in the form of serena who was clasping a sick bag having experienced some midflight nausia! hysterical.

we then managed to miss 2 buses back to BA and instead found a really sweet traditional polo shop in charming, developed but traditional, Lobos where we clad up in bombatches and gaucho hats and bought presents for the boys back home at prices a tenth of london and a third of BA. Most impressively did a huge supermarket sweep for $30 of all the fresh local fruit&veg (amazing supper later with the contents; acelga, cebolla, ajo, zapallo, papas, huevos de pato YUM). the helados were a steal at $1/ball too but not as nice as freddos or chungas.

Despite two hours sleep i managed to arrive on time for the bike tour but since most failed in the task of rising at ungodly hours / had failed yet to make it into bed we didn´t head to Tigre as planned but around La Boca, San Telmo and Puerto Madryn instead working up a hefty appetite for a spoiling lunch at palermo hotspot mott. delicious and beautiful but so glad i dont live there as every shop was a tantalising prospect. i discovered Chungas, much better than Freddos and opted for mousse de maracuya which though pricey for a little thing was sublime, regretfully not quite as good as the pistachio that i probare pre purchase. totally exhausted I managed to stay awake to discuss the socialist agenda of Argentine politics preventing production and export of grain as well as the push for aggarian reform whilst Marina decided that she would be tracing the Duggans to see which are my cousins before inviting them round for a reunion... phew que fin de la semana!

carne

It is true. meat, meat, meat... its all they ever think about. Went to a true local parrilla yesterday, as in I was 4 stone lighter, considerably cleaner and drier, 10 times whiter and stood out for being female too. I have to upload a picture - its open to the street, one room grill and bar area and costs $17.50 for una media pollo con papas fritas. I do miss vegetables. If you ask for them you´ll get bread, or potatoes if you´re lucky, actually I found an amazing salad bar which isn´t expensive but I don´t feel much like a porteno eating there (impressive number of porteno businessmen eating there though considering the healthy fare).

That said I actually have to award the best steak prize to the saanga grill in the bus terminal (admitedly like an airport) at Curitiba, Brazil. So good it passed my ultimate steak test - it still tasted pretty fine the next morning at Igacu.

Continuing the meaty theme i`m leaving Dora and Clive´s ashes (did i mention the dead cat previously?) and meating my new homestay family over supper, at a parrilla of course but I get the feeling this will be rather different in tone to my lunchtime fastfood sweatfest. It appears to be a grand house in Recoleta, yes mummy phone contact impending, and aside from the lady who owns it and her 19yr old daughter (perfect) there are two other students staying (¡Que buenos a full!). Anyway time to face the music at Doras and hopefully head out to palermo later.

A2

Somehow I managed to find myself on the elementary/intermediate borderline despite my complete lack of hispanic influence for the last 5 years after the entry test. Slight sinking feeling initially at the task of writing about my preferred musical genre without any solid knowledge (largely i think in French and add on the perceived ´spanish´ endings) of the language. However, dare I say it, I`m not all that hideously bad (or maybe Juan´s just being extra nice)!

Slight issues with accomodation, after finishing up the Geckos tour (annoyingly situated 2 convient blocks from the language school) and waving goodbye to the boys, who at 2pm were passed out in the hotel lobby since the club had only closed at 7am and they obviously had a rather more generous drinks budget than mine judging by the colour of their faces, i soldiered on to meet my homestay family.

CORRECTION: OAP Dora, her dead cat Clive (currently being cremated after a day in the freezer... yum!) and what purported to be a mutilated chicken somewhere in the midst. Not quite the nice little family I had been imagining......... anyway I had a nice supper and ran off to the internet cafe for refuge before passing out to bridget jones on the TV (needed to drown out the sound of av. Cordoba running below the window).

Fortunately, looks like I`m now being sorted out with a homestay where there`s another student staying too as somewhere in the STA-Real Gap-Expanish chain the communication I`d like to live with other students/people of a similiar age/disposition there was an irreprable fracture. I might miss the free meals a little though - good steak last night!

I`ve toured around Recoleta and walked amongst the dead great and good before waltzing back down Av. Alvear past grandiose appartments and luxury stores. Found an old classmate (we don`t actually remember eachother...) and slept under the shade of the Obelisk in Plaza De La Republica. Hopefully we`ll get up to Tigre & San Isidro on a bike tour tomorrow and we`re booking skydiving for the weekend (the boys postponed from thurs as they cited the lack of 72 hours notice to get intoxicated enough not to comprehend thier impending doom as an issue)!

With any luck my hand will have healed up enough to play some tennis and polo which is cheap through the language school next week and expecting more friends tomorrow. All in all I can confirm that I`m being sucked into the black hole that is Buenos Aires!