Archive for December, 2008



Ok, so I’m a day late, but Happy Christmas anyway. I’d often heard that Christmas in the sun doesn’t feel right, and it’s certainly true. There’s been very little build-up, hardly any decorations anywhere and certainly no constant playing of festive tunes. But, for all that I had a jolly old time. Christmas Eve is the big night here, and a big night it was. 5 of us cooked, drank and sang in the house, then we all toddled off to Casa Esmerelda to finish off the evening.

So, I’ve spent the last couple of days recovering, which is a bit difficult with the heat, and then tonight I’m getting on the bus up to Iguazu Falls, which is on the border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. It’s only a 14 hour trip which in South American terms is a medium-sized trip, and the seats on the bus are nice and comfy so I’m actually quite looking forward to it.

Back in early Jan, so Happy New Year too and I’ll stick all the photos up when I return.

Back from Uruguay, only to find that the internet in the flat no longer worked. Was fixed today hence the delay in updating my exciting adventures. It was a amazing trip, if you’re not on Facebook you can see the pics here, The beaches were empty, weather amazing if a little windy and generally full of great people. The Uruguayans we met were a very relaxed yet open lot. Friendly in the way you just never seem to get in Europe. No agenda whatsoever, just happy to chat. Loved em.

Sunset, Cabo Polonio

Been back here since Wednesday, vaguely aware it’s Christmas in 3 days but doesn’t feel like it. It’s very hot and I haven’t heard Slade once. Although I was walking home the other night at around 5ish and saw a lady sitting on a chair outside an open hairdressers shop having her hair styled. Not something you see every day, but somehow doesn’t seem out of place here.

Got my Yellow Fever jab today, complete with very exciting certificate to show I’m disease (that one at least) free. Apparently most countries round here won’t let you in without it. Which is kind of a relief. Am going to Brazil on Friday and then Paraguay on Sunday for New Year. Will be staying with a guy I met in Uruguay and I’m told the family he lives with will kill a chicken in my honour. I’ll make sure I get a photo..

After 5 days of nothing but beer and steak, I’ve managed to get myself into some sort of organisational order and am off to Uruguay tomorrow. There’s 3 of us and we’re heading across the River Plate on a boat to Colonia first of all then on Thursday onto Punta del Diablo, a small port town with miles of empty beaches up towards the Brazilian border. Not sure how long I’ll be away but I’m not taking the computer and there ain’t much up there in the way of anything so I’ll report back here when I return.

They sell beer in bottles over here, with a deposit on the bottle. Yesterday we decided to tackle this little lot stacked next to the grill, so we could buy beef and more beer.

Lots of Bots

We had to find a shop happy to take 350 empty beer bottles, which, after a lot of negotiation from Raul the Colombian, we finally did and they even let us borrow a couple of trolleys.

Raul & The Trolley

And after 4 hours of lugging glass about we were rewarded with 6 kilos of steak and 30 more bottles of beer. A very productive day.

So after being conspicuous by their absence the housemates have been slowly making their way back to the nest this afternoon. It’s like some sort of late-adolescent soap opera (I must be the oldest by at least 10 years). They all seem to be studying or on a placement. They’re all leaving to go travelling at some point over the next two weeks as either the placements have finished or university has broken up for the summer.

I’m sharing a room with Pamela the cheery Mexican, who seems to get on very well with Robin from Manchester, so much so she doesn’t actually sleep in our room, but in his. Which means of course that I get the room to myself, apart from when she toddles in cos she’s forgotten something. And she’s buggering off in 3 weeks to be replaced by an American who isn’t actually arriving until next year, so I’ve got the place pretty much to myself. I like her though cos I can understand her when she speaks Spanish. Something that doesn’t happen very often with the Argentinians.

As for the others, they’re only going to be around for 4 or 5 days, so I’m not really going to have much to do with them. There’s Roy the Dutch guy who is doing a placement for a camper van hire company. He’s supposed to be writing a business plan, but seems to spend most of him time driving to Patagonia to pick up empty vans, sleeping on beaches and smoking joints with his German boss, who apparently is a bit autistic. There’s Florence the architecture student who has spent the last days building a model of a housing estate in Tigre that she has designed. Tigre is a town just outside Buenos Aires which is on the Parana river delta so all the houses have to be on stilts, she will merrily explain to you. Her sister and her cousin are over too, so they’ve been helping cut out bits of round, green plastic to make the trees. They don’t really look like trees, but they look nice so I’ve not said anything. There’s a couple of others I haven’t really figured out, but most seem to be leaving soon anyway.

And all this wonderful value for less than £120 a month. Gotta love this town. Except for the fact that we had an almighty thunderstorm yesterday and the house had no electricity for 15 hours. So it was a bit dark. But I used the wonderful clockwork torch my clever ole mum gave me to read my book. So there.