Howdy all, Steve here, reporting from the Hostel Estoril in Buenos Aires. I’ve made an executive decision as to how I’ll keep you posted while we’re over here. Flash blogs. Meaning, just short little posts filling you in on the basics, and some of my thoughts. Hope you’ll understand my brevity. There are better things to do than write on a machine. But thankfully, for the time being, the hostel has hooked me up with free access to updated the blog. The posts will be pretty much straight translations from my notebook, where I’m organizing my thoughts. When I get back, I’ll update these with pictures too hopefully. On we go…
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Click here for pics from the last 2 days in Buenos Aires and the flight home. Hi all… the time has come to look back on the final couple days of our trip to Argentina. When I last wrote to you all, I was seated in an Internet cafe in Mendoza writing about that great city. I was about to hop on the overnight bus to Buenos Aires, a trip lasting 13 hours or so. In order to prepare for this, I picked up a litro of cerveza, and some snacks at Norte, a local grocery strore. Funny enough, I got searched by the security guard. Guess I looked shady. Of course, all I had were some chocolates I bought at the local chocolate factory. Tartufo. If you’re ever in Mendoza, I recommend you stop by there. They are an ice cream, as well as chocolate factory. Mmm delicious. I dragged some of the gang there, and the only person who wouldn’t buy anything was Sabine, our little Swiss miss. She felt it would be unpatriotic to buy chocolate in Argentina. Oh well, I couldn’t convince her otherwise. But I digress. We got to the bus station, and I headed to the bar with my new South African mate Allen for a quick Whiskey. Yup, somewhere along the line, he sort of convinced me I should start drinking whiskey. And you know what? It’s not half bad. So, we had a quick Johnny Walker Red Label, then boarded our final overnight bus. It was a pretty sweet ride as usual. The on-board attendant was a really nice guy, and popped in a DVD called ‘The Classic Project’, which was a music video collage of hits from the 80’s. We all had a great time just guessing the songs and singing along. We figure most of the other passengers didn’t really enjoy it as much as us, but that’s life. Suffice it to say, it was yet another long bus trip where I didn’t sleep too much. That’s where the beer helped me though. I managed to squeeze in a couple quality hours of sleep anyway. I wanted to be somewhat refreshed for our last full days in Buenos Aires. Read on for more about the last day.
18/03/08
Greetings from high in New Zealand at Arthur’s Pass village. I’m in the cafe/store at the moment just killing some time before my train gets here to whisk me back to Christchurch. I’ve taken advantage of the time to book all my remaining rail travel, and just made the realization that this is Easter Weekend coming up. Looks like I might end my trip in the tent, as hostels are booked pretty solid for that weekend already. Oops. Hadn’t counted on that at all! However, that’s the future, you’re probably much more interested in the recent past and present, n’est-ce pas? Today was an absolute stunner of a day up in the mountains. I must have a tramping weather horseshoe up my butt, because yet again when I tramped hard and fast up into the mountains, I was rewarded with clear blue skies and some of the most magnificent 360 degree views I’ve had in my entire trip. I’ve looked at my pictures, and sadly, they can not do justice to what I actually saw. In spite of that, please check them out, and the map showing you just where I went hiking.
01/02/08
Happy February everyone! I barely realized that today was the start of another new month down here in New Zealand. As a result, I’ve celebrated by running around naked in the Tasman Sea! Yup, it looks like I may have to change the rating on my site for mature audiences only. Sorry folks, I just had to do it. I wasn’t sure when I’d have the opportunity to do my naked mile, but today, an opportunity sort of presented itself on a deserted cove and beach for me. This was another one of my famous ‘rest days’, where I get up and spend the day hiking and biking for fun, rather than purpose. There were several hiking trails around this area, and great beaches, so that’s what I did today. I carried my GPS around with me for a lot of the day, so I have another map for you with lots of pictures to check out. As well, if you’d like to hear more about the origins of the thumbnail you see… read on!
Well, Jody and I had such a great time visiting New York that we’ve decided to make a return visit in the next few weeks. Andrea is currently working down there representing Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs on their mission to the United Nations. Or something like that.
At any rate, we’ve booked tickets to head down there from Ottawa on the bus. It’s about 9 hours each way, and we plan to make the trip on the red-eye. So we leave Ottawa at 10pm Thursday, and arrive 7am Friday. Ths shitty part is on the return trip, we get back to Ottawa at 7am on Monday. Oh well, straight to work for us!
Another funny thing that I learned is that on Greyhound, you don’t actually reserve a seat, you just get a ticket, valid for up to 1 year. That’s a bit scary, but the guy assured me if we get in by 30 minutes before the bus leaves, we should get on. Here’s hoping! All that remains is that we get our camera back from the shop by then, We haven’t had out camera since Peru. The lens wouldn’t open anymore. Woes us…