Cordoba & Buenos Aires ("we estimate your compression")

Hosting no less than 5 universites, and having been crowned the 2006 capital of culture for the Americas, Cordoba had a lot to live up to; and it didnt disappoint. Not that we saw THAT much of the city itself. Let´s just say (sorry still havent found the right symbol for apostrphe on these spanish keyboards duh) we finally got into the pace of partying in Argentina, as the Argentinians do... Start late, and finish later.

One observation I´ve made here is that Argentinians (and apparently latin Americans in general) are not in any great hurry to do anything. Often you´ll be left waiting in a restaurant for a seemingly quick to prepare meal, although when it comes, the food will be amazing. People here eat dinner around 10pm usually. I´ve been told there is even a phrase in spanish used when orgainising a meeting; a la hora ingles ("english time", used when its a formal meeting and punctuality is expected) and a la hora latina ( meaning " on latina time"...for more social meetings, when you are almost expected to be up to half an hour late. I think Ali is on this time) Here a party will typically start around 1.30 to 2 am, and thats early. People will slowly make their way to night clubs around 3 or 4, dancing till well past sunrise, finding some breakfast and then head to bed for the day. Good times alright, but a physically exhausting and sometimes frustrating routine as it pretty much rules out doing anytihng useful for most of the next day and sleeping through all that important sunshine we are bereft of in Ireland... Having said that I did pretty well with it for a good few days in Cordoba.

We spent a lot of time in our hostel because thats were the banter was mostly, and soon we met a great group of people who we would spend the rest of our time with there. Most of the time we were on the rooftop, sunning ourselves during the day, and singin songs with the guitar at night. Or else we were in the bar downstairs playin cards or pool. We met some really nice English girls and a group of crazy Israeli´s - yes Machel Im talking about you (side note: there are an incredible amount of israeli people traveling in S.America, and BA in particular...have to say always cool people to hang out with)

But the Cordoba good times couldnt last forever, and last week we all said goodbye (teary eyed of course) and went our seperate directions. (sad face symbol... :( is that how you type it?) It seemed that everyone left the hostel that night, half to Salta and the other half to Buenos Aires.

And so here we are. The big BA, all up to date. Been here since last Friday and, even though it was hyped up to the last by everyone I have met, I do still think its a great city. A huge city, actually, but always something to do here. We strolled around posh Palermo with its old colonial architechture, ate at piano music steakhouses in San Telmo, watched random people tango on avenida de florida, and of course, the "must do"; attended a BOCA Juniours games in La Boca...So many different people, different cultures, and a great place to spend some time and many imrove your spanish. Unfortunately we dont have to time or money to hang around here too long, and very soon we will leave for Rosario and then onwards and upwards, where the countries get cheaper and hotter. We´ve spent a lot of time in the last few days looking into how exactly to go about traveling to Brazil and on up to Bolivia, Peru and Columbia (on land!), and which route to take. And we concluded after looking at our finances; it will be a challenge... But thats what were here for! "Nobody said it was easy..."

So on we go keeping our ears and eyes open for anything that can help us find the best way across this continent...Yes, we did have a plan. But plans change, isnt that what its all about? Next stop, Rosario... and then... eh... who knows? I´ll tell ya next week.

Slán a chairde

Brian