The Comfortable Life in Chile

 

I first met Maria (Maite) and Francisco when they were living in Sydney for the year and Maria was working at Alexandria Vets. She too is a Vet but was working as a nurse at the time. When they left Sydney I was so upset because I thought I wouuld never ever see them again. I know, this isn't Vietnam 1970. They have planes that can take me to Chile to visit them nowadays. And yesterday this happy reunión occured and I couldn't stop smiling, even though I had just been on the same bus, in the same clothes for 22 hours, I was just so happy.

 

They are just the most amazing and kind people and have opened their home to us. We have a comfortable bed. With a massive TV in our room. AND our own private bathroom. The last hostel we were at we had one bathroom, for the WHOLE hostel. The contrast from povo to luxury is just too great.  I asked Maria the day before which train or bus would be best to get to their place and she was like "Are you nuts! We are going to pick you up from the station". No buses, no lugging our bags around and getting lost. I think I'm in a dream that I will wake up from and I will be back in my hostel being eaten alive by bed bugs.

 

And on top of that we had the most awesome BBQ on their balcony that overlooks the city with the mountains in the backdrop. Francisco is a fantastic cook and even after all the amazing meat we had in Argentina this was even better tan that. And to finish this very boastful blogpost Maria's Vet friend Anna came over for dinner and brought over her dog. We had a dog! Her name is Carlotta and she is a very happy and super cute dachshund. She was very well loved by both of us but she of course loved Kevin the most and chose his lap to nap in. Oh and today we had a beautiful picnic with again, amazing food by Francisco and we got to see Flamingos and black necked swans in the park. I cannot use enough positive superlatives in this post but I think you get the picture by now. More about Chile next time.

 

 

Being nocturnal in Buenos Aires

I love Buenos Aires. I´m just putting it out there and then I´ll tell you the reasons why. It´s often described in guidebooks as the Paris of the Southern Hemisphere. The first thing I noticed was how really European the buildings were, very old and grand. It´s a beautiful city just to stroll around. Secondly I noticed how delicious all the food looked from the patisserie windows, I just knew that the things were looking up for my sad stomach.

The other very distinctive characterisitic about BA is the incredible night life. People are out and about in the middle on the day carrying on with their normal business and then all the restaraunts shut down in the afternoon and don´t open again til about 8pm. And even then that´s considered an early dinner. I was dying of hunger the first night, wandering the streets looking for something that was open. The locals or portenos are night owls and don´t usually eat til 9 or 10pm and then they stay out til 5 or 6am. This is a completely foreign concept to Kevin and I and we were usually in bed by 11pm for our first week in BA whilst our most of our rooomates stumbled in at all hours throughout the night.

The Argentinan tango is a slow, senusous dance and is omnipresent in BA. Steak and tango. The two things you just have to experience in BA. There are a lot of tango shows on offer but they are expensive and often too touristy. Last night we went to a milonga, a half bar half dance hall where locals and a few experienced tourists would go to strut their stuff on the dance floor. We went to La Catedral and it had an awesome ambience, dark and a bit mysterious. They´re amateurs but some of them a REALLY good and there was this old couple their who were all dressed up, moving gracefully arond the dancefloor, eyes closed, just enjoying each other and the tango. I wished with all my being that Kevin and I could be that couple one day, it was so romantic.

We were determined to be true protenos for at least one night and party til the sun came up. We had some respectable thai food at 9pm, then headed to La Catedral til 2am and then danced the rest of the night away at a club. Mind you it was a Tuesday night but the club was packed and we danced the night away. So we stumbled home proudly at 5am and crashed for 3 hours til we had to wake up for our free breakfast. We were a bit messed up but then so was everyone else in the hostel. It´s nice to fit in.