"It doesn't look that far on the map..." : Buenos Aires Day 3 : Thurs 23rd Jan

We have spent the night in a new room, away from the boys with their tins of deodorant, instead now in a four bed dorm with a perfectly nice young lady who seems to have a real job. Sarah has had a fan pointed at her head the entire night, and has actually gotten some sleep.

Adventure Number 1 : I have ordered my pesos from www.azimo.com , which seems to have worked dream (now that Nationwide are satisfied that I authorised the purchase, and I'm not just some creep in Argentina trying to rip me off). Only problem now is to head to the collection point, a supermarket about 15 blocks away from the hostel. "I'll be back in 20 minutes" I said to Sarah. A pity I neglected a few obvious problems; firstly, that we have 100% humidity in the city right now, and second that there might be a queue.

Within a few minutes I am sticky, and within moments of that I am damp, and very quickly I am drenched. I am walking with my best angry face on, so that no one thinks 'vulnerable tourist' and instead think 'raving maniac'. It works, and I am unmolested. The supermarket isn't exactly in a charming area, which doesn't help my concern, but I manage to make it in, hang around fifteen minutes as the other folk get sorted out, and finally, after a myriad questions from the chap at the counter, withdraw with my tiny fortune. Angry face back on, away back down a different, less pikey, street, and I am back at the hostel a mere 90 minutes after I left. I need to work on my concept of time.

In the meantime the chaps from the hostel have come and taken the big fan away from Sarah's head. She isn't a happy bunny and has tracked down alternative accommodation for us. This hostel is getting a bad review from her. I am certain that the impending storm will sort out this heat, but she is unconvinced. We agree to disagree, but are uncertain of how to proceed. We head out towards Recoleta, a neighbourhood we haven't strayed into yet, although that may be because it is much further away than we thought it was.

The Faculty of Medicine of University of Buenos Aires. Once again, we have a city where some of the finest buildings are simply snug behind some modern monsters.

Just across from the Medical Faculty we have homages to students who were detained and disappeared.

After an incredibly long walk, my stomach wakes up and announces its intention to consume the rest of my body, should I fail to eat any time soon. We call into a charming little restaurant where I have freshly squeezed orange juice and a big plate of Hake in Galician Sauce (Spanish paprika, olive oil, onions) and boiled spuds. Absolutely delicious, though Sarah cannot believe I can eat something with so many tiny bones in it. I am often surprised at my transformation into a man who grabs ribs with his hands and tears through them without a thought. I used to be so finicky in my childish days. Sometime I think I might even peel an orange.

Recoleta Mall. Fancy!

The walls around the cementario. Naturally it was closed by the time we arrived, barely after 5pm. We have yet to become used to the rhythms of South America. Tourist things happen from 9am - 5pm. Most bars open at 6pm. Clubs get going about 3am. People in hostels mostly go to bed at 1am. Dinner is at midnight. Breakfast is 8am - 10am. Apparently you just sleep in between all these things. It is body-clock-chaos.

We wandered a little more after not seeing Evita's grave. Unfortunately we walked in the wrong direction. We did find the little park with the cartoons in it (see other post) but by the time we started to walk back it was starting to get dark. The storm (or, in Spanish, el torment, much better!) was clearly gathering. By the time we found a little cafe relatively close to our hostel, the wind was picking up and lightning starting to flash behind the buildings. 

Probably the least appetising desert I have ever seen. Seriously, Burger King? Little green pellets on top of whippy ice cream?

Why??? What happened?? Did she get shaved????

Nope. Not eating here.

In the cafe we had a beer and took a photo of this tv, in case you didn't believe how hot it was. I had suffered a headache all day, a sure sign that something is very wrong with the world. Eventually the high was of 47degrees, the hottest in 105 years or so. We watched the news hoping to spot me, for I had been interviewed earlier in the day by a little roving tv crew. The peso had fallen against the dollar faster than in the past ten years. Did I feel like Argentine's wanted a strong peso? "Yes, but they want the government to make tough decisions and the first move." Sometimes I am glad I actually know about things. Some things.

Before heading to the hostel we called into the supermarket for a beer or two. We have decided that, sadly, a lot of beer here is a little disappointing. For a start, they are often very sweet, which is probably to the taste of the natives, but not for us (though I have had some very good beers in Irish pubs, a sentiment I am loathe to repeat). Here, however, is some Nutella that, should you be exchanging money at the correct rate, would cost about £6 a jar. I don't think even Kieron would pay that for it (and he enjoys it with a bottle of Baileys as a chaser).

Back at the hostel, we climbed up to the rooftop terrace and retrieved our drying clothes before the rains came. Then, beer in hand, we sat back on sun loungers and took photos of the skies as the clouds swirled in ugly patterns over our heads. The photos are long exposure shots, so don't really capture the dark / light contrast, but I have a video of it and when you watch it on fast forward it's pretty spectacular.

Afterword : sometimes this blog gets edited knowing my audience may not find everything that we get up to as amusing as we do. However, its good to know that sometimes we are doing very very stupid things because you quite simply can.

Here is me with a bottle of beer and some swimming shorts on. And a Swiss Army Knife (though that's only for the photo, not lightning conducting). I planned to head up to the room and get soaked though as the storm raged and sorted out the humidity. It was a plan, and could have been epic. Unfortunately the storm had already taken a lot of the heat out of the air, and a chill wind was blowing, and the rain was just a bit limp and crap, and not the soul-cleansing experience I had hoped for. Gave it up as a lost cause, put some clothes on and did some blog instead.

Not before Sarah did her best impression of 'a Mum'.