The Paris Of South America : Buenos Aires Day 1 : Tues 21st Jan

We arise late, 11.30am, starving. Last night's ice cream has not helped our empty tummies, nor has the pervasive heat of the city. Sometime around 8am the sky crashed down around us, the rain sounding like an engine of a powerful motorcycle. We dash ourselves through the shower, which charmingly has no waste pipe, but empties onto the floor and down a drain in the centre of the room. Our hostel is well located, and we walk fifteen steps into a little Peruvian-themed eatery where I get a quarter grilled chicken lunch with chips for $35. How much is that? Well ordinarily you would divide by 10 and its a little cheaper than that. However the Argentine Peso is in free fall, thanks to a government initiative to freeze prices in supermarkets, combined with some crazy taxes on mail order goods, amongst debt defaulting and a lack of international investment. So where the pound / peso ratio was 1 to 10.5 about four weeks ago, its now 1 to 11.4. And thats only the official rate. If you go onto the black market, you could be getting nearly $20 a quid. However, we are working on a simple rule : firstly divide by ten. If it seems reasonable then go with it (especially food wise), that way we can feel like we are spending a normal amount of money when, in fact, we are spending virtually nothing. If its anything else, divide by 20, and its a little dearer than that in the real world.

So today's lunch was $35, or £3.10 in the official world, or £2 in the real world. Which is very ok, as it was substantial and delicious.

What does Buenos Aires look like?

Casa Rosata, or the Pink House, Argentina's equivalent to the White House. Not behind a big metal fence though.

This plaza is where the mothers of the disappeared gathered to protest to the military junta back in 1977. The painted white headscarves on the ground are similar the those the mothers would wear.

Not sure what part George Best played in Argentina's history...

Here we had the pleasure of watching West Ham play Man City in the League Cup whilst drinking litre bottles of Quilmes for about £1.50 a go. A man who looked a little like Ricky Tomlinson during his Royle Family days and who spoke with a very think accent showed me a photo from his home; a little shrine, on the right was a statue of the Virgin, on the left was a portrait of his mother, and in the middle was a small flask with Boca Juniors on it. Sarah is starting to understand the importance of football, but it's early days yet.

Yes, more bloody Irish bars. Here, however, 'Irish bar' seems to mean 'craft beers', as every one we have been to has had a decent selection. Not only that, but this place had 4hrs every day of Happy Hour, when pints were 2 for 1 ($50). Very tasty stout was had.

Sarah tricked me into thinking we were going to just another bar. However she had tracked down this little gem. Sure, its popular with expats, tourists and backpackers, but the beer was still 2 for 1, there was a crappy pool table, and they made us tasty fish n chips and chicken tikka masala for dinner. We also met some very odd characters here, at least one of who was akin to Jeff Black's brother Johnny.

Wish I had thought of this when I had a job in hospitality!

After a while the little pool room filled up, and we headed out into the night, back to our scorching hostel, where we got no bloody sleep yet again. Buenos Aires is in desperate need of a thunderstorm.