First day (15/Jan/06)

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Well, after 3h sleep and a 12h flight we arrived 2am Argentinian time at the hostel. Obviously, instead of going straigh to bed we stayed up for a couple of hours sipping beers and soaking up the atmosphere. The hostel has a nice big communal room to chill out in, mixed rooms with not too many beds (only 4 in ours) and is situated nicelly in the center. Rained cats and dogs today even though it's supposed to be summer, but we went out anyways, to the nearby San Telmo neighbourhood, which has nice antiques ("more than 10 years old" in America) shops, cafes and restaurants. We had a full-on Atkins diet lunch for tuppence, got soaked, and generally walked around for a bit. Buenos Aires is really nice, and feels so familiar. Quite a lot like Madrid really, but with more small shops and less big chains. The people are also pretty chilled, and the accent doesn't get on my nerves as I thought it would.

Just off to find some empanadas for dinner, then early to bed as tomorrow morning we have to find us a bus down to Peninsula Valdés, a nature reserve 18h down South on the way to Ushuaia. We'll probably get an Argentinian mobile as well; if we do we'll post the number on this blog.