Buenos Aires

ihana.com - big trip - diary - argentina - january 2003

Friday 27 December - Friday 3 January

An uneventful border crossing led us to Gualeguaychu where we happened to spot a great campsite by the river. Young girls splashing about in bikinis enjoying the hot weather were a factor in our staying there but, come the morning, a huge thunderstorm made the whole place a swamp and the beachgoers had disappeared.

Buenos Aires beckoned and we were soon driving along the huge 9 Julio avenue. With a friend of Bs soon due to arrive we needed to find an apartment for a few weeks. BsAs, as they write it here, was one of the most expensive cities in the world. Nowadays things aren't quite the same, the Peso is less than a third of its value and tourists with foreign currency are relatively well off here. Even so, some hotels and apartments still have dream-world prices and our first forays into finding long-term accommodation weren't successful. Fortunately we had the kind help of Adolfo and Silvia, a cousin of Ts ex-workmate, who put us up in their beautiful house until we found our feet.

After our xmas washout in Montevideo we were hoping for something better for New Year. With 15 minutes to go before midnight a bar had been found and we managed to get a beer in our hands to celebrate the end of a fantastic year. Not many people were there to celebrate with us as its still a novelty not to be at home with family for the stroke of 12 and apparently its very avante garde to be out for a meal on this evening. Luckily things picked up and by 2am the place was packed. Some drunken dorises sent us off to Pacha for a night of banging tunes surrounded by thousands of blokes, not wicked.

Bs mate, Smitho, later to be called simply 'lads', arrived conveniently on new year's day - he got the bus while B went to pick him up at the airport, hours late. We spent the next three weeks enjoying what is probably the best city so far for banging nightlife. The strong spanish influence on the country's population is apparent as the culture here dictates that everywhere is dead before midnight. People eat late in the evening, then the bars get going after midnight with the discos only getting interesting after 2am until the morning light. Its a great scene with friendly and wicked dorises everywhere! Click here to see a special page on the lad.

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