toogreytogrind

Oh well, I´m back in Montevideo again and it´s wet here as well. After not getting any sleep at Red Hostel and paying $300 a night I went for a wonder around and found the Juncal Hotel (Durazno 1279 Tel 908 7997) for $300 with baño privado, double bed and cable TV. Ok so the people upstairs woke me up this morning with their shagging, but apart from that I had a good sleep so worth it over the hostel, even though I can´t cook there. I seem to remember being with a girl like that, who was very vocal when having sex, and it was, well a bit too much.

I´ve bought my ticket back to Colonia and the plan is to head for Buenos Aires from there.

There´s not much to do here as it´s so wet, looking at the news there´s been floods all over. I think I´ll have a night in and watch some TV.

Shakira has a house here, so does Julio Iglesias. Why for the miles of sandy beaches and the sunshine. Well, my blog is called too grey to grind and at the moment the sky here is saying "too grey to go out", it´s wet and cold down here on the beach and it´s not the cheapest place to spend time. Nor the most entertaining, there´s not much, well, nothing cultural here.

There`s only two hostels in town because it´s not really that sort of place. I´m in the "1949" and I´ve been put in the room with the same loud lot from Montevideo. I thought I had escaped. Back in Montevideo I´m going to get a hotel room and hopefully a good night´s sleep.

I remember talking to a guy from Oz and he said that there´s more silicone in the girls here than in the sand. Well, after 3 cold wet and windy days here I´ve not seen any of that. I´ve had a few walks to the cold, sorry I mean old town, which is cool. There´s a rocky beach and it´s been quite atmospheric sitting and watching the waves and mateando. Yes, I´m still trying to get to grips with mate. After reading a bit about it and talking to some people, if you are drinking it by your self it is more of a meditation drink. So, that´s been me meditating by the sea, drinking some strange green tea.

Well, rather than meditating I found myself thinking about Brighton. When I was living down there on nights like this I´d go down to the sea front and watch the sea, and you´d have crazy people playing drums, and looking at the sea.

The way that I´m feeling now, I think I`ll go to the east of Uruguay and see how I feel. If I feel the same way as now, I`ll go into the Delta office in Montevideo and change my flight to a sooner one.

Montevideo again was not really on the Radar as a must see place, although I had always planed on taking the ferry over. The ferry turned out to be expensive and it was best to go to Colonia, which again was a result. Montevideo has an old town by the port which still has it scruffy side and it`s gentrified side as well. Like Colonia it has beaches on each side and colonial buildings, some in good repair and others need repair. These building can be found side by side with 70s style blocks. So it´s a mish mash of styles. So far the feeling I get from it is a very safe city.

Red Hostel - Hostel Red, don`t believe the hype (one of the best hostels in South America), so far I`ve had hassel with them.

The trip over to Montevideo was quick, even my trips from London to Manchester are over 3 hours but this trip was only 2 and a half hours. So by Latinamerican standards very short.

Traveling without a Lonley Planet in hand was was a new experience this trip, I have travelled before without one but now after 6 months I had grown sick of the sight of the book. Not having one was not proving to be a problem. As soon as I arrived in Colonia someone gave me a map of the town and hostel advertisment. On this trip to Montevideo I was sat next to some old woman, who turned out to be an artist from Montevideo and with Russian/Polish parents. On the way she gave me all the information I needed so much so that I didn`t need a map to find the place. I had to ask a few people on the way, but all the better for practising Spanish.

I arrived at Hostel Red or Red Hostel or whatever the case is and quoted "Free Rider" and got my 10% discount. I´ve booked in for 3 nights.

One morning I was out walking around the old historic town of Colonia and saw a group of people. There was a photographer who looked professional and all his group were treating him like he was some guru. The photographer was saying to the model how beautiful she was and asking for new poses. Seeing the model reminded me of the dogs in Nicaragua. While traveling I had forgotten about the fuss about models being so thin. The dogs and cats of Nicaragua don`t have the choice. When we were there we were feeding them and the street kids. Maybe I should have said something!

Why were they shotting here. Well, with its tree lined cobbled streets and beaches on either side of the old town this has to be one of the most beautiful towns I`ve been to. You can see why the Spaniards buit it here, having town one the peninsular you can protect from the sea you cut down on land attacks and also you get a nice sea breaze through town.

Well, I´ve booked myself onto the good ship Eladia Isabel. The slow but cheap ship to Uruguay. It´s a 3 hour journey and the fast one is 1 hour. Cost for the slow boat $83 ar I changed my mind about going to Montevideo due to the cost $212ar. Colonia sounds nice, more chilled than here, which is what I need right now.

After another bad night´s sleep or no sleep, I was leaving the Hostel Clan for Colonia to chill. I now had no Lonely Planet.....

In a city like Buenos Aires if you´re on a budget it´s good to have the use of a kitchen. For one there is the saving money aspect and then there is saving money and having the best fresh pasta I´ve ever tasted. We went on the Sunday to San Telmo market and we stumbled upon this place just off Defensa on Estados Unidos. Sunday was a bad day to go as we had to wait for ages to be served. Inside there is a ticket machine ours was on 13 and they were serving in the high 70s, and it wasn`t fast servise. While waiting I noticed the sign that says "fecha de nacimiento hoy" refering to the pasta, ie date of birth today.

What´s on offer.
Super fresh pasta with the guy in the back making it as you wait. All different types of pasta are on offer but you need to ask if they have what you want as this stuff is sold quickly.

We went for some Empanadas, which again were the best I´ve had, and some pasta I forgot what they call it (long stringy stuff) spinich. Which I over cooked. In my defense I have never cooked fresh pasta this fresh before and really all you are doing is heating it up. There also a range of pesto and sauses. Sun dried tomatos as well to add a bit more.

The next time we went we went for raviole, which comes as placas - sheets in card boxes. Ok it´s a bit messy having to rip up all the sheets but if they have put so much care, attention, and well love into making this fantastic pasta you shouldn`t grumble about having to rip up a few sheets of pasta.

Verdict! A must try. If you are staying some where with no kitchen then you´re loosing out.

I thought that it was only Goths who got excited about cementaries, but I think the one in Buenos Aires is a must see. After traveling through some poor countries it´s crazy to see coffins housed in such a gratuitusly ostentatious way. I was used to seeing people living in mud huts and now this. Who were these people and where does their wealth come from. Some of these tombs are as big as houses others are just marble boxes.

Also there are cats here lots of cats the workmen here seem to be feeding them so I guess that´s why they stick around. That adds to the strangeness of this place.

Lisa had designed a tattoo back in Bolivia and had been trying to deside on a good place for it. Also a good place to have it done. In Buenos Aires there is a arcade on Santa Fe called Bond Street, it´s an arcade dedicated to tattoo and piercing shops, this seemed like the place to go. The artist was keeping things simple and just used what Lisa drew, only made it bigger. I had to wait outside which was bad. I was a nervous wreck and it wasn´t me getting the tattoo. The good thing was, it was quick and I didn´t have too long to suffer. Lisa got cling filmed up and we left. I had a look at the tat and one thing I didn´t realise is that they juice.

The tattoo itself has a bit of every aspect of our trip. It´s sort of a Inca man thing. What do they say a picture paints a thousand words, I´ll put a picture up of the juicy one just after and the healed one.

Later that day we had our Complejo Tango booked. As it says it is the complete tango experience you get a Tango Lesson, which was fun. The dinner was great I went for Bife de chorizo again, which was as good as ever washed down with two bottles of free red wine. The show was an all singing dancing.... you get it. After the show we jumped into a taxi and went to San Telmo to our fave bar, Seddon, for a few Quilmes Souts. So a fantastic night but maybe the wrong day to have a tattoo for one person.

I´m glad I have a blog and that I´ve been keeping it up-to-date on this trip. Now, at times it has been a pain, and sometimes I just didn´t know what to write and there were times when I didn´t have that much time. But, now I have lots to say and plenty of time, this is the most difficult post I´ve written for different reasons. After coming back to Buenos Aires and having a few packed days together Lisa has gone. We went to the airport together last night and said our goodbyes.

Why are we not going back together? (please don´t get the wrong idea that we have split up, we haven´t and I will be coming back to London) Well that´s a long story. It was always the plan to do some voluntary work at the end of the trip and to date we haven´t done any. If it wasn´t for certain things we would have gone to Pisco to help out with the earthquake clear up. I then thought I found work with Gravity Bolivia. Which turns out there wasn´t. While chatting with a girl in a Hostel in Puerto Madryn we both used the term "selfish altruism". I want to do something which means someting but I want to improve my Spanish as well.

So I now have a ticket back to London for the beginning of June, I am really tired with traveling and I have nothing to do. I know that there are plenty of great things near by which don´t involve that much travelling, but my plan is to take a few days to chill and think about what to do. I do have a few ideas on how to be productive, which I guess I´ll talk about some other time.

One of the things I want to do is to keep working on this blog. To talk about highlights of the trip lowlight as well, animals, food, money, kit post mortem and while this is not a travel blog, some travel stuff as well. In other words lots of random stuff. Obviously I´ll be keeping it updated with what I´m doing as well as the last few days with Lisa (Tango dancing, Food, Show - Cementary).

This is probably the only bus trip I have been looking forward to. We are splashing out and going for 1st class full cama bed for the trip back.

When the bus arrived we went straight upstairs to our seats. Most people had big bags and had to put them under. Usually there is some guy taking you bag and putting it on the bus and vis a versa on the other side and they ask for tips. Not sure what you would call this job, I have seen badges saying "propinero". A tip in Spanish is "propina". There´s enough space behind your seat for a medium sized pack. This is where your seat reclines to. The foot section has two positions the sloping position like the other cama classes but also a flat bed (cama) position.

I´m not sure if I slept but it was certainly more comfortable having a flat sleeping area. There´s also Whisky for a night cap.

We arrived early, about 7:30 so we went to a cafe for a coffee and some breakfast. We sat down and started to read a menú. The waitress came over and gave us a English menú and took the Spanish one. I said I wanted the Spanish one so she left that one as well. Usually the English menu is badly translated and sometimes amusing. But this one was interesting for another reason everything was more expensive on the English menu.

American Breakfast $18 - Desayuno Americano $ 15
Jugo $ 10 - Juice $ 8.50

I know that they had a crash a few years ago and that they had a two tire system for hotels. Talking to one Argentinian who was at the falls (Brazil) he said he´d visitited England back in 2003 when there was $1.6 pasos to the pound and now it´s $ 6 pesos. I´m going to do a post on relative wealth some other time, and discuss this at more length.

This is the main base for visiting the Iguazú falls in Argentina and also handy for visiting them from the Brazilian side as well.


Argentina:
Talking with the guy at our hostel it looked like we had the option of a tour for $50 or a bus for $4. No brainer is what I believe the term is. You need to save cash as the enterance fee is $40 for Johnny foreigner. But having said that you do get a full day to keep you busy. There is a boat trip for $60 a tenner, which we did. Shower included. Good for cooling off on a hot day.


Brazil:
I think we have gone through so many borders now that we were not really thinking about where we were going. We got on the bus to Brazil and did the exit from Argentina, there was a guy who said we needed to get of and get another bus to the falls. There were some more people going so we followed. Only on getting of the bus and seeing the advertisments did we realise that we were in Brazil and we had no reales. Lucky the bus to the falls you can use pesos.

The prices in this part of Brazil were a shock. They were about the same as pesos but there is 3 reales to the pound not 6 like pasos. So the entrance was about the same price. From the brazilian side you can see a full panaramic view of the falls but it is a smaller area and there is less to do. Unless you want to pay more.

San Telmo: this is the area where we are staying, it is the home of the Feria de San Telmo (street market), tango dancing, and Desnivel, the place famed for it´s steaks.

Every Sunday from 10 at the Plaza de Dorrego, Av Defensa, AvBolivar, and Humberto there is the Feria de San Telmo. Like the markets in London and El Rastro en Madrid there´s good stuff and bad. You can still get a bargain if you are compairing the prices to London. I have my eye on a nice watch. There is the tacky side as well some tango dancers advertising get your picture with a tango dancer, to me it was more advertising there´s some easy money to be made, than advertising tango. I still want to see proper Tango and how it should be done in the home of tango.

Desnivel can be found on Av Defensa, and has a old, slightly sruffy look to it which is perfect. Just what I expected. Looked quite like a Parisian Café Bar. But people don´t come here for the look or feel of the place. The star of the show is the steak. The steak I had was cooked just as I asked for it, punto. Think of "Punto" as just done or what we would call medium to bloody or you can ask for "Jugoso" juicy, rare to you and me, it will be. Ýou won´t need to put a lot of effort in to cutting or chewing the Bife de chorizo (Sirloin steak, nothing to do with chorizos), tender. I´m going to talk more on steak and stuff later. We got there early and it was filling up quickly. If you get there at the normal eating time over here you may be waiting. But do wait.


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