I haven’t posted in 19 days, so thought it’d be nice to let people I still exist!

Bolivia was tiring.  Poverty, constant begging, not finishing a meal for street kids asking for it.  It’s tragic but tiresome over time, so I’m kinda glad to be in PERU!!!!!  Arrived in Cusco yesterday, doing the inca trail tomorrow, back at Xmas Eve and staying in Cusco til New Year.

So… Bolivia.

World’s Most Dangerous Road =  AMAZING bike ride, no cars on the road anymore, but it’s still pretty dangerous (downhill 30mph with a 400m drop a few inches to the side of the track.  Total adrenaline rush!!  I think 8 people have died this year so the danger is pretty real and we did hear plenty of horror stories about injuries/deaths.

Potosi Mines =  In a mine for 3 hours.  Walk 2km into the tunnels, climb down 3 levels (40m) and walk a few more 100m.  Pretty scary even for non-claustrophobes, especially since the tunnel is held up only by some tree trunks some guys who are earn 60 to 80 bolivianos (6 to 8 quid) a day.  And at the end I had a photo holding dynamite with a lit fuse  Awesome.

Cusco!!!! Arrived 2 nights ago but got in a cheap hotel next to the bus station since I was too tired to get to the proper hostel.  20 soles and I got cable TV!!! awesome cheap.  Then got to Loki hostel in the morning.  Loki is the best hostel in the world ever!!! It’s a massive hostel with great comfhy beds and a casual atmosphere (if you check in you don’t really have to leave until you want to, reservations don’t really mean much).  Total bohemian oasis for backpackers!  Been hanging out with 2 aussies and an american.  Fun times.  Going quad biking this afternoon, which by the way is one of the only things I’m not insured for.  Living on the dangerous side.  Fuck yeah.

Oh and I’ve booked my flight from Quito (Ecuador) to Belem (northern Brazil) for Feb 10th.  Definitely gonna do Galapagos but not sure if I want to go to the Amazon anymore.  I’d like some proper jungle trekking with machete action, but all the trips seem to be to some glitzy lodge with a walk for halfhour or so, and maybe a short boat ride.  After experiencing that kinda thing in the Pantanal, I don’t think I wanna repeat that.

More news after NYE!

That´s right, my camera has finally kicked the bucket.  Due to various circumstances and 1 stupid mistake my camera landed in a puddle of mud at the bottom of the boat.

 

 It landed lens down so I thought ´phew the electrics will be okay´ only for the lens to totally fuck up.  It´s had some bolivian and brazilian sand in it though so I was expecting it kinda.  Been told a cheap camera store in Bolivia where all the brazilians shop so hopefully I´ll get something without too much of a rip off (electronics in SA are extortionate, but I need photos)!

And why was I on a boat?  I went on the pantanal safari!!!  It´s one of the top 4 places in SA to see wildlife (along with galapagos, ibera marshes in Argentina and some plains in Venezuala).  I booked the tour expecting a proper safari, but sadly it was more of an adventure weekend.  Arrived on the first day, did nothing.  2nd day did a jeep tour and piranha fish (and eatting).  3rd day did horseriding and boat ride.  4th day did trekking then went back.  There wasn´t any choice in the activities and to be honest only the trekking, jeep tour and boat tour were any good for wildlife (the guide openly admitted we had absolutely no chance of seeing anything on horse).  On the plus side the things that were good were AMAZING!  Saw loads of rare hyacinth macaws which are totally cool (MASSIVE size for a parrot).  Talked to the guide about it and he said if I come back I can do a proper safari, walking around during the day and camping wherever we are when it gets dark.  Think I´ll definitely try if I have time at the end of my travels.

I´ve just realised I have LOADS of photos of me petting animals too.  Peckery pigs, cats, dogs, kittens, puppies, caimen, fish.  I´m totally a Dr Doolittle.

 
Oh and I´ve booked my Inca Trail!  20th to the 24th December, with an extra day at Machu Picchu on the 24th!!!!!! How awesome.  Then thinking of going to the Colca Canyon and Nazca Lines before returning to Cuzco for NYE to celebrate with two of the guys I went on the Pantanal tour with.  Should be fun!

 

 

EDIT: Got back to the hostel in between frantic internet inca trail booking and bumped into 2 spanish girls from the safari.  Turns out they´re taking the exact same route as me!  So the plan is to celebrate xmas in Arequipa, Peru or Cusco depending on whether I can get a bus on xmas eve.  Should be fun!

Its 10pm, so everyone’s asleep in UK (what is it? Like 2 or 3am over there?) so I thought I’d type out a miniguide. YEY  There are a few stereotypes I bump into again and again at hostels, and over the months it’s been kinda inevitable that it’s popped up in conversation from time to time.  So here’s the stereotypes:
1.  The Hunter

This is the guy who is constantly looking for the holy grail of travelling: an unspoilt gem of a place.  Most likely to try and up the ante and lie in chats (if you’ve done something cool, they’ve done the same thing but saw more or did it much or extreme or for much cheaper because they met some local who took them out etc.).  Always fun to see how much they’ll push the story.

2.  The Honeymooners

In the words of one of my travelling buddies:  Honeymooners will kill hostels.  They travel in pairs and are the most timid of all backpackers, not talking to anyone else unless pushed.  It’s a mystery why they even use hostels, but it’s rumoured that they’re skinflints who don’t want to pay out for a hotel.  Usually seen wandering into the dining/living room, looking around before retreating to their private double room.  Who the hell goes to hostels to keep to themselves anyway?!

3.  The Sugar Rushers

These guys don’t stick around long.  They go in, see what they have to see and get out.  No time wastage and no hanging out for the sake of it.  Bish bash bosh. Tend to be constantly planning ahead, so sometimes lose sight of the present.  If I fit a stereotype, this is definitely it.

4. The Happy Snapper

Live through their photos.  If you’re going somewhere, chances are they’ll shove their photos in your face to show how great it is.  Why do I need to see photos of a place I’m visiting in a few days?!

5.  The Lone Wolf

“Oh man, I’m glad I’m travelling alone.  I’d never do blah blah blah with my friends”  Yeah right, who are you trying to kid?  Is that why you’re latching onto any social contact available?  Travelling alone can be boring.  Ever been stuck on a bus for 24 hours with no one to talk to?  Ever visited a hostel to find no other guest speaks english?  There are downsides to travelling alone, and there’s no reason to sugarcoat it (although it has plenty of advantages obviously).  Also tend to try and make travelling alone sound like more of an adventure.  It might be for fluent spanish speakers who can hang out with locals and whatnot, otherwise… nah.

More to come if I can think of any…

Shaving for the first time in over a month.  I feel so young again!

 

So “the fear” has set in.  Realised I kinda need to do Galapagos late January if I want to get to Olinda for Carnaval, so that means I have 2 months for Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.  Not much time really, especially if I want to do the pantanal (To compare, I pretty much spent a month and a half in Argentina…).  So now I’ve ditched any notion of getting to NW Argentina, and I’m rushing through Chile since it’s pretty much the same as Argentina anyway (the country’s too thin to be different). 

 

So what have I been up to…

Torres del Paines was AMAZING!  One of the best things I’ve done so far.  The views were amazing, and it didn’t rain once (which is pretty much a miracle since it was raining for 10 days before I went out). 

The Navimag ferry was a bit of an anticlimax, the best scenery was at the start slowly becoming more and more drab.  Some nice scenery and dolphins were cool.  It was alright, but really expensive and it wasted quite a few days wasted doing it and waiting beforehand.  Oh well.

Pucon was cool, but that’s when I suddenly realised the time scale.  So I stayed 1 night, climbed the volcano, and then got the nightbus out of there.  I had booked 2 nights in the hostal, so I commited the cardinal sin by cancelling a night last minute (they glared a lot).  Then got to Santiago this morning at 6 and did the sights (The pre colombian art museum is the best museum I’ve seen in SA so far, almost european standard) before getting the 2pm bus to valparaiso, a cool city 2 hours away. 

 

Now the plan is to look around Valparaiso tomorrow, then get the bus to La Serena Friday morning (its 6 hours so not really long enough for a night bus in my current rushed state).  They have a load of observatories around there that have open days on Saturday so hopefully I’ll make it to one of them.  Then off to San Pedro.  Might do the moon valley tour, but if that’s too expensive then I’ll just get the 3 day tour to the Bolivian salt flats, which gets me to Bolivia for the first few days of December!  Hopefully gonna make it into Peru just before xmas, before the border control shuts down for the holidays.

 

Sounds rushed, but my original plan including NW Argentina would be much worse.  Thought about it today and decided if I rush too much it’s not worth going at all, hence dropping Argentina.  Only have about 12 quid in Argentinian money so hopefully wont lose too much at the cambio…

Or rather, preparing for hiking = stress.
I’m in Puerto Natales getting ready for a 5 day hike round the internationally famous (amongst hiking geeks) W circuit around Torres del Paines (Daddy would be so proud of me).  Now first off, I must admit that I’ve rented a bigger bag for the hike (3 quid a day), but my big hiking bag isn’t really made for camping trips and the bag I rented is really durable and made for this kinda thing (more pockets, thicker material and drawstring on top!) so no “I told you sos” please dad.  My 30L is fine for 99% of my journey (and gets me major kudos from other travellers!!!).  Also rented a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat and a mess kit for cooking.

So for the hike I’m going with Kev, a canadian I met in Bariloche.  For food (4 breakfasts, 4 dinners, 5 lunches) I’ve bought:
2 packs of trail mix

2 packs of dried apples

2 packs of raisins

2 boxes of granola cereal (the posh kind which doesn’t have much per box)

2 big cadbury’s raisin dairy milk bars

1 pack of lemon biscuits

1 pack of bran crackers

10 cereal bars

That’s breakfast and lunch.  For dinner we have some instant noodles, instant pasta and some regular pasta (we figured we’d get sick of instant stuff fast).  Oh, and some powdered milk for the instant pasta and cereal.

So kinda got a LOT of food, but I figure I’ll get through it fast enough.  Haven’t actually got the tent yet, but a bit worried about packing, only have a bit of room left!!! But I guess as long as it all fits at the start more room will free up as I eat the food.

Also had to buy the bus ticket to the park, and when I get to the park I have to pay for entrance, and then at the end there’s a shuttle service to the bus over the last road that needs paying for…  You get the idea, this cheap little hike has gotten expensive very fast! Food, bus and entrance worked out at about 15 quid each, rental equipment is about 36 quid, and the shuttle service is a few quid more. But guess it isn’t bad for 5 whole days.

Oh, and this park is freezing cold all year round.  If any Duke of Edinburgh pansies want to whine about their gold awards I think I’ll kick them in the teeth.  They ain’t seen nothin’!  Bring on the torres!

Will update you when I return on Tuesday, probably very tired, wet and freezing cold.   What a life!

Okay, so I haven’t actually checked my budget at all yet so thought I’d look out of curiosity.  From 17th September to 3rd November I’ve spent about 1200 quid (which is about all the money I’ve taken out so far, apart from one today), which isn’t bad… then I look at the transaction dates.  Since 30th October I’ve spent 600 quid.  How the hell can 1 week cost the same as 5 you ask? I blame 3 things: Lack of foresight, cold and Patagonia is just flipping expensive. 

1.  Lack of Foresight -  I only have a 2Gb memory stick for my camera.  Which isn’t bad, but still, it only holds about 1 months worth of photos.  So I bought a 50Gb one in a duty free shop here in Ushuaia.  That was 55 quid down the drain (yep, twice as much as the UK).  Electrics in Argentina are FLIPPING EXPENSIVE!!!! Luckily memory sticks aren’t as badly overpriced as, say, cameras and games consoles (you can buy a Playstation 2 for a bargain price of 200 quid, a Wii for 500 and I haven’t even seen a Xbox 360 or PS3), but still a bit pricey.  But I’m looking at it from the point of view that 55 quid to hold 6 months worth of photos is pretty reasonable.

2.  The Cold -  I bought some gloves, hat and a skiing coat for about 65 to 70 quid in total.  Guess that accounts for a large wedge of the dough

3. Patagonia is expensive -  Dolphin + Penguin watching = 285pesos Whale + Seal watching = 295pesos, hostels are 45 pesos a night, food is about 20 pesos a day from the supermarket, boat trip today is 135 pesos, long distance bus rides ranging from 100 to 200 pesos.  The exchange is hovering around 5.2 to 5.4 pesos to a pound at the mo, so I guess that’s where it goes.  I guess it’s because before I’ve been travelling in cities where the only thing to pay to do is a few museums and art galleries.  Now the day trips start and they’re gonna cost more.

 

But still, I don’t feel I’ve spent 5 times as much as usual, I certainly didn’t feel like I was being thrifty at the start of the trip.  Strange.  Guess I better make my way back up north where things are cheap!!! 

 

So yeah, Patagonia, expensive.  But worth it!!!  On the other hand, I’m surprised it’s only 1200 so far,  I might actually be sticking to my 7k budget! Oh, and when I lost my credit card, the bankwiped my last transaction for no apparent reason.  I never said it was stolen and I never gave them the date it was lost.  So thanks to Nationwide for 300 free pesos!

Haven’t posted in a while since I’ve been way too busy with things, but that’s a good thing!  Spending this morning resting and sorting myself out before going on a boat trip to the end of the world this afternoon!  Anyway, the news…

 

Bariloche

Was AMAZING.  Switzerland meets Alaska.  The horseriding was by far the best I’ve ever done, there were really really steep climbs (up and down, pretty scary), great views and at the end loads of flat land for gallopping.  Even went to a mini racetrack and raced round that.  Also went cycling the day after (glutton for punishment).  The route was a 30km or so loop and a dog (labrador alsation cross by the looks of things) followed me the whole way.  Whenever I stopped for a break he’d start whining at me, although he did slow me down a bit towards the end, can hardly blame him though he did look pretty tired.  Named him Oscar!
Puerto Madryn

You may not have heard of Puerto Madryn, but you’d probably recognise it.  It’s where David Attenborough walked through the elephant seal harems and where the orcas hunt the seal pups.  At least, I’m pretty sure it is since it’s meant to be the best place in the world to see that kind of thing.  Went dolphin watching (Comerson’s dolphins), whale watching (Southern right whale), visited the world’s largest colony of magellanic penguins (or those generic penguins every zoo has in lamen’s terms), saw elephant seals, sealions, petrels, cormorants and lots lots more.  Was pretty cool!  The whales were amazing.  One breached out of nowhere within 20feet of the boat, was pretty cool but too fast and unexpected for anyone to take a photo.  At the end we found a mother feeding her calf.  It sounds a lot cooler than it is, you can see the mother and baby swimming together, then the calf disappears underwater and the mother just kinda floats without swimming, then the baby pops back up.  Still was amazing to watch though.  The dolphins were kinda hard to photograph because they’re not a species that like to jump lots, and when they do it’s usually one jump and then that’s it, so can’t queue up a shot like you can with bottlenoses or common dolphins.  They were amazingly fast for the looks of them though, they look kinda fugly for dolphins, with a stubby snout and tiny dorsel fin.  Elephant seals were cool, but didn’t see any orca hunting (last seen a few days before ).  This time of year the mothers leave the pups on the beach to go off hunting, so there were mainly just pups on the beach with a few dozen females and 5 or 6 males.  They are so much bigger than they look on TV, and to be honest it’s kinda hard to see which way up they are til you see their faces, they’re just big tubes of lard. 

Oh and on the first day I decided to go cycling AGAIN (OW) to the best place to see whales.  Unfortunately the 16km trip up there ended with a viewpost with NO WHALES AT ALL!!! You can even see whales for the pier 10 minute walk from my hostel, but there’s no whales at the VIEWPOINT that took hours to cycle to!  ARGH!  Then I got a puncture and walked 8km before some kind soul gave me a lift back to my hostel.  On the way up I swear I saw a barn owl, which is a bit odd seeing as the only diurnal owl is the burrowing owl (which are also in the area but definitely wasn’t one of them).  Barn owls are definitely in the area though… so I dunno.  Was weird.

 

El Calafate

El Calafate is where the big big big Perito Moreno glacier is.  It is HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE.  real pretty, and bits of ice drop off into the water with a huge crash.  Biggest bit we saw fall off was probably the size of a 4×4 car, but kinda hard to tell since the distances are kinda deceptive (the glacier doesn’t look that big from the viewing platforms but is actually 150ft high).  Also got on a baot to go by the side.  The view wasn’t much different, but you get closer and get more of a feel for scale.  It’s pretty damn huge.  Other than that… yeah, it’s just a huge ice cube.  Not much more to say really, but a good afternoon

 

El Chalten

Very french sounding for a spanish town innit?  It’s the ‘Argentinian capital for hiking’… apparently.  The day hikes were amazing, but the reason I went was to see Mt Fitzroy.  Fitzroy is a huge mountain that is made of 2 columns of granite that reach up into the sky, and even creates some weird weather thing where there’s always a cloud coming off the mountain like a scarf or a stream of smoke.  Sounded pretty cool… except when I was there it was too cloudy to see.  Oh, and it was a perfectly clear day the day before I arrived and the skies were clearing a few hours before I left (but too late for me to take the 4 hour hike to see the mountain!) grrrr.  Anyway, the hikes were cool.  If Bariloche is Alps meets Alaska then El Chalten is the Scottish highlands meets southern New Zealand.  Lots of Lord of the Rings-esque mountain ranges and that. 
First day I took the main hike: The 3 Lakes trek. Goes past 1 glacier, 2 main mountains (Fitzroy and cerro torres) and surprisingly enough… 3 lakes.  There’s another glacier too, but the wather was too miserable and we didn’t feel like making a 9 to 10 hour hike into a 12 hour one.  The wind is REALLY strong here, at some points gravel was thrown at us, quite painful.  The glacier was cool (and I ate some glacier ice!) and the hike was fun, but no mountains!  The weird thing is the weather.  Whether it’s raining or dry it’s always windy.  So when it’s raining you get wet REALLY fast, but when it’s dry you dry off within 20 minutes, so we were constantly going from being wet and miserable to dry and happy and back again.

After El Chalten I got the bus back to El Calafate for the bus down to Ushuaia.  Ended up bumping into some americans in Calafate who were trying to find a bar that showed the elections, so I went with them. Was hella fun.  We got the bar to put on CNN (and they even turned the music off and the tv volume up for us!).  All I can say is Anderson Cooper is my new hero!  I’ve seen him on the Daily Show a few times, but never seen one of his CNN shows.  He pretty much spent the whole show trying to get the pundits to say that McCain didn’t have a chance and Obama had it in the bag, but the pundits kept skirting round the issue til Obama was on a good 290 or so (even though Obama only needs 270 to win!), and even then they were choosing their words carefully.  Ended up turning it into a drinking game (only in america can the election process be turned into a drinking game…)  When the shots started coming out I stepped back though, I had a 17 hour bus ride ahead of me.

 

The Road to Ushuaia.

The journey to Ushuaia was a mission in itself.  Crossed 2 border patrols (each made up of 2 seperate customs for each country), and passed through 2 state police checkpoints (one of which it passed through twice).  That’s right, 1 bus ride, 7 passport checks!!!!! Had to go from Argentina to Chile, get a ferry across the Magellin straight and then back into Agrentina.  I didn’t think it would be that bad since my guide had a map on a scale of 25km for 2 inchs… til I realised it was a typo and meant 250km.  Urgh.  Was ok but the last 4 or 5 hours really dragged.  The last few hours through the mountains are truly breath taking though (but I do wonder how long it’ll take for me to take the Andes for granted, got them for a good few months yet).  Left El Calafate at 3am, arrived in Ushuaia at 9pm. Ouch

 

Ushuaia

I’m here!!! The most southern city IN THE WORLD.  Wanted to get a last minute deal to Antartica for maybe 2500 to 3000 USD, but the cheapest I can find is 4100 so I’ll give it a miss.  Ushuaia is in Argentina, but apparently is closer to New Zealand than Buenos Aires. Oh, and Tierra del Fuego is the bggest island in South America… but there’s where I run out of trivia (I’m about 14000km from London, but the signposts seem to leave out London and just have Paris… guess they’re still bitter about the Malvinas…).

It’s pretty cold here, but not as bad as I expected.  If I’m popping out to the shops or whatever I can get away with a fleece, but do need ski jacket and gloves for anything more than half hour or so.  Going on a boat trip this afternoon and taking this morning to rest.  Been on a bus trip or hiking or horseriding or cycling every day for a week or so, it’s nice to just wander round town!  The plan is to go see the sealions, birds and end of the world lighthouse today on a boat trip.  Tomorrow will go to the national park.  Then maybe the penguin boat trip.  Last day might try and go dog sledding if it’s available this time of year.  Then onto Puerto Natales for a 4 day hike round Torres del Paines (dreading it at the mo after the 2 days hiking in El Chalten, but that’s why I’m hanging round Ushuaia for so long)

 

Sorry for no photos again, it’s hard to find a PC this far south with a fast enough connection to upload them, bit of a pain.  Will hopefuly upload them from Chile.

KK, I’m off for horseriding in an hour (So fricking excited!!!) so thought I’d blog a little in the spare time.

Uruguay

Spent 2 days in Urguay, getting 4 more stamps in my passport and checking the place out.  First up was Montevideo, which totally sucked.  ANOTHER city that’s trying to be european with way too many churches and statues of guys on horseback.  On the other hand, it di have the largest statue of a guy on a horse I’ve seen so far (complete with the dead guy buried beneath it), so wasn’t all bad.  Also went to some pre-colombian art museum, although it all looked like something from a year 8 art class.

Next day in Colonia, a small town in Uruguay across the river from Buenos Aires.  AMAZING little place.  The historic centre is like a small italian village with cobblestone streets and little restaurants.  Chilled out for the day and spent the last of my uruguay moneys on fruit and ice cream.  Later in the day I ended up bumping into Sam, so hung ut with him for an hour or so before he had to get his ferry.

After he left I sat on the beach (well more rocky than sandy, but a beach all the same) and watched the sun set over BA.  Was great.  Afterwards went to the ferry terminal, to realise I left my awesome book (Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets by David Simon, READ IT!!!!) on the beach!!!  Ran back to find it wasn’t there.  Still no ideas what happened to it.  Might’ve lost it somewhere else, or someone might have nicked it (although there was no one around so doubt it).  Anyway, I was a little bit pissed off at my continuing carelessness, but oh well.  By the time I returned to the ferry terminal it was shut!!!  So I stayed in the bus station instead… except that closed at 12.30.  So had 3 hours to waste before boarding the ferry.  In the end found a rather nice ditch out of sight where no muggers could see me and slept there as best I could.  When I got to the ferry terminal I found out that the ferry had been booked out by a group of 800 hollistic church members, all of which seemed to have had a brilliant night’s sleep and were shouting and singing with excitement.  Me in my haven’t slept properly for 3 nights state wasn’t best pleased that I was the only non-cultist freak on the entire boat, seemed a bit of a sitcom situation to be in.  On the brightside, since they booked out the ferry the first class seats were a free for all so I got in there as fast as I could and slept quite well considering.

Last day in BA

I arrived in BA and got breakfast, booked my bus to Bariloche in the Patagonian Lake District and generally hung out.  Then found out David Coulthard was doing an F1 demo thing at 3.  So went for lunch at Los Inmortales (Best pizza in the world, anyone who goes to BA needs to check it out!), and then waited at the main street for the show.  I was 7 or 8 rows back but I’m taller than the average argentinian, so had an alright view.  When the show started it went crazy with arms in the air and people on other peoples shoulders.  Managed a few haphazard shots of the cars, and saw the car between the gaps for a few seconds at the time, but really I was there to hear the car.  So cool a sound!!!!  After a few laps I left and went around the crowd (could hear the car from anywhere anyway, and couldn’t see a thing so seemed a bit pointless standing around).  People were using the safety barriers as ladders to climb up trees and were jumping on any car or building nearby (so many car alarms were going off!).  People had even broken into a derelict building block which had no walls on the street facing side!  Looked pretty dangerous.  After that I got my 20 hour bus ride to Bariloche… where I slept for 12 hours.

Bariloche

Woke up in the bus to see a MASSIVE sign with a dinosaur.  Turns out we were in dino country, where they find all the huge iguanadons and that.  Would’ve been a dream to visit this when I was younger, was like the first Alan Grant scene in Jurassic Park; desert with lots of big rocks and canyons (kinda like the american midwest).  Arrived in bariloche about 3 hours later to be greeted by the cold for the first time on the trip.

The area is known as the Argentinian Lake District, so I expected it to compare to the british one, but it doesn’t.  There’s not lots of little lakes in a small area, it’s a few massive lakes 65km long over many hundreds of miles.  So I’m only really going to see one lake, but that’s ok.  It’s kinda surreal round here, Bariloche is on one side of the lake, and on the other is the snowy peaks of the Andes.  Looks like a dodgy Hollywood cardboard cutout.  Anyway that’s about it.  Spent the afternoon looking round the village, going for horseriding today, then cycling and hiking tomorrow before getting the bus to Puerto Madryn at 6 on Tuesday.

No photos cos this hostel has no USB connection, but will hook up later.  It’s only gonna get colder over the next few weeks…

… and yeah it’s fricking cold.

Yesterday in Buenos Aires was over 30, here it can’t be above 8.  How did I lose 25 degrees+ on a 21 hour bus road?!

I’m off to buy gloves!!!!!!

KK, I’ve finally uploaded photos so figure I should be a bit less wordy now.  Arrived in BA last monday, and first went to the Recoleta Cemetary where lots of famous people I’ve never heard of (and Evita) are buried.

The place was massive!

Took a good 20 minutes to find Evita's crypt. The directions are so vague!

Some people were obviously a bit full of themselves

Also went to a modern art gallery

This piece of 'art' is a load of sweets on the floor for people to take away. Took this photo just as the staff person said no cameras, so that's why everything is a bit blurry.

Went to Tigre for the day (1 hour train journey for 2.20 pesos (45p) return.  Awesomeness

I got on a boat!

This house is in a cage...dunno why

The boat stopped off at some bull restaurant thing, but I wasn't hungry so I read a book.

On Monday night we went to La Cabrera, an unashamedly touristy pair of restaurants that serve expensive steak.  Bill came to 200 pesos for two for 3 courses (about 40 quid), not bad by UK standards though.

Chirzo sausage and some weird grilled cheese thing. The lighting doesn't really do it justice, but it did taste great. Oh, and that's olive oil, not grease.

For the main course we had asado steak (a special argentine cut where the ribs are cross sectioned with a steak attached to the side) and pork shoulder.

and this was all the sides that came with it. Pickled garlic, onions and tomatoes, dijon (sp?) mustard, humus, mashed potato etc. etc. All in the price of the steak, crazy. Although to be perfectly honest none of the sides seemed to actually go with the meat so seemed a bit of a waste.

Then on tuesday there was a bit of adventure.  Throughout the trip I kept seeing KT Tunstall tour posters, but they never coincided with my trip!  Finally at Buenos Aires, the last date for the foreseeable future after 4 years of pretty constant touring, my luck is in!  So I wonder how to get in contact with the band,  and looking at the postboard there’s some freak who’s even made public which hotel they’re staying at.  I decide to be a normal bandstalker and hang around the venue though.  After a while I decide it’s pointless and there’s probably some secret stage door for the band, so go off to Florida street (the main shopping street) to see if they’re milling about there.  Just as I walk off I see Luke, Sam and Arnie walking towards the venue.  So I say hi to Sam, seeing as he’s probably the only one who would remember me, and he’s pretty shocked to see me out here and invites me to soundcheck (without me even having to ask, what a great guy).

5 to 5.30 soundcheck without Katie (she's in interviews)

Katie escapes the interviews at 5.30 and soundchecks

Then we had dinner in catering, then the access all areas wristbands get given out (yey) and everyone goes their separate ways to relax before the show.

I arrive at the gig at 9.15 during the support band. The only downside of having the wristband is although I can go everywhere, I don't have an allocated seat! So I stood at the back waiting for everyone to get seated and find an empty seat.

A few minutes before KT is on stage pretty much everyone is seated and I find a seat in row 9, where tickets cost 200 pesos each (40 pounds). Score!

The show was amazing, miles better than the last time I saw them.  No backing singers sadly, but Someday Soon was amazingly magical (the band said after the show that it was definitely the highlight of the night).  KT also segued from Black Horse & A Cherry Tree into White Stripes’ 7 Nation Army (with a kazoo!), and then the whole band kicked in for the solo.  Sounded great.  At the end KT also did a parody of The Ting Tings That’s Not My Name, using all the names of the tour crew to thank them.

The crowd went CRAZY at the end. It was KT's first time in Argentina, so the crowd were singing along to even the old songs with gusto. Guess we're kinda spoiled for shows in the UK

After the show I went backstage to find dozens of kids had somehow managed to blag their way backstage.  Apparently the venue has some weird system where friends of friends of friends of some guy who works at the box office or some shit can wait in the corridor outside of the dressing rooms for a meet and greet.  Needless to say, the band wasn’t very happy about not knowing about this, especially as security kept asking KT when she’d be ready to sign autographs.  At one point Fozzy the tour manager even pushed the wardrobe in front of the dressing room door so no one could disturb us, it’s the rockstar life.

After the mobbing we went to the aftershow end of tour party at a small bar called Dada.  The best bit is the bar was all free!!! The bar was amazing, and the food was great, probably the best meal I’ve had here and that’s saying something.  The wine was amazing too.  It started off quite subdued, just having a meal and quiet drink, but Kenny got all excited cos a fan had given him an expensive bottle of wine and said he was the best keyboard player since Emerson.  So soon the drinks were flying and the drunken photos started…

Me, Sam (guitar), Katie, Luke (drums), Kenny (Kayboard/Trumpet/Percussion), Arnie on the floor (Bass)

At the end got the whole crew to sign a table mat for me.  Next day was meant to meet up with Sam and Kenny, except I was way too hung over to walk out into the hot sunny streets that smell of steak, so slept it off.  Was meant to be in Uruguay today… but 3 hour sea crossing + hangover isn’t ideal either, so that’ll wait til tomorrow.

Paul, signing out