Happy New Year to all! The new year was brought in with style over here in Buenos Aires. Shopping for spunky outfits, fireworks on the roof of the hostel (which you buy from the shop down the road), fancy discos - lots of fun...
Since I last wrote we've been to Bariloche, a beautiful town in the lakes districts surrounded by snowy peaks and, well, lakes. Had a really lovely christmas with the girls, cooking up a feast of roast vegies, steak and a yummy desert of brandy sauce and fruit cake. So nice to talk to all the family on the day, missed everyone a bit but we managed to make the day nice and christmassy so it wasnt too bad.
Hired a car for the day to drive around the lakes. Pretty wierd driving for the first time in 4 months, especially being on the wrong side of the car, but it was easier than I thought. The real struggle was at intersections with absolutely no signage, where some people seem to give way and others dont. We just took it easy and all was well!
So, off to Buenos Aires. Such an unbelievable city, the size of it as I flew in just blew my mind. I think Gran Buenos Aires has about 11 million people, so you can imagine. We settled into our hostel which is on the biggest avenue in the world. It takes about 3 goes to cross the thing! Spent the days before New Year exploring. Its like a beautiful European city, but a bit rough around the edges. Grand government buildings and churches backing onto ugly big seventies concrete blocks. The 'Evita' pink palace has barricades around it, as do many of the banks, with bullet holes in the walls, from the economy crash a few years back.
Great shopping though! Cheap and nice, although generally the biggest sized pants are too small and the extra large jackets have sleeves that are too short. The girls are TINY here, all of them which is wierd. Nevermind, still managed to find a nice outfit for NY along with a few extras!
So, we are off to Uruguay tomorrow on the ferry, sun and beaches which should be nice.
Hope all are well
H