A man´s tale of Steak and Football

Having arrived in Buenos Aires a week early, we decided to put the extra time to good use and learn some Spanish. We´ve been quite shocked with the lack of English spoken here. Obviously Spanish is their first language, but then they learn Portugees as their second language, and very few have a third so making conversation has been a bit of a problem. On top of that, the locals in general aren´t very helpful either. If you don´t understand something, they just repeat it, equally as fast, rather than slowing down or using hand signals. So we enrolled in "BA plus" school who first sat us down for a test to see exactly how much Spanish we knew. No point really - we were all off to Beginners 1. Anyway, it got us up to speed and helped us with the various tourist things at least, like ordering food, booking busses and hostels, and asking directions.

That week was kinda quiet and school left us with only a little time to do some tourist things. There were quite a few things to see in Buenos Aires. In fairness it´s a gorgeous city, my favourite of the trip so far. The cental area around Avenieda do Mayo and Avenida 9 do Julio are sensational, and there´s a lot to be seen, inlcuiding the Obliesk, government buildings, the cathedral (where I ended up in mass by accident one day), and Casa Roja (pink house) which is the one Evita sang the songs out her balcony.

The surounding areas are equally nice. To the north are the posh areas of Palerma and Recoleta, which has the creepy Recoleta Cemetary. Basically it´s a graveyard for the Argentinain upper class, where they try to out do each other with elaborate tombs. It´s pretty much a who´s who of Argentinian history, from past presidents to pop starts, and of course Evita. There were quite a few creepy cats lurking around too.

To the south of the city is the working class area around the docs called ¨La Boca¨. We ventured down there one day to have a look around. Lovely colorful area where all the buildings are painted different colours, all the cafes are outside, Tango shows are plentiful, and all are in the shadow of the Bombanera, the home of Boca Juniors football club, made famous by Diego Maradona. Myself and Micheal did the stadium tour and it´s quite an intimidating place. The away dressing rooms are under the main stand, the away dugout is within touching distance of the fans, and the stadium itself is so steep, it looks structurially unsound. We pretty much got chased out of the place tho, when Micheal asked for a River Plate jersey at the Boca Juniors club shop!

The nightlife in Buenos Aires is one of the craziest experience I´ve ever had. The nightclubs have a cheaper entry fee before 2.30am, in the hope of getting people out early. Usually nights involved having dinner about 9, a few drinks about 11, then going to a club about 3, and getting home about 8am. There were a few days when we used to arrive home in the daylight, and wake up when it was dark again. I´ve no idea why they do it, it doesn´t make sense really. I suppose the locals are used to their midday siesta. We tried to adapt!

The two most famous things in Buenos Aires are Steak and Football, both of which we really enjoyed while we were there. The meat was sensational. Somebody explained it was because the cows are raised on the central plains of Argentina, which is very flat, resulting in the cows not having to use their muscles much. There were 2 options, Bife de Lomo (Tenderloin) or Bife do Choriso (Stirloin), both which cost about €6 for the nicest (and biggest) steak you will ever taste. I cannot describe quite how good these were. We had 2 favourite restaurnats which merit a mention. Firstly DesNivel was a rough and ready place where they basiaclly gave you meat and potatoes. Both cooked to perfection, but with absolutely nothing fancy. Think we went there about 7 nights out of the fortnight we spent in BA. The other, called La Cabrera was the more upmarket version. We had a very posh meal here. 3 courses, with wine. All came in at less that €20. Conor ordered a Rib-eye steak, which was about the size of his head. I would estimate it was about 25oz. We were warned to order a half portion. The waiter laughed when Micheal ordered a full. Think Anne-Marie counted 52 sides on our table at one stage, everything you could possibly imagine.

The other love of the Argentinians is football. It´s religious. While we were there, Argentina played Uruguay for the right to go to the next World Cup. The whole city shut down for the 2 hours. Our waiter couldn´t set our table without looking at the television. We signed up for a 5-a-side competition ourselve one day to see how we measured up against the local talent. After taking about 5 minutes to remember how to play football, we went on to top our group. In the semi final we coasted to a 2-0 vistory, and in the final were again 2-0 up and coasting before our lack of fitness finally kicked in, and they drew level. Somehow we found the energy to pull away and seal a 4-2 victory. We got medals and everything! A nice touch. Click here for a video of us in action.

The real reason we had stayed 2 weeks in Buenos Aires was to see ¨El Superclassico¨ (The Super Derby) between local rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate. This is without a doubt the biggest rivalry in world sport, I have never seen anything like it. This season, both teams are struggling, so all they want to do now is beat each other. We headed to the group about 3 hours early to avoid truoble and the atmosphere was already growing. By kickoff, there were streamers everywhere, we were all waving red and white flags, we´d ripped up about 3 newspapers each to make confetti, till rolls were flying all over the place, and the whole stadium was filled with red and white smoke while everyone chanted in unison. It was a very surreal experience.

The game itself was a typical local derby. River missed a penalty, then took the lead, both teams then had a player sent off, before Boca equalised. Either team could have won it in the end as both hit the post in the last 20 minutes. It finished level which seemed a fair result. After the game, the Boca fans tried to recreate Landsdowne 95, as they decided to throw all the seats from the top tier down onto the River fans below them. A few people were hit, and a few scruffles started around the stadium. We escaped unharmed.

All in all, a fantastic city, that I would definately recommend for a weeks holiday.

Hola South America!

We finally arrived into Santiago, Chile after an extremely long flight. What made the flight so strange was the fact that we landed in Auckland (from Christchurch) at 11am on the 30th and arrived at the same time on the same date in Chile! How does that happen! We were actually in the 30th September for a total of 42 hours. VERY long day. After we arrived we could not sleep so we decided to venture out on the streets to sample a little piece of Santiago. What we didn't realise is that the people of Chile like to drink during the day....everyday! There seemed to be street parties everywhere. People sitting with friends eating and drinking for the day. Oh and you obviously can't have a street party without some music.....

At this point the 5 became 4, as Darragh hopped off on a 30 hour bus across the continent to meet Anne-Marie for a few weeks. Next stop for the rest of us was Valparaiso, which some of you may recognise from an old Irish poem by Pádraig de Brún (Thanaig Long o Valpariso..."), and was an important transport hub back in the day. But once the Panama canal was finished, it ceasd to be and nowadays is just a regular town. We didn´t think it was a very nice spot and didn´t venture out at night. We got the feeling from walking around during the day that it may be safer to stay indoors after dark! However, we stayed in a nice hostel where we got our first chance to cook steak for dinner. As Darragh would say "Uummbelievable!" The best thing about South America is you can go to a butcher and buy a huge steak for one euro! We left for Mendoza, Argentina after a couple of days in Valparaiso. It was a long bus trip over the Andes. At one point the bus went through a tunnel that went under a ski slope. Very bizarre. Check out the hairpins on the road below, I spot a potential Top Gear special.

My head nearly exploded with the altitude pressure. No joke! All the lads thought it was funny. A headache followed for the next couple of days...and yes the lads still found it funny!! However, the trip wasn´t that bad as we got to see some great views of the Andes. Oh and Argentinian immigration also have a problem with Conor (as did Malaysian). I definately think there´s another side to this man.

Our first stop in Argentina was Mendoza which was a nice little town famous for its wine, particularly Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignons. You may remember from a previous blog, the wine tour we did via a minibus in Australia. This time however, as the land was so flat we decided to do the trip by bike. So off we set one sunny morning, out to a bit of a local cult hero called Mr.Hugo who gave us a map of the local wineries, mountain bikes and wished us on our way. The wine was a bit different to the Australia tour. Surprisingly it was about as expensive (about 5 euro per winery), but what you got for your money was much better. Some of the vintage wines were amazing, some 8 or 9 years old which makes for some very good tasting. After cycling (about 18k) we were ready to head home, when a local policeman decided we´d had too much and escorted us all the way home to be safe.

Mr.Hugo was delighted to see all his bikes back in one piece and was greeting

us with wine back at his hut before sending us all back to town on the bus. Very enjoyable day.

When we arrived in Cordoba we stayed in probably the worst hostel ever. All the hostels were booked up (Bank Holiday Weekend) so we were stuck with what we had! In our room we had a double bed, a single and a mattress on the floor. We had no floor space as the beds took up the room. We thought we had it bad until we realised people were sleeping in the hallways and common areas, in tents on the roof of the building and yes, even on the pool table! We gave some feedback on hostelworld...lets just say we didn't hold back! We went to Oktoberfest just outside Cordoba in a town called Belgrano. The town is made up of German descendants. Nice town ( we actually thought we were back in Germany) but the weather did not hold up. It started raining for the entire day. We got soaked from head to toe. People ended up having mud fights which as you know always ends well! Getting a drink was an interesting experience. First off you had to buy a glass (well big cup - the bigger the better). Then you had to get it measured at the bar to see how many ml´s of beer you needed and finally you went to the bar to pick out your tipple of choice. Fun day though.Basically a big stage was set up, and each country was given a half hour slot to showcase their talents. The Ukrainian act was impressive, as was the Scottich Highland dancers. The Iraqi show wouldn´t have gone down well in America to say the least. The Mexicans stole the show with their lads - 2 guys in sombreros singing some very popular latin american songs.

We attempted to stop off in Rosario but landed on the Sunday of the bank holiday weekend. After 8 hours of looking for a place to stay (I reckon we tried about 20 places), we decided to give up and just get a sleeper bus to Buenos Aires. Darragh made it with Anne-Marie tho so he can add a bit about it later.

So eventually we landed in Buenos Aires to study spanish. YES back to school for us...

Queenstown - money for old rope

After Wanaka we headed further South again to a place called Queenstown. This is the adventure sport capital of the world with bungy jumps, canyon swings, snowboarding, jet boating, rafting and a whole lot more besides. About fifteen minutes outside the town we called into the home of the bungy - Kawarau Bridge. This is where the bungy pioneer AJ Hackett opened the worlds first commercial bungy site. At only 43m high we decided to hold out for Nevis. Interestingly AJ Hackett was once arrested in Paris.......for bungying off the Eiffel Tower no less! Queenstown is the kind of place you´ll visit and never leave. The mountain range in the background of the bus photo are called the Remarkables because they are, as the name suggests, quite remarkable. This was to be the end of the line for the bus as some people would be staying for longer than others. As you can see we had quite a good crew even if Mark is being slowly crushed to death at the bottom of the pile on.
Our first activity in Queenstown was Nevis. Nevis is the world´s third largest bungy where it is suspended 134m over a gorge. The freefall lasts about eight seconds and you reach speeds of about 150 km/h. In fairness to Kevin Ed he was the first one up and set the tone for everyone else. Listening to his eh....shouts of joy you wouldn´t be so sure he enjoyed it though! I could be here all day trying to describe it so I´ll just let the videos do the talking.




It wouldn´t be my blog if there wasn´t a mention of food and Queenstown boasts one of the world´s premier burger joints - Fergburger. This is no ordinary burger let me assure you. There is a Big Al option which Mark, Darragh and Kevin ate. This has a half pound of beef with two fried eggs, lettuce, tomato, red onion, edam cheese, streaky bacon and beetroot. Darragh ate it in less than 7 minutes so kudos to him. Mick and I stuck to the more conventional option. (For some reason they didn´t give me a free burger for this shameless plug. Just to note that we are open to bribes, especially if they look like this)The canyon swing was our next big thrill. This is a swing 109m above the Shotover canyon. There is a 60m freefall along the cliff face followed by the swing out over the canyon. Again you get up to about 150 km/h so it´s not for the faint hearted. One of the guys on the bus, Darren, had won a free canyon swing for the penguin costume at the fancy dress. When the operators found this out he was denied the choice of jump style (backwards, forwards, upside down etc) and was strapped into a chair, shocked with a cattle prod and thrown off the platform! Mick opted for the pin drop while I went for the backwards option.In keeping with our new found desire for self harm we went skiing / snowboarding the next day at Coronet Peak. It was rather icy to say the least and this provided the locals with some spectacular falls most notably from Darragh "Bambi on Ice" O´Keeffe. We got better as the day went on and finished up on the black slopes (this may have been after a wrong turn). In fairness we didn´t pack ski gear but some of the fashion choices were interesting to say the least!
We had a day off from the madness then as some of the bus headed off for Milford Sound while we got our lives in order and sorted out our impending trip to Christchurch and then Santiago, Chile. The big send off occurred in the World bar as we said our goodbyes to everyone. A big shout out to all the bus who included (deep breath) Darren, Alpine Rob, Army Rob, Sam, Hoki, Phil, Shane, Smiley, Jizzy, Deena, Nat, Kim and Lee, Georgina, Becky, Nicki, Christian, Alex, Brian, John, Katie and Claire, Bart, Holly, Marian, Pickpocket Pete, Kimberly, Francesca, Simon, Graeme and the two Charlottes (we seem so popular don´t we). Take it from us - the Kiwi Experience is definitely the best and most fun/crazy way to see New Zealand.

Now.......where did I put those Spanish tapes???