Backside 180 to fakey tailgrab or something...

finally got some pictures burnt to CD. Here I am in Las Leñas...

Heading off to Bariloche tonight instead of Chile, cos some friends from hostel are heading that way. A luxurious 21 hour bus ride awaits.

I have to suffer for my art you know.

Well Driven?

Yesterday we took an excursion to the natural thermal baths of Cachuagua which in Spanish probably translates to tepid waters. The springs were a bit disappointing and didnt live up to the picture in the brochure, but never mind, the highlight of the day was the bus journey. Our Uspallta coach took a detour off the highway down a bumpy track to pick up some school kids, then tried to negotiate the track back to the main road assisted by an official chap in an orange jacket, who waved our bus enthusiastically forward. The driver obliged and promptly drove into a ditch, leaving the bus tilting over at 20 degrees. The driver revved the engine hard to try and make an escape, but there was no escaping, and no disguising his poor driving, or perhaps over reliance on the official in the orange jacket. The official whose only response was to laugh, perhaps because he thought he may had lost his job so may as well enjoy the moment.

The gringos heroically lept out of the bus, well squeezed through the jammed half open door and did the best we could to help the situation... by taking loads of photos. Well thats not quite true, Rob the mechanic who we were travelling with, did get his hands dirty and tried to help out, but it was all in vein, so we found a cafe at the side of the main road, sat down for some great Pollo Asado, and waited an hour for the next bus.

Tomorrow I am going to Chile or Bariloche. The road to Chile opened this morning it turns out, but as I was so busy playing a guitar I found, I had neglected to ask the hostel staff if the road had re-opened. So manaña I will go to the bus station and try and get to Chile if not, to Bariloche, another Argentine resort. I have had a great time in Mendoza, but the snowboard under my bed is gathering dust, so its about time I hit the slopes again.

Super Pancho con Poncho

Still passing time in Mendoza, waiting for the road to Chile to open. Incredibly I have managed to get out of the hostel and do some stuff. A few days ago we went out to a ranch for a day of horse riding, Maté drinking and of course BBQ and wine for lunch. We were disappointed not to be given ponchos and cowboy hats, but still we got to be Gaucho´s for a day. We got back to the hostel and signed up for the evening Parilla (all you can eat BBQ) which was commencing at 10pm. Naturally around 12.30 we sat down to eat. Having been here 3 weeks, I am well accustomed to Argentine timing now.

For lunch yesterday I found a new Argentine ´delicacy´. Super Pancho con Poncho. A regular super pancho is just a hot dog, but the added twist is an added slice of ham and cheese - the poncho - on the top. Mmmm healthy as well as tasty.

Oops this entire entry seems to be about food again. Time for another Bife de Lomo...

Snow much snow

Well I am suposed to be going to Chile tomorrow, but the road is closed again due to snow. Which is a good thing because the resorts need more snow, but bad thing because I am stuck in Mendoza. Luckily I am at the Itika hostel, and it´s a real cool place, with loads of areas to hang out in. We just had a massive BBQ / cocktail party. Downstairs in the basement we found a games room with SF2 on the SNES. All the old moves came back!

I think while I wait for the road to re-open, I might get some boarding in Los Penitentes which is just a couple of hours away from here. Well no rush; just taking it day by day... I am on holiday after all.

Celebrity Ski Team

So, who should show up in our hostel in Malague... None other than worlds fastest skier, Simone Origone. Er right, I hadn't heard of him either. But having gone out skiing with him yesterday, I am inclined to agree he is pretty quick. His world record is over 250km/h. You may have seen him on the telly, on such shows as "Worlds Most Dangerous Sports... Ever", or on "Im a celebrity, get me out of here very quickly" wearing a crazy shiny red suit and aerodynamic helmet. He didnt have that gear with him, so thats probably why I didnt recognise him.

It seems that most ski teams pop over to the southern hemisphere for a bit of summer training, so if you go to Bariloche in a couple of weeks time, you should find most the Italian and Swiss team there, assuming they get some more snow (which is why I am going to Chile instead). Im not quite sure how staying up till 2am and then going skiing with a couple of English snowboarders counts as training, but it was his first day of the summer season.

Talking of Chile, I just bought my bus ticket to Santiago on Sunday. Mmm another 7 hour bus ride, I cant wait!

Las Leñas

Just a short note to say I made it to the mountains and have just had 3 ace days snowboarding around Las Leñas, have arranged a nightbus back to Mendoza tomorrow, and I have changed my plan from simply to, er head south, to instead loop back up to the ski resorts near Santiago Chile...

Mendoza

On Monday, I left Buenos Aires to take the night bus to Mendoza. They don´t have so many trains over here in Argentina, instead they have very posh buses. The seats are so big, there are only 3 seats across on the top deck, its like riding business class on an aeroplane. The bus was non-stop for about 14 hours, during the journey they even serve meals. Well, they try to serve meals, but the scene is something like out of the aeroplane movie when they serve dinner in the turbulance. You clip a tray onto your seat, and try and eat the meal as the bus bumps its way down the highway, I had to down my coke in one for fear of spilling it all over me, in a brief respite between pot holes.
I think I have been in the hostel here for 4 or 5 days, its very difficult to tell since this Mendoza is the principle wine region of Argentina. I have managed a trip to a vinyard, but not so much else here as the weather has turned, which is bad because it means we have not been doing much, but on the other hand it means there will be lots of fresh snow in the Andes. However we have had a great time in the very posh hostel (it even has a swimming pool!) See http://www.damajuanahostel.com.ar/ . On Sunday I should be going to Malargue, next to the Las Leñas ski resort, so I should be snowboarding on Monday. At the moment it is something like the Tony Hawk book, "Around Ireland With a Fridge", me carrying my snowboard from place to place but never using it. Infact maybe when the ski season has finished, I will just continue carrying it around Boliva or the Galalopogas islands just for fun!

PS. am eating well. All-you-can-eat buffet for lunch was 17pesos. Thats about 3 pounds!

Gringo Power

So Sabado Noche soon came around... and well it would be rude not to go clubbing again, a group of us from the hostel headed out to a bar at around 10 or 11pm of course, via the Super-Pancho hotdog kiosk. 1.25 pesos for a superpancho, thats er 20p or something. Then onto the bar where someone follishly ordered two bottles of bad wine. Still, we couldnt´t let it go to waste, so we finished those off, some cheeky vodkas and piled 5 big gringos into a taxi towards one of the super clubs Opera-Bay. So Saturday night, 2am club is looking rather popular with enourmous queues. So time for some Gringo-Power. "Hi we are foreign, can we jump the queue please?" A few seconds later we were being whisked towards the entrance. After initially assuming it was just our outright attractiveness that got us in, the reality dawned, that although the locals could just about stump up the 30peso entrance fee, they couldnt really afford to buy the drinks like the westerners could. It was 7pesos, for a beer compared to 1 or 2 somewhere else. The club was rather bling, and worth checking out if you ever happen to be in San Telmo district and are stuck for something to do!

Sunday needless to say, was a right-off.

High Culture

Today I was planning to take a train to Tigre about an hour away, to see the sites, you know, see some culture. The plans went out the window when I agreed to go clubbing with a friend from the hostel, since the timescale here for a night out is somewhat different to back home.

So for a typical argentine night out, we met up at 10.30pm, and headed out for dinner for another amazing steak. I am not sure if it is true that its the greatest steak in the world, but when it only costs 10pesos, about 2pounds then you really cannot complain. So after steak, a few beers and some strange liqures the waitress kept bringing we head to a bar, well actually it was a famous hostel called Millhouse, that has a sort of party bar that makes for a night out similar to being back in a student union. (if you can remember that far back). So another few beers and chatting to everyone in the hostel. It seems due to the season and the location of BA most people are either at the start of their adventure or in about month 11 of their trip. Sometimes you can judge by peoples suntan which end of the trip it is.

So 2am its time to go clubbing and we headed to the suburbs for a gringo free place, to add extra authenticity. The club was a crazyfun packed place, which is hard to explain, just that you had to be there to understand the atmosphere, and needless to say this morning we were taking the 6.30am train back into BA that was packed with comuters heading to town. And so to the hostel to bed just as everyone else is getting up for brekkie.

And so the cultural trip to Tigre is indefinetly postponed... That was just a Thursday night out, the weekend awaits!

Beef and Tango

Yesterday I went to the famous Boca region. Saw the Boca-Juniors stadium... it could do with a lick of paint, I had famous argentine beefsteak for lunch and in the evening I was cajooled into going to Tango class instead of going to the pub, and it was a lot of fun! So maybe Tango is the new drinking... then again maybe its not.

I found a few people to get some info about the ski trip, so it looks like that is going to work out ok. Although Buenos Aires is quite nice, it is still another big noisy city, so I am really looking forward to getting out to the mountains. hasta luego...

Now the real begginning...

This morning I arrived in Buenos Aires. For a while I thought was going to have to hop around South America as I managed to lose a shoe on the aeroplane somewhere between Brazil (where I had a stopover) and Argentina. Luckily the cabin crew had it safetly stowed away in a chilled container, so I retrieved it and am back on two feet.

I managed to negotiate a bus and a bit of subway fun before finding my hostel. It was very tempting to get a taxi since lugging around snowboard gear is tricky as well as too heavy. I will have to get some wheels put on my snowboard bag.

Doesn´t seem to be quite snowboarding weather here in BA, it feels like summer. I think in South America the different regions of the country all have different weather depending on all of the ´tudes.... thats longitude, latitude, altitude and maybe there are some others too. So hopefully when I get over to the Andes next week, winter will be in full affect.

Ok second half of the semi´s is about to start, so I gotta go... (Handy hostel this with free internet and worldcup on the telly)