Villa la Angostura

In Villa la Angostura we decided we would make tent-errection a competition. Craig went first and completed with a time of 12minutes 17seconds.

On our first day here we set up, swam and cooked our first bbq. Cam doesn´t seem to have photos of that but Craig does so maybe I´ll see if I can connect his camera up. It was pretty sweet. Our second day we just roamed the town. This is where the tooting baby was locked in the car.

On our third day we visited the nation park of Villa la Angostura. We read in our lonely planet guides that it was quite popular to ferry out to some point and mountain bike back along the path or vice versa. We thought this would be a good idea. This is us pumped up on our hired bikes.

In Argentina helmets are for handlebars.

Turns out mountain biking along that path was harder than expected. Harder than I expected anyway. Who would have guessed it wasn´t going to paved? And that atleast half of it was up hill? Cam and Craig tell me this is what mountain biking is, I just wish they´d mentioned this earlier.

This is us near the end, I had to physically carry my bike at some stages of the track so was way too sweaty for nice pictures.

We originally looked into biking the seven lakes route as our trusted lonely planet friends recommended we do only we couldn´t take bikes from Villa la Angostura and drop them off in San Martin (I think about 200kms away) so we bought bus tickets. Thank god. Turns out the road is nearly as bad as that national park path for nearly the whole first 100kms.

Next stop was Villa Traful.

Bariloche

Our first stop after leaving Buenos Aires was Bariloche. We walked to all the hostels in Cam and Craig´s lonely planet guide books and were turned away finally getting the last room in a hostel on the 10th floor of Bariloche´s tallest building. Pretty sweet.


I can´t seem to find other photos from Bariloche, must be on Craig´s camera but we spent our second night there in a camping ground about 3kms from town and the next day moved on to Villa la Angostura.

hello everyone,

It's cameron here. This is my first blog entry, so please forgive me if it isn't as good as Penny's. I'm a little nervous. This first picture is of Craig and myself being gr8 aussie m8s and protecting ourselfs from the sun's harmfull rays. Craig is a little too pumped up for my liking and if I remember rightly he was squeezing me awful tight. But I guess thats what mates do, especially gr8 m8s. This photo was taken at Lago Hermoso, but Penny is going to say about the lakes. I am as yet an unqualified blogger to speak of such things

This is one of many photos of Penny asleep on busses or around the lakes we visited. This one is my favourite because of the drool on her shoulder and, unlike many photos, the more you look at her face the more hillarious it becomes. Just take 5 minutes to have a good long look. Like the Mona Lisa, the hillarity follows you where ever you are in the room. Can you imagine the fun I had, it was a shame this bus ride was a mere 6 hours. Penny has managed to sleep on every bus ride we have had, no matter how short.

These two shots are of fairly typical morning activities in Buenos Aires. These were probably taken at about 10-30am or 11am. It is plain to see how Craig maintains his ripped bod even on holiday and how I gain weight everyday. (In my hand out of view is a beer and 2 slices of pizza). These are taken in the hostel we are staying at currently, in an area of Bs As called Nuñez. It turned out to be quite expensive so tomorrow we are moving. Also this hostel is haunted, one of the reasons of the high price. Tomorrow we are going shopping apparently, but it is way to hot to do much.

Craig is starting to get quite good at this card game called 'swipe out', as we are playing constantly. It is my favourite game. The others, despite their skill, are less enthusiastic. That pose that Craig is in, he held for a little less than 3 minutes. In contrast I could only hold it for 24 seconds. An admirable effort by normal standards but it was only good enough for 3rd in our group. This is about all I have to say, except stop using our blogspot for your conversations about tracksuits. Get your own website and start up your own tracksuit threads. Thats not what our URL is about.
Love Cameron James Hill Burgess

San Martin de los Andes

When Cam and I were online before at the bus depot in San Martin Craig was looking after our bags outside because he was too sick for computer screens, while he was out there people kept giving him pieces of paper with places to stay for real cheap on them. We thought it looked pretty sweet only we couldn´t really work out where the places were so we just went to the hostels listed at the information centre. Turns out all the hostels in San Martin are full. So we walked for ages trying to find this place and it turns out that it´s just an extra room at these peoples house. It´s real sweet though and the lady is real nice and speaks a wee bit of english, so that mixed with our wee bit of spanish got us a real neat self-contained unit type thing at their house with our own kitchen and bathroom for only 15pesos each a night. Saving us each about 18pesos a night! Such a bargain and way better than a dorm room.

Tomorrow we´re off to a place called Nuequen for a couple of nights. We don´t know much about it apart from that there´s meant to be a really big dinosaur there. I think maybe it´s the biggest in the world. And I also think it´s just a replicar but that it was found there. I´m also fairly certain it´s called gigantisaurus. Which I like. It´s on our way back to Buenos Aires, a bit under half the way back. It´ll be sweet once we´re back because a) Marco will be there and b) I can post some more sweet photos, mainly of us jumping off things into different ice-cold lakes.

Craigs sleeping at the moment, he´s feeling way better now than this morning. Cam thinks it´s just some 24hour bug. I think he´s probably right. Cam and I are doing some shopping, I´m just so happy to back in a city that I could stay out all night. It´s fun because it´s 7.30pm and all the shops are still open. I´ve ruined all my clothes camping and now need whole new outfits. Yus!

Ok, well I´ll post again in a few days from Buenos Aires with some rad pics.

Hey everyone.

This is just a quick post to say we´re through the other side of the ruta de la siete lagos and have internet access again. I´ll do a bit more of a thorough post a bit later on, we´re eager to find a hostel because Craig has some travellers bug and wants to sleep. I´m so happy we will be staying in a bed tonight instead of our crappy tent.

Dad - Could you please send me an e-mail at prepe174@student.otago.ac.nz so I have your e-mail address because I got an e-mail from the law department and you´ll be getting a form sent to you that needs to be returned before I get home to save me 74$ fine. Also, hope you guys are good.

Kiddo/Kara - Sweet about the flat. Which one is it? Let us know if you need some money. Also if you´re getting it through a property management company instead of a landlord could you find out if we could pay bonds/advance rent with our credit cards please? Hope Auckland and the BDO were fun!

On our own..

Well, on Thursday we left the safety of Pachi´s spanish-speaking abilities and caught a bus for 20hours south from Buenos Aires to a place called Bariloche. We were sweet in Bariloche, it´s real touristy so heaps of people spoke english and we´ve come far enough that we can order meals in spanish no worries. We stayed there a couple of nights and have now caught a bus to Villa La Angostura where we will be for the next two nights and then will be traveling around what the locals call la ruta de los siete lagos (the seven lakes route) for the next 10 or so days finishing in San Martin.

Before we left Buenos Aires a few people thought maybe we shouldn´t come here because they have heard it´s a lot like New Zealand and thought we should see parts of Argentina that weren´t. We came anyway. I can see how people would think it´s like New Zealand. Lakes and moutains and real nice scenery but that´s about where it ends. These lakes are huge and you can see mountains with snow on them that look real close even though it´s 30degrees. The water in the lakes has come straight off the Andes so it´s real cold but it´s so crystal blue and clear that we can´t help ourselves but try to swim in it everyday. So far I haven´t managed to go past hip height into the water, Cam´s gone under every day and Craig only wussied out yesterday. I´m going to have to go under today though because last night when I tried to use the shower some lady with a bum-bag spoke a whole lot of words to me in spanish and wouldn´t let me passed.

We´ve got cameras with us but accidently left the cord that puts them onto the computer at Pachi´s house so no dice with photos until we get back there.

Highlights of 7 lakes trip so far have included making our own Argentinian bbq on a fire we built ourselves whilst drinking one litre beers (Putt - you´ll be happy to know that even though we opted for visiting the lakes we´re still drinking dirt-cheap 1litres) and earlier today when we were eating lunch in town and some baby managed to lock itself in it´s parents car with the keys and toot the horn over and over again while it´s half distressed/half embarrassed parents could only watch and try to teach a 1year old how to unlock a door. What made it more amusing was when a car cut off a truck on the other side of the road so the truck beeped real loud and the baby responded by starting to beep it´s own horn again.

Anyway, hope everyone´s alright. We´re really having so much fun and haven´t got into any trouble by not knowing the language yet (unless you count last night when 3 people told us we weren´t allowed to light fires just anyway and had to use the bbq areas but we thought they were all just telling us to pour water on the fire before we went to bed). At the moment our rough plans are to head back to Buenos Aires in a couple of weeks and then shortly after go to Iguazu falls (and maybe in Brazil) and then back to Buenos Aires for a while then head over to Uruguay for a while then back to Buenos Aires and then home.

Mum - hope you have a really good birthday. I wrote you a post card but so far we haven´t found anywhere that will send out of Argentina. I think I´ll just bring you a present home so I don´t have to learn how send parcels in spanish.

Hope New Zealand´s summer has warmed up and that everyone´s having half as much fun as us (though that´s unlikely).

Around Buenos Aires

Yesterday Pachi took us to La Boca which is an area of town that heaps of tourists go to because they dance tango on the streets and the buildings are all birght colours. It´s real neat to look at but they try to charge you for everything. We paid 1peso just to take this picture with our own camera. We paid some guy 3pesos to park our car on the side of the street - this is meant to be so he can ¨guard¨ it but it seems like it´s more either we pay or he breaks into our car once we´ve gone.




This road is like 6 lanes wide of traffic all going the same way, it´s a big road but is normal for big roads in Buenos Aires.

This is us eating choripans. They´re the chorizo sausages we ate at Diegos bbq in about a 9inch bun. They have 3 made up salads and you can put them all in if you want and any mixture of 5 or 6 sauces aswell. They cost 2pesos and you just buy them on the side of the street. It´s amazing.

At Diego´s House

In South America everyone is very relaxed. Craig fits in really well.

Diego cooking us our bbq.

I think you can click on this photo and make it bigger. You should. This is how much meat we had between 8 people.

Diego!

On Sunday we saw Diego. He now has a sweet Latin-American mullet. We like it lots.

We went to his house and swam lots in his big pool. He cooked us an Argentinian bbq with lots of meats. We tried Chorizo, which is a type of sausage and it´s fantastic. Cam says you can get it in NZ but it´s WAY better here. We also tried black pudding, they call it something else but it´s still pretty gross. Lots of his friends came over and we had a feast of meat with salads and potatoes, kumara and a type of pumpkin plus 12 litres of beer for 20pesos each. So cheap.

We have more photos but it´s time to eat so I will post them tomorrow maybe. We also have plans to travel south and visit some lakes. We´re having lots of fun and Craig is speaking lots of spanish these days.

Bueno Aires

Hola! I wrote a whole big message with the photos I just posted and then when I tried to post it there was some error and all my work disappeared. It was so upsetting and I don´t even know what went wrong because everything was in spanish. So annoying.

Anyway, we´re here and safe and having so much fun. The first photo is of a man on our plane ride over. There wasn´t much leg room and it was hard for us to sleep, but not for this guy! Some how he could stetch his legs out into all sorts of positions and sleep like that. The best was when he had one leg up on the back of the seat of the guy in front of him and his other leg across the isle on some other guys arm rest. Real weird.
The plane was fine, the boys drank Argentinian beer. Craig got real bad stomach cramps for most of the plane. Sucker. When we got to the airport they waved us right through customs, our bags didn´t even get x-rayed. Argentina is so relaxed. A taxi driver took us to a hostel and arranged for us to stay there, we´re lucky we found him because we didn´t encounter anyone else who could speak english until we got to Pachi´s house.

On our second day here we explored la plaza de mayo which we think is like congress. The second and fourth photos were taken in a big cathedral across the road from it. Inside there are guards with swords that don´t move, I didn´t realise they were real until Cam told me to go stand next to one for a photo. It´s lucky I didn´t though because 2 seconds later three other guards came and one short one gave commands in spansh and they changed. It was pretty sweet. The second photo is of Craig confessing his sins.

In front of the congress building is a big square with a whole of statues. Everything is written in spanish and we´re not sure what anything was but we think the the fifth photo of me and craig and some guy on a horse was the founder of the city. Cam says that because the horses front leg is up that means he died of old age. Pretty sweet.

Later that day we caught a taxi to Pachi´s house and walked around his neighbourhood. It´s really pretty, the houses are all made of stone or cement and there are really big trees all along the street. That night he cooked us this real big bit of meat on a charcoal bbq which is how they do it in Argentina and is the last photo. Here they eat dinner at like 9-10pm and we were really hungry watching this real nice piece of meat cook for like 90minutes. It was hard.

After dinner we drank 6 litres of beer and then went to a bar at about 12pm. In Argentina they do everything about 3 hours later than in New Zealand. The bar was empty, no one in sight. And people didn´t really start coming until about 1.30am. In bars here 1litre of beer is 6pesos which is about $3nz. You just wave your hand at the waitress and she comes, takes your order, brings it back, takes your money and then brings back your change. It´s amazing. If you didn´t need to pee all the time you wouln´t have to get up. The 3rd photo is in the bar after many more litres of beer. It´s Cam, Mito - one of Pachi´s friends from school, Daniel - Pachi´s older brother, Daniels friend and Craig. Everyone we´ve met that´s our age speaks English, which is fun and lucky for us.

First days

In Argentina

Hey guys. We made it here safely yesterday afternoon and the taxi driver showed us a hostel that we stayed at in the city. Today we are at Pachi´s house and we are staying here tonight. He is cooking us an Argentian bbq tonight which we´re pretty excited about. We haven´t been able to get hold of the others yet but hopefully tomorrow.

We have some photos of some statues and things we went and saw today, I´m not really sure what they are but we will put some neat ones up soon anyway.

Also you can buy 1litre of beer for around 2pesos which equals about $1nz. Which we like. Lots.