Colonia de Sacramento

Colonia de Sacramento is a old smuggling town to bring goods to Buenos Aires. The old city is protected with the UNESCO label and has some caracter. When we arrived we strolled the old calles and the rambla at the Rio de Plata. Of course the proximity to Buenos Aires that used to be good for smuggling is now good for turism. So there are a lot of people visiting this tranquil city - even though it feels like a village - at all times. The next day we checked out all 5 museums, the lighthouse and the wine section of the menu.

Since Anna is a biochemist, has her own brewery back home and entertaining family history we had lots to talk about, while sipping the afternoon away.

But she then had to go on to BsAs to visit some more breweries, which she has on her list.

I then spent the evening with a Hillary from NY (jewish lawyer from Manhatten) and a swiss couple, trying to find a dirty bar between all these fine restaurants. We ended up going to the supermarket and buying Uruguayen wine (pretty good) and getting wasted while playing Janik (israeli card game).

And now I'm sitting and waiting in the internet cafe - while it is pouring outside - for my ferry across the Rio del Plata to Buenos Aires, where I'll be able to stay at Victorias appartment for a few days.

Montevideo

Uruguay, established as a puffer zone between Brazil and Argentina, is famous for winning the first world cup in 1930, beef and gauchos. Nowadays 95% of people live in cities and they try to modernize their economy. Heavily depending on the fortune of their major trade partners Argentina and Brazil. Culturally they are much closer to Argentina.

The city it self is nice, but not anything like a marvel. The old part of town has the atmosphere of a port town and is not particularly safe. Me and a New Zealander went out eating at the border of the green zone. When leaving the restaurant we passed some locals BBQ next to the sidewalk in the gutter. When asked for a cigarette I helped them out, but we didn't want to give them any money. I was once robbed in Switzerland and saw the same expression on this guys face as on the one in Switzerland shortly before we got into trouble. So I said to the New Zealander "run" and we ran towards the green zone. He was obviously out of shape so we lost him quickly.

In the hostel I also met Murray from Holland which I briefly met in La Paz 4 months ago. Afterwards we did the same thing as the last time and got drunk and went out.

Their was also a really strange German guy, who didn't speak any Spanish and a bad English who got on my nerves all the time. Talking about german politics and boring stuff about his life. And he did it really persistent. I had to write down all the spanish words needed to work an ATM. At least he played some chess.

I also visited the congress and senate of the Uruguayan goverment which was pretty impressive.

Then I met Anna from LA, who was born in Wisconsin and moved about 15 times in her live. But judging her personality, I would say she belongs to San Franciso. We spent a lot of time in museums together and also went to a soccer game in the famous peñarol stadium (graffiti in Montevideo: sex, dugs and peñarol), where the first World Cup was one. The german guy invited himself and talked about Hartz 4 and 1 Euro jobs. The fans were cool smoking weed all the time and shouting their team to a 1:0 win.

Then me and Anna went on to Colonia de Sacramento.

Buenos Aires I

The crown jewl of Latin America was next. Famous for the architecture and the vivid porteño lifestyle. But the thing I was really looking forward to was meeting Victoria, whom I met in Mexico 9 months ago. In Mexico we spent a few days together visiting Mazunte, San Cristobal and Palenque. back then I had a crush on the girl, but shy Timmy didn't make any move. But when she left I felt bad and I bought the skirt at a street stall which she thought about buying the day before. Since then I have had a skirt in my backback (it tends to bring you into situations, that force you trying to explain). After carrying in through 13 countires now the moment has come to give it to her.
But first things first - I checked out the main attractions of Buenos Aires. The cementary of the rich porteños of past times, who had the money to build little cathedrals instead just normal graves. Colorful La Boca which is host to the most caracter filled part of the city. The Centro which is much like any European city, with a Latinamerican twist. The spectacular Museo de las Bellas Artes in Reclota with fine traditional European and more abstract Argentinian art is well worth checking out. I also peeked into the presidential palace aka Casa Rosada, which is nice, but not spectcular. Rizzy Puerto Madreno which caters snobby people with their nose high up. Once we checked out the famous nightlife of Buenos Aires, but prices were high and Timmy didn't enjoy it to much. Guess I'm getting older and wiser (maybe boring), but nowadays a prefer chilling over partying.
So after 2 days I called Victoria to meet up and we met at her place in Palermo. She was the same as in Mexico. The wine I brought along smoothed things and we had a nice time, but it didn't seem like the moment I was imagining to give her the skirt.
Also the next day - wen she invited me for a BBQ with some schoolfriends - Timmy didn't think it was the right time. But since he would be making a detour to Uruguay the next day, he gave it to her. She was really happy about it and remembered looking at it at the stall at the foot of Palenque - but the moment was far less spectacular than I thought it was going to be.

Rosario

Lightnings and thunders and extreme rain awaited me in Rosario at 4 o'clock in the morning when I arrived. The depressing bus station atmosphere was my home for the next 2 hours until the buses started to head to downtown.

Rosario is the second capitol of Argentina and is very much like an European city. It also has an international shipping port and since my hostel was right at the harbour, there were only sailors in my dorm (sailors tend to snore...). People are busily walking around town and drink mate all the time. There are some really nice restaurants that I hit regularly. The clubs were not as good as expected, but it was of course during the week. The real emotions came up when Argentina played against Paraguay in the World Cup qualifications (Argentina lost against Brazil just before and is struggling to qualify at all). Paraguay defeated the gauchos in Asuncion, sending Maradona to the media to answer some profound questions.

There is a huge memorial at the Parana river reminding people of the Argentinian sacrifies in the Malvinas war and about whom the islands really belong to. Next to it are the shopping streets where I finally bought a jacket after my other one got robbed in Ecuador. I also visited two museum and the Hypodroma, which apparently is only for club members, so they kicked me out.

Cordoba

If you come down from Cafayate to Cordoba you pass a mountain peek and after that the climate changes completly. There are green fields and the sky is cloudier. Cordoba itself has 2 million inhabitants and some colonial houses - nothing special. Life completly shuts down from 1 o'clock till 8 o'clock. Several museums are mentionable, but the "museo de bellas artes provincial" is by far the best. I also spent a afternoon in the zoo - I love zoos. They had all the usual animals from all over the planet and some local exotic buggers.

Otherwise there is not much to say, I ate mostly at all you can eat joints and had to find out that my stomach got smaller on this trip and since I am in Brazil and Argentina I can't eat the amounts I used to be able to kill at home. But of course now I can murder a wine bottle swiftly without blinking.

Cafayate

Melanie gave me the tip about Cafayate and I'm thankfull for that. Cafayate is in a valley deep in the Rocky Moutains of Argentina. It's really dry and the temperture never drops beneath zero degrees - that makes it one one of the best wine regions of South America. The town itself has only 10'000 people and things go slow. During afternoon lives shuts itself down and even the dogs go to sleep.

After getting the taste for "vino de la casa" we went to sleep only to wake up at 2 o'clock to go out. Because people to the siesta thing they have a lot of energy in the evening and party til 5 o'clock or later. It was nice to hang out with the Argentinians we met right away. The next day me and Matthew (Utah) walked twoards the closest mountain in sight (San Isidro) and hiked the 1000 m higher rock. To get there, up and back took us 8 hours. We ran out of water on the way back and were completely fucked when we got back - wine infusion.

The next day we went with Manuela (48 years old, NZ) to the wineyards around town. Two streetdogs followed us all the way. Shortly before we got to the last winery, one dog got hit by a pickup. It made a strange sound and the dog got spit out the back of the truck. He was lightly insured and was barking at the truck and in general about being so unlucky. In the "bodega" we were greeted by a indigenous wine conneceuse and were shown around and ended up at the basement where we could drink the fabulous merlot and so on and we thaught the woman some English since she suddenly came up with a book - afterwards siesta.

The third day I decided to check out the "Quebrada de Cafayate" by bycicle. The colors, the river and the rockformations make it a unique place to visit. Silence accompanied me on the first 50 km up to the "Garganta del Diabolo" because not many cars pass and I was not yet cursing even tough I felt it to be very challenging. After 20 km on the way back I decided to make a lunch break at the river. Thats when some shitty spike took all the air out of my front tyre. Now I was cursing, especially because there was no repair kit on the bike. Since I'm a good person I decided not to ride it anyway, because otherwise it would wreck the weel. So I walked with may thumb up each time a car past. But they were not eager to stop. After 10 km I ran out of water so I asked some guy who I met on the steet, which pointed out his house on the horizon. Is wife gave me water afterwards. Then I was back on the road - walking. After another 5 km finally somebody had the decency to help the stupid gringo on the side of the road. But only after it was getting dark.

Salta

Salta is turisty and the doorway up to Bolivia. Mentionable are the many restaurants that try to come up with the proper response for the high expetations of meat loving men. Streets are noisy as allways and there is a lot of pollution because there is almost no rain in this valley. I walked up to the "Pan de Azucar" of Salta and checked out two museums. One about anthropologic discoveries and the other more sophisticated one about mumies. They are not actually mumies, but the kids are well conserved, because they were burried on a really high mountain top in the perma frost. Then of course there are several parks worth checking out, because they are usually really crowded with young people in school uniform.

Since a old school friend of mine (Melanie Schnidrig) worked and lived there for 2 years, I also greeted her friends, who lived there ever since. To bad she was not there.

La Resistencia

La Resistencia was just the hub to enter Argentina. I arrived really late (1AM) because the Argentinans are aware, that most of their drugs originate in Paraguay, so security was tight, but even more just slow. So I was able to sleep at the private house of a bartender at the terminal. We drank some mate and he talked about his life and me about mine. He showed me his family pictures and so on. The appartmant was in a block, that was way, way beyond the best times. But Marcos hospitality made up for it.

The next day I checked out the city which is quite nice. Not many people see more than the terminal, so once again - no turists. The city displays a lot of statues, which are scattered all over town. I then went to a nice restaurant and ordered a bottle of wine to enjoy my book and the sun and had to hurry back to the termial to catch my bus to Salta, because I lost track of time.