Argentina - Atlantic Coast (Buenos Aires, Pinamar, Mar Del Plata)

Hola from Argentina. I am in Puerto Madryn right now, an old Port Town originally settled by Welsh settlers back in the 1800´s. Pretty little town in the Patagonia. I am making my way to El Calafate today, to see the Moreno Glacier (a 60 meter glacier that regularly cracks with ice debris falling into the water). Don´t know why I am doing this because it seems too touristy but oh well, I have never seen a glacier so I guess I will join the rest of the chicken heads and take lots of pictures and say ooooooooooh aaaaaaaah. 17 hour trip. My second one since I have arrived (10 days ago). Ok, I don´t want to bore you to tears with details and dear diary stories (although I have been keeping a separate daily journal - each day is a new record) so here´s a brief recap.

Arrived in Buenos Aires. Didn´t know where I was really going. Ended up in San Telmo, the birthplace of Tango in Buenos Aires. Figured I could see BA on the way back before I fly out on April 19th, so I headed south the next day. Buses here are excellent and cheap. 5 hour trip...3 bucks. They are double decker, recline all the way back (if you choose), and are kind of like business class seats on an airplane (in terms of comfort and room). Clinchers...bathrooms, A/C and breakfast. Bathrooms can get pretty nasty after 5-17 hours. Go before and try to hold it until the next town. A/C is either on or off. No level in between. So if you like the mixture of 40 celsius electric heat combined with air conditioning every once in a while to cool things off, you´ll love the buses here. For breakfast, the custom is to look for those silly people who are sleeping at 6am and shake them and wake them up ¨Desajuno"?

Ok, so I went to Pinamar, luxury beach town for upper class Argentenians (5hours south of BA). Sandy dunes and beautiful forests. Originally settled by Belgians. Think Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Stayed at the cheapest hotel I could find ($9), and enjoyed the fabulous rainy weather. No sun tanning. Met a cool guy from Chicago who owned 60% of the hotel. Spoke perfect spanish (parents were from Aregentina) and was also an ex-marine. He fought in Iraq, got out and is now living in Argentina. We talked about the war and life in general. Never judge a book by its cover I guess is what I learned...again.

After some exploring and trekking in Pinamar, I went to Mar del Plata a couple of days later. Another beach town. I wasn´t supposed to be there but hellooooo I missed my connecting bus there to Puerto Madryn, because the bus ("El Rapido" which means the fast one) broke down. Two for two on buses that broke down for me. So after El Crapo finally made the 10 hour journey (should have been 5 hours), I arrived in Mar Del Plata to connect. But wait, no bus. Good times. So I run around looking...where is that f´n bus. Go to the booth of the bus company (Patagonica) and ask if it´s late. They tell me it left a half an hour ago. Ok, great when does the next one leave. 10:30pm the next day. Riiiiiight. So I´m thinking, ok well then give me my money back. ¨No sir, nothing I can do. Not my fault. Other company´s fault¨. So I decide maybe I can catch the bus in a cab. Jump in a cab and off I go. Cabs here are safe and reliable but they sound like a lawn mower and are as fast as a golf cart. So I go back to the terminal after I realize that there is no hope in h*ll to catch the bus. Go to the booth again, argue in Spanish, play every card in the book (even though the sign says, if you miss your trip...too bad) and manage to pay 30% more for another ticket to Puerto Madryn. It´s now 11:30pm. Tell Mr. Cab Driver to take me to the cheapest hotel. Takes me to Hotel Niza, looks more like hotel Nazi. Old, run down, but cheap and clean. I´m not a big fan of white fluorescent lighting on white cement walls, so I grab a shower (most toilets and showers are in the same 4foot space here in Argentina), and head out. It´s 12:30. People are out. Shops are still open. It´s Monday night. I realize, oh great I hit Arengentina´s most popular tourist destination for Argentenians. I walk around and find a bar. Order a drink, sit down and start chatting to some Argentinians. Hola, blah blah blah. They love North American music here. And Air Guitars and Air Drums. Before you know it´s 5am so I head back to the hotel.

Wake up go for a run around the city (Mar Del Plata - Sea of Silver which I think it means because the sea has a brilliant silver colour from the sun´s reflection or Sea of the Plate - i.e., located in the River Plate, kind of like the Canadian Shield). Get burnt on one side of my body, hands and lower for arm. Weird. I later find out that this is common because of the ozone layer - or lack of it. When you tan here, you tan in blotches. Good times. Go to a cool tango show that night with the Argentinians I met the night before (one of them was in the show). It was basically a Lyrical/ Tango Dance performance to the music of Madonna. Cost for me. Free. Sweet. We go get something to eat with the dancers in the show. Ok, I will talk about food later but for now, Argentinians love their pizza and ham and cheese sandwiches. So what do you get when you combine them both. A cheese pizza with slabs of ham on it. This place turns out to be a Karoke place...great...maybe? Not unless you look to hear love song, after love song in Spanish for 3 hours combined with children songs in between. From 13 years to 60 years. They were all there at this place, with synchronized singing and dance moves. And so was I, trying to stay awake and contain my headache...but with a smile on my face of course. We leave at 3:00am and my friends tell me, "Ok, now we go dance to some BOOM BOOM music". I says pardon? Nope, this sucka is going to his hotel and grabbing some z´s. I hit the beach the next day and grab my bus for Puerto Madryn. I´ll talk about this later.

Ok, so that´s it for now. Sorry for taking so long to write but in all honestly, it´s tough to find a decent keyboard that works without wanting to smash after a while. I will write more in a few days. I´ll talk more about stories, culture, and incidents in Argentina rather than my day to day itineary going forward. I am going to hit Chile in a few days. Hope all of you are well and hablo pronto...lo prometo!