Super Carma and Iguazu Falls...

Have you ever been excited about an 18 hour bus ride? No? Then you`ve clearly never traveled Super Carma before! So I decided to go all out on the bus trip to Iguazu falls and booked Super Carma, after the guy booking it for me at the hostel told me it was something I had to do once in my life. Very good advice. So its sort of like flying 1st class, something which I doubt will ever happen to me in the real world. Plus it wasnt hugely more expensive than traveling Carma. By the way, for those of you without spanish, Carma means bed. Thats right, the seats turn into beds, and it was the best bed Ive slept on yet. You also get an endless supply of movies (mostly Pirate I might add) and pretty well fed, wine, and Champagne. Love super Carma. Plus if your drivers and host is anything like the ones i got on Via Baroilloche, theyll sit with you, teach you spanish, draw you maps of Argentina and then tell you they think your pretty. How lovely! Haha. I also made friends with a 50+ british couple from Oxford, who said that they were having their mid life crisis, had left for a year and are renting an apartment in BA. They were lovely, and I met with them again at the Falls.

Iguazu falls are amazing. Photos dont do it justice, it really makes you realise how small and insignificant we are. They are the widest waterfalls in the world, and aparently are more impressive than Niagra falls. You can visit them from Brazil and Argentina, I did both. From the Brazil side you get an amazing view of the whole falls. You go on a trail which eventually takes you to the bottom of one of the falls, where you get quite wet. The water is very high at the moment due to heavy rainfall last week, so Im told it makes them even more impressive.
On the Argentinian side there is more to see and do. Theres many trails through the rain forest, but incase you think I was on some wild hike, its more like Disney world, where you follow paths around.
You can also get a boat under the falls, which is what I did. I am not a boat person at the bet of times, but I just had to swallow my fear and board with the other Gringos, trusting my life in the laid back tour guides and my huge life jacket. I was scared for about five minutes, but soon got over it, it was amazing, and well worth the shower.
So My trip to the falls has given me a taste for the outdoors, Im back in BA for two nights, the tropical heat and sun of Iguazu certainly makes the wet cold weather here doubley unappealing so Im looking into my next trip, Mendoza, to Wine tasting and Hiking! Ciao for now!

subways and buses

So since the wild toe breaking night things have been slightly more relaxed in B.A. Note, sundays are utter days of rest here, it was the first time I've seen the city without hoards of people everywhere. We went to a market, bought icecream and watched the oldies tango for free in the cultural centre.
Monday night was La Bomba night, video to come, unbelieveable drumming concert. I'm slowly starting to appreciate the music here, although dubbed english songs, ain't such a good idea.

So I finally braved the subway and buses. You wouldn't believe how much you appreciate a language until you don't understand anything, anywhere. Saying that, I haven't gotten too lost yet, although I had a bus driver yell at me today because I hadn't given him enough. Meh.

Yesterday we had a BBQ in the hostel, guess what, more steak! haha, you'd think it'd get old wouldn't you?

So tomorrow I'm going to Iguazu falls for two nights, supposed to be amazing.

Salsa and Sunshine

So it took me two days to recover from traveling, but yesterday, I was on fire and the sun finally showed its face! Now we"re talking...

Visiting the Recoleta Cemetry which I can only describe as a small village of dead people. Its a neverending labyrinth of Musaleoms, some the size of small houses. It was incredibly facsinating, obviously only the very wealthy rest there, so there are some impressive stories behind the graves.

So had my first hardcore night out in Beunos Aires, one of the party capitals of the world. God these guys know how to party. They eat late, ten or eleven, and theres no point in going to a nightclub till at least two if not later, and they go allll night, right through till eight the next day. Went out with an Aussie girl, Sophie, and we ended up being the only tourists in this nightclub. Two blonde girls among a bunch of Argentinians, all I can say if theres any girls going through a crisis of confidence, come here for a night!

And for all those people that imagine the guys here to be sleazy, I want to defend the Argentinian rep. Don"t get me wrong, they try really hard to talk to you, but they do not sleaze. Chat up line for the night from a guy who wanted to teach me salsa "but the hips don"t lie!"... oh Sacira...

And they actually Salsa, and do it sooo well. Its a huge part of there culture here, instead of the drunken asking "do you come here often?", They ask to dance. I think you"d have to see it in action, but I was blown away watching people dance. I probably looked like the weirdo irish girl perving at the sides, but hey!

So we get back to the hostel at 7, and stay up chatting to the guys working here who wanted to know where we were. They ended up teaching us Salsa, and I busted my toe, which may be broken... I think I let the side down guys! My Salsa skills suck. Oh and the hostel guys opened my eyes to a whole new world, Floggers. Oh, my, god. You may have heard of goths, emos, etc, well, in other place in the world, theres floggers. They have a tight jeans, big shoes, floral tshirts and perfect pokemon hair, and they do this weird dance thing, to techno. Apparently they just do it everywhere, streets, clubs etc. Oh and they love themselves and have blogs on which they take photos of themselves and upload. Brilliant. Oh and then theres Roligetas or something like that. They base there look on Mike Jagger, groups of youths that dress like him, and dance like him. Its brilliant.

The night ended with breakfast, bed, and maybe a broken toe! I love this place!

First Steak

So this is what my first steak looked like, I dont think this photo gives you the right impression... I actually think I ate a small cow, it was the size of my face.

So these people are very skinny and beautiful, and as far as I can tell, all they eat is steak, cake and dulche de leche, which is sugar milk. They party alllllll night, and work all day. Its a mystery...

OH the comfort of Air France...

Fuck Jetlag

So what ever about Ryanair flights being small, air france planes ain't much better! Then again, you can't really complain when theres an endless supply of hagen daas icecream at the back of the plane :)

So 13 and a half hours after leaving Paris airport I arrived to Beunos Aires at 7.30am local time. Having had a few 'oh my god what am I doing moments' on the plane I arrived into the airport watching my bags with my periferal vision on high alert. My paranoia was uncalled for though, it was completely safe.

Hostel is beautiful, sharing a room with three americans, an english girl and a Brazilan. I was determined not to go to sleep, fuck jetlag, I'd wait it off till the night. Had a delightful breakfast conversation with a french guy at the end of his four month trip in South America who didn't know how he would re-enter normal society.

Oh for anyone jealous of the amazing sunshine I'm having... don't be, there isn't any. Its 10 degrees today and has pissed rain since I arrived. I bought an umbrella and a scarf on my first day! When it rains it pours here, but I've been promised the sun is coming. Its only Spring.

The cities gorgeous despite the rain, its unbelieveably big. I am however considering taking spanish lessons, I feel like I'm in Lost in Translation, and theres only so far spanglish and sign language can get you...

My first night I went for Dinner with the Emma, the english girl and two ozzies. My first traditional South American meal... Sushi?! Theres plenty of time for Steak I'm sure :)
We came back to the hostel and drank with everyone here. I decided to be sensible after three drinks and not go to the nightclub and finally get some sleep.

But fuck jet lag, fuck my weak body, ended up vomiting all morning regardless! haha, don't worry, I brought it on myself, feel fine now.

Testing...

So... 

Welcome to my Travel Blog!

For those of you that don't know me, I go by Jess, from Ireland, and this is really just a conveniently lazy excuse for me not having to e-mail anyone whilst I'm away. Hopefully this will provide a somewhat amusing and entertaining blog on my travels to South America!!

Enjoy boys and girls.