Sunday, April 15, 2007

Back in Buenos

After 51 hours in a Bus from Ushuia I was back in Buenos Aires. I went straigt from the Bus Terminal to the International Bureau of Language and started up two more weeks of spanish school. Its the first time on the trip I´ve taken group classes and probably one of the few times in my life I´ve felt like the dumb kid in the class. But I guess that´s what happens when you are the only gringo in a class of swiss, brazilian, french-canadian, french-france, swedish and english students who all speak atleast two languages.


Its time for the Rague Festivaal ie Quilmes Rock 2007


The line up for Friday Night:
Arbol - Tree in spanish. Heard they are good, but didn´t make it to the show in time.
Psychadelic Furs - Anybody remember the song "Pretty in Pink". Maybe they were good in the 80s or early 90s. But when a stadium full of people are sitting on the ground talking while your singing, maybe its a sign to retire.
Babysonicos - The Argentinian version of the Darkness. This guy is just as ugly, but with even tighter pieter pan-like tights and a sequence top. In other words - they ROCKED! Not joking I´ve never seen a crowd go so crazy and at time dangerously out of hand.
Until Keane came on. I expected some mellow head bobbing and maybe some lighter waving, instead I was in the middle of absolute mayhem. Argentinians know the word to every Keane song and they are willing to do whatever it takes to get as close to the stage as possible. There was no way in or out, you just had to keep moving your feet as the crowd flowed from one side to the other. If you fell it was all over.

All in All: I LOVED IT!

The day after the concert I was off to Bolivia....until I found out I oculd get Rivers vs Boca tickets. The biggest soccer Rivalry in Argentina and maybe Latino America.

After 30 seconds Boca scored the first goal and I was thrown 2 rows forward by the screaming fans. I think I hugged almost everybody around me and the chants continued for the whole first half.

However, Rivers scored in the first minute of the second half. Seeing their fan section was directly above mine, suddenly there were streams of some yellow liquid coming down from the ledge above us. Luckily, I was about 3 rows back and completely covered by the overhang.

The game ended in a 1-1 tie. We had to wait 20 minutes while the fans were let out section by section. Which gave the rivers fans sufficient time to tear out some of the seats and throw them down into our section, but most everyone was covered by the overhang.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Fin Del Mundo!

Ushuaia, Argentina - Otherwise known as the Southernmost City in the World (which really isn´t true since Chile has a naval port town slightly further south). And for you Gringos and Brits who don´t quite understand kilometers: 3040 kms = 51 hours in a Bus.

Isla de los Penguinos - Penguin Island

Probably as close as I´ll ever get to Antartica. And it keeps getting further away because of global warming. But really, who can live without all ten cylinders these days.

Lobos de dos pelos - Fur Seals (I thought lobo meant wolf)

Lobos Marinos - Sea Lions (again pretty sure lobo means wolf, but I guess they don´t really look like lions either)
Southernmost lighthouse in the world.

Un Pinguino - Dinner!

National Park at the End of the World. Here is where you can get your passport stamped with: Fin Del Mundo. Barney said its possibly the lamest thing anyone can do....so I got two of them (just kidding, one was enough). But then my passport was stolen, so I wasted three argentinian pesos. I´m sure there is probably a lesson in Karma somewhere in this turn of events. So now Im in La Paz, Bolivia working on my long overdue blog while I wait for the US embassy to open and give me a temporary passport.