Christmas in Northern Argentina

Christmas celebrations here are on the night of the 24th, and just as in Australia, is spent with family, presents, lots of food and drinks, and the continual effort to seek refuge from the oppressive heat and humidity. But after midnight it is totally different as all the "youngies" leave the family house and head out to massive parties or nightclubs to celebrate with friends. From midnight to 5 or 6am (maybe later) the streets, pubs, clubs etc are buzzing with the sounds of frenetic youth partying - kind of like New Years back home. Pretty crazy. Then there is the firecrackers and fireworks that can start to be heard in the afternoon of the 24th (the first one scared the sh@t outta me as I happened to be plugging in the christmas lights at the time!), then it gradually increases to Baghdad-like warfare in the streets for the entire night.


We had a big dinner with Marcela's family and also some visitors from Denmark (Marcela's host family from when she went on exchange there as a 17 year old were visiting for 2 weeks). Unfortunately the goat stayed in the freezer to be saved for another occasion, but we cooked a whole lamb instead (it was slow cooked in the local bakers oven in the afternoon then finished off on the open flame brick bbq by Marcela's old man). After dinner, drinks, presents and then a few parties we got home about 5am and just spent the 25th recovering and relaxing in the local pool - the perfect recovery and refuge from the northern Argentine heat.

The key to a successful asado (bbq) is totally dependent on the fire - you have to have steady, even heat for the many hours it takes to slow cook the meat. To achieve this, the fire is started in the afternoon to warm the coals up. When the coals are white-hot they are ready to be evenly placed under the grill, but the fire is kept going on the side in order to prepare more coals for later.

Quique tests the warmness above the grill (which is expertly placed on some broken bricks).

Many hours later and Quique is still labouring away over the grill. The lamb in the foreground was already started in the oven of the bakery, and is about to be finished off on the grill.

This is one of the more interesting firework type things for the Christmas/New Year celebrations - its a mini hot air balloon made of very thin paper. When successfully lit at the bottom it can fly away to great heights - and to the great amusement of the many (drunk) people who send them on their way.

This is a popular drink in the hot climes of Northern Argentina - its called tereré and is the cold equivalent of the most popular hot drink here - maté (a herbal tea drunk through a metal straw in a communal cup that gets passed around amongst friends). Tereré has the same communal cup of herbs as maté (but is usually just in a glass and not a specific maté gourd), but has ice cubes and is filled with cold fruit juice instead of scalding hot water for maté. Very nice and refreshing.

Feliz Navidad

Seasons Greetings to all!!

I am writing this from Corrientes in Northwest Argentina, where we will be spending Christmas with Marcela's family. But before that we are off on a road trip (8 people, 2 cars, 700kms), leaving first thing tomorrow morning, to the famous Iguazu waterfalls on the border with Brazil.

It's 35 deg here and meant to be hotter and steamier in Iguazu!!

More on that when I return, but here's some random pics from my camera over the past few weeks.

This is from the Police concert at River Plate soccer stadium with about 70,000 people. It was a good experience being amongst the enthusiastic crowd who loved singing at the tops of their voices (in their funny accent) and jumping up and down. If you squint a lot you might even be able to make out the band, if not there are big screens there.

The only way to escape the heat in Corrientes - a swim in the local pool and a litre of ice cold beer. Marcela, Bjorn (from Denmark visiting Marcela with his parents for 2 weeks), and Manuel, Marcela's brother.

Here's a dodgy video from my camera at the Police concert - hope it gives you an idea of the jumping and singing going on in the crowd!!

"So what's the plan now?"

That's the question that I keep getting asked by everyone at home, everyone here in Argentina, even people I've just met - they are all asking me the same question.

"So what's the plan now?"

And each time I answer differently, because I don't really know exactly. But I guess it goes something like this (amongst a lot of um-ing and ah-ing):

"Well my first priority is to learn spanish properly, because I'm hopeless at it and I need to knuckle down and learn it so I can avoid all the frustrating moments I continually have, and so I can converse with Marcela's friends and family beyond spanglish, hand gestures and her translations.

"I'd also like to do a bit of travelling in Argentina as there are tons of places I haven't seen yet. Starting in December we are going up to Iguazu falls on the border with Brazil and Paraguay for a few days which should be great.

"And of course I have some hobbies that I'd like to spend some time on, like playing cricket, carving some tikis, playing guitar, learning harmonica, keeping fit etc.

"Oh... and work... yes well I guess I will probably have to look for something eventually, but at the moment it's not a priority as the tax cheque and recent work stint in Oz can keep me going here well into next year (I hope), so we'll tackle that problem later.

"If nothing great comes up here, then the plan is to head over to London by mid-next year so I can do some contracting work, pay off bills, catch up with friends, attend Rico and Hannah's wedding and maybe see a bit of Europe. But it's not so simple for Marcela who has to work out a way of getting a work visa for the UK... and if she lands her dream job here in Buenos Aires next year, which is a remote chance but won't be till March or so, then that will all change...

So, my plans are crystal clear right?




EDIT: I am going to be meeting with an Australian mining company that works here in Argentina about some possible work here next year, so maybe I could be working here after all...

Confessions

So I guess I have to change the title of this blog - or at least the description over there on the right hand side - because I slipped back into the working life recently... BUT thankfully I escaped the clutches of that terribly debilitating disease after just 3 weeks. And I think I gained an even stronger desire to keep that "W" word away for even longer, if that could have been at all possible.

I quietly crept back into Australia recently to attend my best mate's wedding, and at the same time introduce my Argentine girlfriend to family and friends. It was a great two weeks showing Marcela how superb Australia's beaches, cities, people and beers are (and how well Australians can consume said beers, something she still is amazed by!). We went to Sydney, Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast etc etc. Straight after the wedding she had to fly back to Buenos Aires, and I stayed in Brisbane to work for 3 weeks at my old company to fend off some credit card fires. The cash injection was nice to say the least, and that together with a healthy tax cheque from last financial year may keep me going here in Argentina for a few months at least...?

I also confess this post has nothing to do with South America, but here's some pics anyway:

Three icons of Sydney

I almost forgot how brilliant the beaches are around Qld and northern NSW - Marcela loved them too. We even stayed at Noosa with Willie Carne who is married to Marcela's Australian friend - nice!

Almost the whole family in one place at one time, including Muttley.

The innovation of the Sushi Train hasn't hit Argentina yet so was quite a hit with Marcela.

Jimmy's wedding day - the lads getting ready...

Calming Jimmy's nerves outside the church with some cool ones (Jimmy closest to camera).

Hi Hoody!

Nothing like seeing a bride and well dressed guests playing barefoot bowls at the reception.

Bride and groom strolling across the green.... ahhh...

Later in the night with Rowie behind the camera cracking jokes (or maybe just slurring indecipherably) just before taking a picture of us with my Mum and Dad. There's no hiding my blindingly white skin next to Marcela but at least this photo shows who I can blame!

Even later still and Wiseacre steal the wedding bands instruments to play a few of the old "hits" - looks like at least 3 people remembered the glory days...

Aug and Sept update

Well its been a while since I updated this blog, so here goes with a few pics from the past couple of months. Apart from a little more spanish study and following Argentina in the Rugby world cup (and the Wallabies too of course), I've taken a few overnight bus trips to regions in the country that I've never been to before. Firstly we went to Cordoba (9hrs on the bus) which is the geographical centre of Argentina and the 2nd biggest city after Buenos Aires. One night a friend of Marcela's was doing some folklore dancing at a peña (traditional music and dancing event) in a church with a lot of old, tragic and weird people - but all doing some fantastic traditional Argentine dancing. And we were served beers by 10 year old girl guides!!?! What a strange and fun night. Here's a pic:


Another weekend and we went up to Marcela's home town of Corrientes (12 hrs by bus) where I was assured we would escape the rain and cold of Buenos Aires. Unfortunately we were greeted by unseasonal rain and cold and only saw a glimpse of the sun at the end of the weekend. Nice little town by the river, with a lot of history that Marcela's dad was telling me all about while we were driving around town - none of which I can remember.

Speaking of pics (was I?), here's some of an interesting bookstore just a couple of blocks from me in Buenos Aires. It's an old theatre where you can have a coffee on the stage, or read a book in the private booths - pretty cool huh?



I've just got back from a week and a half in Bariloche (mid/southern Argentina - 19hrs by bus!) where I caught up with a best mate from home who has just started his 4 month trip of South America. Was really good to catch up over many cervezas and scotches which helped curb my homesickness a bit. By the way this bus trip was my longest so far but not as bad as it sounds - I paid extra for the luxury seat with hot meals and drinks (wine and scotch even!), and the bad movies even helped me get a little bit of sleep.

Of course my plague of bad weather in Argentina continued to follow me and we had mostly windy, rainy, overcast and cold days in Bariloche, but that just justified our desires to watch the Rugby world cup all day. We did venture up to the mountains for a little bit of snowboarding for a couple of days, but the conditions just never quite worked out right for us. We did get a bit of fresh snow one day though. I'll let the pics and captions tell the rest of the story, as I have to get ready for my quick trip back to Oz for my best friends wedding now.

Brendan on the one morning when we had fresh snow and a hint of sun. That all changed by the time we got up on the mountain though - blizzard/white out conditions with no visibility and cyclone-like winds!

Same morning. Yes the clock says 11:20am, so you could say we were a bit tardy that day, but after struggling out of bed with hangovers, then waiting for and catching a public bus for 45min with hundreds of other skiiers (standing with all our boards and gear while the bus hurtles up a winding mountain road isn't too much fun!), we didn't do too bad. The blizzard conditions are just approaching on top of the mountain in preparation for us to start our snowboarding...

Brendan pretty happy to be in Argentina (and to finally see some sun here).

The Llao Llao Hotel - the most famous hotel in Argentina apparently. It's perched on a magnificent spot surrounded by lakes, forest and mountains. Unfortunately it was about $US390 out of our price range (it was $US400 a night)...

... but that didn't stop us acting like rich and famous travellers for half an hour. Although our clothes and shoes were covered in mud from our mountain biking, and security/concierge had to make us wait for 5 minutes to decide whether we could even enter at all, we got in and carried ourselves with a high air of decorum while the penguin-suited butlers served us our usual bottle of 40 year old Moet champagne (actually it was just orange juice, but at the price of champagne in most other places in Argentina). The decor in this 5 star hotel was amazing - swiss chalet-style architecture rich in timber logs, huge fireplaces, fur covered chairs and deer-antler lamps.

The next few pics were snapped as we mountain-biked through a route known as the Circuito Chico (Small Circuit) - lucky we didnt take the grand circuit as this day really knackered us and we didnt get back to the bike rental place until 7:30 at night. Beautiful scenery full of lakes, mountains and thick forest - and even though it was overcast when we started, the sun poked out for the afternoon which was great.

Nice place over the other side of the lake there - the colour of this lake was unbelievable.

Stop for a breather.

We left the bikes here and took a steep track up to the top of a hill for a bit of a looksy... lets just say the hike looked a whole lot shorter and easier on the map!

But the view was worth it in the end. We were even walking through some snow to get to this lookout point. This is my mountain hiker/rock climber/tv adventure reporter pose.