Conroys in Argentina & San Fransisco

Hola! & Aloha November 14th 2010

Since we last wrote to you all we have travelled around a lot. We are currently in Hawaii now but the following blog was written when we were in Argentina, enjoy!
We are on a bus making our way towards the north of Argentina. We decided to leave Buenos Aires after 3 days and catch the overnight bus to a place called Mendoza, again it was a city but the big comfortable buses with TV and TV food tend to only go to city to city. We both want to try and get into the countryside but it is not that easy. First of all neither of us speak Spanish (where is Sam when I need her) and very few speak English. I have these pieces of paper with statements on them from our lonely planet book that at times do come in use. Example.... Can I have double room with private bathroom.......Toilets please......How much is it......and something else we have not used yet..........Get Lost! Not sure when we are going to use that one but Craig and I have a laugh saying it to each other! Anyhow ladies before we left BA we found this part of town that was like a mini retro city, retro cars (which Craig wants to buy of course), but tourists cannot buy here unless you get a local to purchase it for you and then hand you the paperwork. This is something that is constantly at the back or should I say front of Craig’s mind. I don’t blame him though, there are some great little cars and we could really do with one to get out and about from these cities. Anyway I digress, the retro city, tons of antique bits and bobs, all types of vintage clothes and jewellery we had to be good and ogle at the goodies. Anyway could not resist a genuine 1920’s bag it was cheap and will send it home (which now I have dutifully done in the US as I have been travelling around Argentina with THE BAG!) So besides the 18kilo rucksack, my faithful drum I had the bag too. After the said purchase we decided to go and drink coffee, eat croissants, cake if you want, cos we are telling you now the Latin Americans like their sugar. So a bit difficult for someone like me who should be avoiding sugar but I have to say that I am indulging now and again. We have also been informed by a local that in fact people from Argentina are not interested in healthy food, just meat, cheese, cake, and wine! Yeah! Yeah!! OK I know I’m weird but I just want some greens for goodness sake!!! I have seen them in the market but they never appear to be on my plate or the menu. Or they probably are I just don’t know how to order them!! Anyhow Craig is now walking around tutting now and again about the bag and we have arrived in Mendoza after 10 hours on the bus. A nice city bit more leafy with trees, small hostel but clean, everyone smokes, lots of doggies and really kissy kissy. In fact the locals are very demonstrative, we like this. Men all ages greet each other with a kiss women of course kiss and the youngsters canoodle in public, there is even graffiti showing it. The Argentina people are really into art and there are some good artists to see. The city also has a large wine region and we have to see for ourselves and partake in a few sips of vino here and there. Also for you chocolate lovers out there they have a factory that makes all sorts of chocolaty things from wine to chutney to chocolate. The city also has a lot of outdoor markets and everyone down to little babies come out late in the evening and eat very late too. So after Mendoza we decide to still try to find places more in the countryside we depart and take another bus journey to Cordoba. Arriving in Cordoba a massive city we decide this is not for us and get on immediately another local bus to a place called Alta Gracia. This has some history behind it relating to the mighty CHE GUEVARA! He lived here for a while with his parents and there is a museum with interesting things to see. There is some beautiful buildings too with history going way back before the Spanish arrived there. The small town has countryside with mountain views and is very pretty to see. Everywhere you go Che is mentioned and we meet a man who writes songs and poetry dedicated to him. He is very passionate about this and has sung in public many times, we eat a delicious cuban meal in his restaurant and his wife is a delight to meet. We also managed to have a horse ride on a ranch that was owned by some local people who were so very nice to us and welcoming. The children and us managed to converse in some way and we were shown all their animals on the ranch and exchanged bracelets for friendship to remember our time together. It was probably one of the best days on our travels. The parents and children had very little to share but were so giving that we were truly blessed that day for meeting with them. Craig and I both wanted to see if we could find a place to rent for a while but discovered due to the language barrier it is hard to converse and organise and also many were out of our price range. This we did not think through properly before we came to South America.

The country is such a vast place and so spread out that a vehicle is needed really, there are large areas of fields and open spaces with farmland with very little around. So after spending a few days there off we go again another bus ride to Santa Fe area to a town called Parana. We meet a very nice man who worked in our hotel and as he spoke English we had a great conversation which was really nice. The rain is now upon us here in this town and we are trying to make our way towards the National Park further north. Another bus ride is called for trying to avoid large cities and we end up in a small town called Mercedes in the middle of the countryside. On arrival we discover a few obstacles firstly the park is very expensive to stay at unless you are camping and that it is easier to go to Correnties (another large city) to arrange transport there. We are tired and do not want to get on another bus ride for another 5 hours so decide to stay in this small town. We are glad that we did as there are streams to be found, wild horses and fields with an old disused train station just like something from a Clint Eastwood western. We find that after 1pm the town literally shuts down (siesta) people disappear into their homes, shops shut, no food just CRAIG and I wandering through the streets, looking at really old cars, horses and fields in the brilliant sunshine. The town then comes back to life at 5pm with motorbikes whisking around the tiny streets and families going to parks. We take our usual seat by the local park and eat at the tiny cafe and watch day go into night. At least we have stopped for a while and quite honestly we have now made a decision to change our plans. (Craig’s turn)

Hi all!

Well we decided to call it a day as the constant travelling got too much, every other day 8 to10 hr bus rides  then to get further to the north to Chile / Peru it would have been months of very long bus rides. No thanks the past two years has been stressful enough. So we go back to Buenos-Aires and fly to San-Francisco, a friend of ours (Connie) let us stay at her apartment there. Wow what a wacky city and Connie’s place was right in the heart of it. It was straight out of the film bullet and the streets of S-F, crazy people on street corners, really really hilly. Man did we get a workout. We could have easily climbed a mountain after spending a week there. The people around the ghetto area were, well let’s say socially challenged and very comical with it. Teeth missing, talking to themselves, pushing shopping trolleys with empty bottles and plastic / cardboard cartons or shouting across the street at people. The thing is there were so many of them! In London you will see the odd one here or there and more at a main landmarks, but S-F you can keep counting them as you walk around and when you get to the ghetto area you just stop counting. It’s a bit sad but funny at the same time. Our second day there was amazing we were so lucky, the Giants had won the Basket Ball series , the first time since 1957ish and a big parade was being held through the city. THEY WERE VERY HAPPY PEOPLE, hanging off lamp posts, buildings and trees, whistling and shouting. All the basket ball team and sponsors came through on lorries, buses and classic cars, then you had the local madness, a strong smell of skunk weed in the air, people flying around in their trucks and Harley Davidson’s and other contraptions honking their horns and shouting from the back of the pick-up trucks. With the ghetto crazy’s even more mashed up than ever doing even more crazy things than usual! What a buzz and very funny. They have a lot of art and music, the people busking on the street are fab, some real talent, we saw many guys that had laid out plastic and metal tubs and were playing the drums, which they could play very well. Others had entire bands set up and our favourite was two guys in the evening had bought a PIANO in the back of their car and were playing on the street corner! It was nuts but they were really good and had a large crowd around them. There was a great art building holding works of photography, paintings and sculptures etc and I managed to take some really good art photographs there as the building was artistically built, with lots of curves, straight lines and stylish lighting.
We spent most days walking around different areas and even got to see Alcatraz, they have made it a state park and museum, so you can walk around with headphones and get an idea of how it was run, plus how the guys escaped etc, very interesting and well organised. Most buildings in S-F are from 1900 to 1930s / 40s really cultural, it gave the area a lovely feel so having a coffee on a street corner watching the local people do their stuff was great entertainment, felt like it was straight out of the films. Gale and I were pleasantly surprised with S-F as another city wasn’t what we wanted but it was a great stopping point for us (thanks again Connie we loved it x) So we then heard of a friend going to Hawaii, we wanted to go there after spending a while in the states but we had an opportunity to meet and net-work with people for further training etc. That’s where we are now, Big Island one of the Hawaiian Islands, with an active VOLCANO! But that’s for our next blog, so love to you all. Love and light always Craig and Gale x