Eaten Alive

Now I thought calling this blog entry "THE MASSACRE" would be abit grim considering that Buenos Aires was the last stop on my travels (and I wanted to end things on a high note)...but (and I say this through gritted teeth), bloody hell, it really was exactly that!!!!

I woke up the first morning back in Buenos Aires with no less than 29 mosquito bites all the way down the right side of my body!!! YES, T W E N T Y N I N E FRIGGING MOSQUITO BITES!!!! THEY ABSOLUTELY MASSACRED ME DURING THE NIGHT!!! JUST THE RIGHT SIDE OF ME!!! ARM, BODY, LEG, FOOT!!! @$%£!!! @%£$!!!! %@£&$%^!!!! That's all I have to say to that!!!!

Now 29 bites would be enough to get anyone mad....but ooh do you know why I was even more angry than the average person....well I'll bloody well tell you why!!!!!

Firstly, I never got a single bite the previous 3 times I was in Buenos Aires!!!! So why did they have to start on me now????? Why oh why oh why?????

Secondly, I had survived with hardly any bites since I arrived in South America over 2 months ago!!! Why did they have to be so mean and suck up my blood 5 days before I was due home??? Why oh why oh why?????

Thirdly, seriously, couldn't they have attacked the left leg since that was already scarred from being massacred by their cousins, the sand flies in Oz! Why did they have to attack the good (unscarred that was or used to be!) leg as well!!!! I really did not want both legs to match in terms of horrendous bite scars!!!! Not exactly very attractive is it now???? Why oh why oh why????

Oh and lastly, I tell a little white lie, it was actually more along the lines of 32 bites!!!! Um, I just didn't want to admit to having more than 30 because that sounds even more horrendous!!!Now the last three were on my face so I'm passing them off as spots....geez, what a choice....which do you prefer Ivy...spots or bites???!!!! Once again, why oh why oh why????

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

So this was the last 5 days of my mammoth (almost!) 8 month global adventure and it had started off with me being massacred by mozzies!

Now I would love to say that things only got better from there....but I'm not one for telling little white lies just to paint a brighter picture of travelling always being full of fun and games! Our stomach "troubles" from San Pedro returned to haunt us - the both of us!!!! And this is Annie we're talking about and she has a stomach lined with steel!

THE TRAVELLING CURSE HAD STILL NOT LIFTED!!!

Now, I don't think I ever mentioned this before but remember that Looney Tune from Santiago - yep, the crazy Brazilian girl that we had to dorm with on our last night there - well, call us crazy but we reckon she put a curse on us! Seriously, don't laugh! Things started to go wrong for us ever since that eventful night spent with her!

And I'm not exaggerating, all the evidence adds up! Not only were we both ill from San Pedro (immediately on leaving Santiafgo) which stopped us from going to Bolivia and stayed with me throughout Salta where I was so bad that I had to miss a day excursion which I had already paid for, my travel insurance had expired on the only occasion I had built up enough courage to try paragliding and I'd now been eaten alive by mozzies! Ok, so I sound like abit of a drama queen here but there's also Annie! Poor Annie, not only did the same stomach troubles arise but also problems with her tenant at home, family health issues and relationship difficulties! All this in the last 3 weeks! Seriously, it got to the point where Annie went to church to pray for us and even contemplated ringing up her uncle who's a priest for help!!!!! Really, I'm not joking!!!!

But as this was the last 5 days of my trip, I was determined to enjoy it as much as I could despite not being on top form. I guess it took 7 months before things started to really go wrong (I was only really ill once before and that was the first month in China) so in some ways, I guess I should count myself lucky!

Buenos Aires is a ridiculously huge city (did I ever mention that 3 million people live in the city, stretching to 13 million in greater Buenos Aires...in fact, it used to be the most populated city in S. America before being overtaken by Mexico City and Sao Paulo) and is split into 48 (yes 48!) neighbourhoods ('barrios' for administrative purposes). Now with administration and ...ahem, christmas drink...I mean, festivities......taking up most of the time on our previous visits, you don't need a genius to work out that even though this was my fourth visit, I'd still only seen a very small fraction of what this wonderful city had to offer.

After having spent time previously in the micro centre, Palermo and Ricoletta, we decided to stay at Annie's old hostel this time round in San Telmo. Full of charm and personality with cobbled streets and low storey colonial buildings, San Telmo is one of BA's most attractive barrios. Our hostel was conviently located on Av. Chile, full of bars and outdoor restaurants which gave it a lovely lively atmosphere in th evenings (although, it was a headache - literally(!) at the weekend when the music from it's downstairs' bar and resturant pumped throughout the night and the early hours until 6am!) and just off Defensa, home to San Telmo's famous Sunday market! Now I can't stress how amazing this market is! In fact, the reason why we returned to BA on a Saturday was just so that I could make it back in time for the Sunday market! From the moment I first laid eyes on it on my first visit to Buenos Aires back in December, I knew that I just had to return to buy stuff to take home with me. Purses, earrings, incense holders, broches, woolley scarfs, antiques etc...you name it, San Telmo had it. Unfortunately, being back in Buenos Aires meant tourist prices again. I had brought something in Salta for 10 pesos and found it in San Telmo for guess how much - 20 pesos! Double what I had paid for! Ouch!

And why is it always the case that you only discover that there is so much left to see in a place right at the end of your stay?!!!! Seriously, a day before I'm leaving and I find out that there's the Japanese Gardens, Chinatown, the National Congress House and that electonic flower thing that I hadn't been to yet! And I really wanted to see that flower thing!!!!

Ok, let me explain, the flower thing? It's called the Floralis Generica and basically is a giant working metal sculpture in the shape of a flower which is located in the United Nations Square in Ricoletta. Based on the incidence of the sun's rays, the metallic petals open at dawn and close at night. Pretty cool eh???!

I guess this I will have to save for next time. (Um, have I mentioned that I'm already planning my next mammoth trip?!).

Surprisingly, even though I have relied on the Lonely Planet for pretty much the whole of my travels (Lonely Planet China, Lonely Planet Thailand, Lonely Planet South East Asia On A Shoestring, Lonely Planet East Coast Australia, Lonely Planet New Zealand, Lonely Planet South America On A Shoestring...catch my drift?) and in some cases read it religiously.......for some reason, I didn't even look at it for Buenos Aires! That is until I saw a painting of a beautiful bright multi coloured building by one of the street sellers along Av. Florida. I WANT TO GO THERE!

And thank god, Caminto was one of the places that I did manage to see on my last day. A 20 minute bus ride (only 90 centavos!) from San Telmo ( I am getting good ... can do buses all by myself now! - Annie had spanish lessons that morning), Caminto is the most famous street in the barrio of La Boca. And the street's claim to fame? I had to smile when I saw it.......brightly painted multicoloured buildings as far as the eye could see! But beware of the annoying bus loads of camera laden American and Oriental tourists...bloody hell, I couldn't get a single shot without a gazillion of them in the way!

Unfortunately, our stomach "troubles" meant that I could not do the one thing that I had really wanted to. Ok, I lied...two things. The first was to go to Havanna's (sort of the Argentinian version of Starbucks although their speciality is alfajores!) and have one of their speciality coffees (even maybe one of those famous submarino thingies) with one of their speciality sweets! Unfortunately, the closest I got to that was a pot of plain black tea!!! And the second.....well, I'm going to start ranting now.....I love my food, everyone who knows me knows that I love my food...even Annie...when we started travelling together she couldn't believe how much I ate....every two hours, I would be like "Annie, I'm sssstarrrving"!!! Well, the problem with having stomach troubles is well, you just can't eat can you? Surprisingly, I never lost my appetitie....it was just a case that I knew I couldn't eat the stuff I wanted to - I had to eat boring plain stuff like plain rice and plain chicken!!! Oh my god, we were in Argentina....land of the fine steaks!!! Believe me, it killed me not to be able to eat steak! Seriously, it got to the point where I think I was almost hallucinating steaks in front of me!!!! Lomito completo! Asado! Bife de lomo!! WAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

And for last night in Buenos Aires ....haha...no, no partying until the morning (although I had wanted to!)....we treated ourselves to a 3 star hotel instead ... and holed up in our lovely room (or should I say rooms as it came with a little private lounge area with a sofa and all!) doing a TV and packing marathan until 4am ....hey, it's hard work trying to cram in 5 boxes of alfajores!!!!

Oh and we woke up the next morning to a power cut at the hotel so it was breakfast in the dark and a shower right at the last minute before check out when the electricity eventually decided to come back on, our taxi driver having told me he couldn't make it for 11am but could do 11:30am (I thought that was pushing it but he promised he wouldn't be late and we would definitely make it in time for my flight!) came at 11am anyways before I had even finished packing and then even though he promised that he would be back at 1pm to take Annie to the domestic airport for her flight to Ushuaia....he never did.....(although Annie did make her flight!).

What did I tell you about Looney Tune and the travelling curse on us? Now do you believe me?!