After a day to recover from the New Year´s festivites we were lucky enough to be invited to Mercedes and co´s (the family of one of Kat´s ex pupils) little countryside retreat. After a 2 hour bus journey where we were dropped off on the side of a motorway, a little hitchhike in a 4x4 and then to be picked up by Merecedes´s friends we arrived at the Villa. I´d just started reading Jack Kerouac´s `On the road´ all about hitchhiking across the US so it felt really exciting to be doing a bit of our own hitchhikin from a deserted petrol station to the middle of town here. Just a pity that my Spanish doesn´t extend far enough to have a conversation with the drivers, luckily Kat´s does. Unfortunately they didn´t have much to say other than to warn us of the mosquitoes. We were dropped off in the a town called Las Palmas which was completely quiet and looked like a really great place, dogs sleeping and old cars everywhere. It was great to arrive at the villa and jump straight into the pool but we had a bit of a shock at how cold the water was. The last time we were swimming was in Brasil and even the sea there felt much warmer than the pool here. I suppose we´re a bit spoilt by now. As the villa was occupied by a big group of friendly families the pool was filled with kids. I therefore spent a good few hours throwing and pushing kids around the pool and getting a good few `bombs´ from the kids right next to me. It was good fun and we really enjoyed the Bbq and chatting with the oldies over dinner. As I´d been found out as a Welshman I had to give a song after dinner so I belted out the anthem as best I could.
I forgot to mention the mosquitoes. They wer ethe biggest and meanest we´d ever seen! As soon as we hopped of the bus we were attacked by a gang and any time that you didn´t have any lotion on you you were done for. Poor little Bosco´s (Kat´s ex pupil) legs were in absoulte tatters by the time we left.
After a nice breakfast we headed back to Buenos Aires with Mercedes and the family. We had lunch of Sushi followed by a huge ice cream then headed back to the apartment for a quiet night of pizza and a film on our favourite channel, MGM.
Today we headed down to La Boca, the area that be honest I was the most apprehensive of going to in the city. It´s the area that all the guide books warn of being a bit `dodgy´ but as long as you stay in the allocated tourist area then all is well which is what we did. As the area is right next to the port all the buildings, in the tourist area of course, are painted with bright bold colours. The story goes that the area was so poor that the inhabitants could only afford to paint their houses with the left over paints from the ships. This tradition has died out a bit now I think but they still do their best to keep it going in the touristy area. Whether it´s `real´ or not it looks nice. We had lunch watching a tango show, in which the most impressive dancing was by two men together funnily enough, one immitating a woman. I think they might need to find better woman dancers.
We´re heading back to La Boca tonight for dinner in a restaraunt which is apparently favoured by the Hand of God aka Senor Diego Maradonna. As it´s not in the tourist area of La Boca it´s a taxi to the door job and the same on the return journey. Apparently it´s one of the hidden gems of the city, we´ll see..........
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