After my trip to the north I had completely revised my itinerary (whch is subject to daily revisions anyway). Instead of heading over to Uruguay and Brazil, I would be heading to North of Chile instead as it seems like I will never get enough of these cactuses and mountains and horses and cows!

Beat has started his trip in South America a few months ago in Brazil, but has been sick for the majority of his journey, most likely due to a nasty food poisoning caused by street food. As a result he has not been able to enjoy his time here as much as he expected, and more than once he thought about returning to Switzerland (adding to the fact that our visit to the Swiss village in Cordoba yesterday didn´t exactly help to ease his homesickness)! We talked about this a couple of times and for me and for my own selfish reasons (it is not that easy to make a friend you can really depend on whilst you are on the road!), it is really sad to see him planning to leave the continent so soon.

Before I embarked on this long journey, I was reminded by my friends (thanks Guy and Eve!) the importance of setting a mission or a goal for my travels, as one may easily lose a sense of direction after months and months of being on the road, of feeling tired and at times very lonely. To be totally honest, I don´t have a specific goal but I think I do have some sort of idea as to what I want to achieve out of my S America trip. It is of course not as plausible as “striving for world peace” or other humanitarian causes, but if this trip helps to open my insensitive eyes and widen my narrow mindset, if this trip helps me to confront my own ignorance towards the world, and if this trip turns me into a wiser and better person, hopefully that will mean I will become less of a hazard/burden to the world(!!) which means there will be an indirect benefit to our nation at the very end wahhaa! For Beat, I wonder if his goal in this trip is to perhaps constantly stretch his own limits and test his strengths and challenge his weaknesses, but I guess putting aside all these “self-development theories” I am now advancing, one ultimately needs to enjoy the trip itself. At the end of the day, travelling should be fun and not a torture, no?

So I do hope Beat will consider staying in South America, and perhaps later in the year we will be able to meet up again somewhere. Yet, even if he decides to cut short his trip, I am sure that will work out best for him and I´m also sure that we will still be able to meet up again, some day and some where (most probably in a real Swiss village this time)! Ciao, Beat!

Darmien picked us up in his car in the morning, and we then set off to visit some stunning natural sceneries, trekked some small hills, visited some artificial lakes and a stunning waterfall, had a terrific Parrilla lunch (again, meat meat meat), and in the afternoon, hopped over to La Cumbrecita (a Swiss town) and Belgrano (a German town).

According to Darmien, many Swiss and German people emigrated to Argentina during the second world war, and thereafter congregated together and built these lovely serene Swiss and German villages around the outskirts of Cordoba. Cumbrecita and Belgrano both reminded me of my visit to Interlaken in Switzerland a few years ago with Rachel, where the houses were like those you oftentimes see in fairytale stories, and with most of the shops selling Swiss chocolates, German beer, oktoberfest type of giant beer mugs, and generally with people speaking Swiss-German and Hi-German everywhere. Don´t ask me what the difference is between the two languages though, I really have no idea but what I do know is that Swiss people will get quite offended if you tell them that they speak Hi-German! I tested this on Beat (who is Swiss) already, so you have to believe me!

We arrived back in the city around 7 yish to purchase our bus ticket to Salta for the following day. The long but rewarding day winded down with an asado organised by the hostel which started at 11:30 pm (not surprising according to Argentinean standards), during which we managed to eat even more meat and drank a lot of Quilmes beer. After dinner Beat and I went out for some dancing but as mentioned before, since Corboda is a famous university town, we did not exactly have the time of our lives partying with little kids (=P) and went back to the hostel quite early to hit the sack (4 yish, very early indeed, again according to Argentinean standards)!

One thing though…I feel more and more unhealthy these days due to over-consumption of meat and bread in Argentina. Yesterday for example, I think I nearly ate a whole cow (not eating it alive, of course), considering the quantity of meat intake throughout the day. Hopefully I can devote the next few days to a pure and strict fruit diet in order to restore the yin-yang balance back in my system. We´ll see!

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Speaking of bus travel, there are different classes of long-distance buses which a traveller can book for his or her trip within Argentina. These are semi-coche (the seats reclining 120 degrees back), coche cama (reclination around 150 degrees) and coche suite (enabling you to lie down horizontally). The coche suite buses usually provide food as well as an air-hostess (oops, I mean, a bus hostess). Being budget-conscious but at the same time back/spine-conscious travellers, we naturally opted for the coche cama option, which was a good choice as I slept all throughout the way!

So here I am, now on the road with Lottie and Beat, although Beat will only be joining us for a few days in Cordoba, and thereafter he will be heading west to Mendoza instead. Poor Beat was “sooooo tall” (in his words) that he wasn´t able to get any sleep on the coche cama because the space between each seat was not wide enough for his looooong legs. Poor thing! So after we dropped our bags off in the hostel (Alvear hostel), Lottie and I headed out to stroll around the city while Beat stayed in to catch up on some sleep.

Cordoba is a refreshing change to the busyness of Buenos Aires. The city is compact enough to be explored entirely on foot, and the shops are all condensed in the central district so one would easily be able to find his way around town. Lottie and I had a lovely walk around Parque Sarmiento and caught some rays along some Hollywood-type boulevards. Cordoba is known to be the university town of Argentina, and hence the population here tends to be slightly younger compared to Buenos Aires. The people here don´t speak as much English as in BsAs, but this poses no problem for us as Lottie is a very fluent Spanish speaker, having lived in Mallorca for 2 years before.

After having lunch with Beat after he woke up, we sought to check out some museums, only to be held up by the array of clothing and other shopping stores around the vicinity of the town plaza (San Martin). I was still blaming myself of the fact that I very foolishly left my scarf on the night bus – a black scarf knitted by my mum before I set off for South America. Hence I spent a major part of the afternoon shopping for a replacement black warm scarf – but nothing can ever be its substitute, mum! I´m so sorry, please knit me a new one!

For dinner we had some nice lomos (meat sandwiches…very fattening ones…) in a local student joint, and headed back to the hostel after a quick drink. We will be out on a full day excursion tomorrow so better catch up on some sleep!

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Having tried out tango on Tuesday night at a lovely milonga, I have to say that the dance really isn´t my cup of tea. Well, perhaps if I try not to step on my partners´feet that frequently it may help improve my impression towards the dance. However, I feel like tango, albeit being a passionate dance about love and sadness (though Beat is convinced that he read somewhere that tango is about homosexual relationships…), is too uptight and rigid for my liking. On the other hand, salsa is more vibrant and lifely, and has more variety and room for improvisation. In a nutshell, salsa is perfect for dancing beginners like me who will inevitably improv all the time as they have no idea about the basic steps in the first place!

On Saturday afternoon I met up with Beat to visit the Palermo parks, and had a pleasant time just watching time go by. There was an open-air Brazilian concert which started around 7 that evening, and we and the locals merged as one to be dazzled by some wonderful Brazilian music (need to confess I fell asleep during one country song though). Beat is cool guy from a town in Switzerland which has only 150 inhabitants, and hence he is finding it very difficult to adapt to the city life in crazy Buenos Aires, especially the busyness on the streets, the pollution and the noise. This is also why he can´t wait for our trip next Wednesday to go up north to Cordoba, following which he will head over west to meet his friends in Mendoza, whilst Lottie and I will continue to head north to Salta and Jujuy. Beat thinks that I have integrated into the city very well, having adapted to its no-sleep-work-hard-all-play lifestyle. I think that is partly because this city is very similar to HK (as I have mentioned before). Yet if I only choose to stay in places resembling HK, what´s the point of coming to South America in the first place, right? That´s why I am also excited about my trip up north next week so as to finally experience the real Argentina.

On Sunday evening, I got to partake in a real asado (Argentinean BBQ) at the house of my friend, Severin. We had some really good cuts of meat, nice wine and good conversation with people from various nationalities (Severin and his two friends are French, there was also Diego, an Argentiean who is teaching French in the city, as well as two very lovely local Argentinean girls). Severin taught himself Spanish when he was living and working on a salmon farm in Chile last year, and he loved the language and culture so much he decided to return to South America (this time Argentina) to live for some time and develop his fair trade projects here. His experience is rather inspiring, and makes me realise that it is also possible for me to learn proficient Spanish through self-study. Just thinking of this makes me feel less guilty of the fact that I skipped my four hours of Spanish class this morning to update my blog! Cool!

My next post will probably come from Cordoba or Salta…and after the trip up North I will be back in BsAs to wait for Fabio whom shall be joining me on the road for 3 months! Can´t wait to finally have some company on the road with me (though luckily till this day I still haven´t experienced days of terrible loneliness yet), and more importantly, for someone to look over my bags while I dash to the washrooms etc while travelling! Fabio you are so important hahaaha, have a safe flight to BsAs! =p

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The Matadero is a local festival of food, art and dance, which takes place every Sunday in a town being an hour´s bus ride away from the city of Buenos Aires. Most tourists only choose the visit the famous open markets in the city itself such as San Telmo and Ricoleta, with stalls selling antiques, mate mugs, jewelleries and food. According to the locals however, a “true traveller” will opt to visit the relatively far-away Mataderos for a real South American experience. We could not wait to claim ourselves to be true traveller of sorts, and that´s how we found ourselves last Sunday situated among various gauchos (Argentine cowboys) and their friends, strolling through a maze of stalls selling different handicrafts, cheese and wine, as well as tapping our legs to the beats of various folk music and dance performances.

At 2 pm on Sunday (ok fine, that technically isn´t too early so I shouldn´t complain too much I guess), I met up with my classmates from Spanish class – Jeong and Alicia, as well as my friend Beat from Switzerland. Jeong and Alicia are from Korea and with Beat joining us for our little Sunday outing, I felt like we had a very strong international team of true travellers that day!

We loved the Matadero the moment we got off the bus and set foot there. There is a jovial, celebratory and festive vibe eminating throughout the entire feria, with people wearing traditional folklore costumes dancing and singing, with the smell of asados (different kinds of meat on an open air BBQ) permeating the air, and with the sounds of tango music and drum jamming pulling your hands naturally together to clap along the beats.

The Argentinean cowboys, gauchos, mainly come from the countryside to showcase their horsemanship through a series of competitions in the Matadero every Sunday. Slightly disappointing is the fact that the average age of these gauchos is around 50, from what we observed that day. Rewarding is the fact that we got to enjoy some of the best horseriding performances where gauchos race their horses at breakneck speeds while performing various tricks and skills.

The biggest appeal for me in respect of the Matadero though, is the chiropans, which basically is a chorizo (beef or pork sausage) wrapped inside a baguette. However, please refrain from commiting the grave sin of calling them hotdogs, which I did, as there is a risk that the locals will punish you for your dis-respect towards the choripan and deny you the pleasure of savouring one. Truth to be told, choripans are miles better than hotdogs, with its juicy & greasy sausage meat served with the famous chimichuri sauce, and tugged safely inside one of the crunchiest bread you will find in Argentina… I am already craving for another one whilst typing this blog entry!

So our lovely Sunday afternoon was spent in Matadero eating, drinking, strolling, enjoying the performances, taking pictures, chatting and relaxing. As the four of us are all Spanish language learners (albeit different levels, with Alicia being the most proficient and Beat still at the stage of expanding his “Hola” and “Como estas” type vocabularies), we did our best that day to speak in Spanish, but at times falling back to Korean/Swiss-German/English and even Cantonese. Nevertheless it was a really fun day out, cheers to a productive Sunday!

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Apart from the pollution, the locals here are a bit similar to Hong Kongers in the sense that some of the locals here are as skilled as Hong Kong people at pushing you out of their way, no matter on the subtes (metro), streets or on the buses. Of course, there are also very nice and friendly people here (the majority are nice), and in fact all of the new friends I made here are nothing but nice, generous and with a big heart and capacity for love. However, I can start to feel the stress experienced by the younger generation here, due to their demanding work, employment and unemployment, and this can be shown from their face and demeanors. Interestingly, perhaps it is also because of these peculiar similarties to Hong Kong, it is why I feel completely at home in this foreign land and although I am planning to leave this city next week, I am starting to find my place here as well (not by pushing people out of my way, of course).

Speaking of nice people, two weeks ago Szilvia and I had befriended her neighbours, which is a group of around 8 Colombians living here to study (3 of them are attending a cooking college) and party. According to our new friends, it is relatively cheap living and eating out in Colombia, but very expensive studying there. This is why many Colombians choose to study in other parts of South America and then return to their country to work, as ultimately that is where their home is. Colombia (especially Cali) is also very famous for its Salsa dance and culture, and hence unsurprisingly, each of our new Colombian friends knows perfectly well how to move his/her body in grace. Hence they were very puzzled by the fact that I am incapable of moving my limbs, upper and lower bodies separately, and every time when I move I do it like a crab. Oh well, seems like I need to have a word with my Salsa teacher given that my body co ordination is still somewhat lacking, according to the Colombians!!

Anyway, in an effort to improve my dancing skills last Saturday Szilvia and I went to our favourite Salsa club Azucar, and had a fabulous time dancing with the Colombians. Unfortunately, my night of Salsa had to be cut short (meaning at 4.30 am) as my housemate was holding a fiesta at our flat and invited a truckload of friends. Of course it would be totally bad form to miss my own party, no? So I rushed home from Azucar to discover that every one was a bit drunk and high (including the friends that I invited and arrived 2 hours before I did) and was having a great time. When I woke up the next day at 3 pm, some friends were still drinking and eating on the balcony with my housemates, and it was then when I realised that although I also enjoyed the occasional late night out in Hong Kong, that was actually NOTHING compared to the real parties here in Bs As! Ah, there is still so much for me to learn, in order to become a true night owl!!

The rest of the week was spent furthering my Spanish and Salsa studies, practising both (poorly) whenever I can, checking out some touristy places like Florida and Corrientes street (with lots of street performers and shops selling “I love Buenos Aires” T shirts), going to a BBQ last Sunday and going out for dinners with my friends mainly in the Palermo and San Telmo barrios. I am also planning to visit the North of Argentina for 2 weeks, and may leave as soon as next week. So lets see where the wind takes me next!

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For example, last Wednesday Pato and I went to watch a Korean movie titled Like You Know It All, being one of the movies shown in this year’s BAFICI film festival. BAFICI is similar to the annual Independent film festival in Hong Kong, with a wide range of independent and mainstream movie producers and directors from all over the world showcasing their work. Pato, as sweet as always, got two tickets to this Korean movie partly as a recognition of the fact that since I am an Asian currently living in a foreign land, perhaps watching an Asian film will make me feel less homesick. Little did he know that Hong Kong and Korea – albeit being geographically proximate and apart from the fact that Hong Kong people enjoy the occasional kimchi from time to time – actually speak two totally different languages! Okay, the truth be told, of course smart Pato knows about the language differences! He got the tickets because the film was highly recommended by his colleague, and apart from the fact that we failed to get or comprehend the message which the movie sought to convey (not every movie needs a clear theme or message I guess), I quite enjoyed the movie and being part of the BAFICI crowd. When I talked to my Spanish classmate the following day who is a Korean, he told me the director is very famous in Korea and is mainly famous for making movies that not many people understand. It was quite re-assuring to know that I am not the odd one out then!

Back to what I was going to say about the late night lifestyle here in Buenos Aires. After the BAFICI movie a student sitting next to us introduced himself to us, and Pato suggested that we visit an Irish bar for a “quick drink” together. By the time we finished our “quick drink” we were all hungry and felt the need to fill our stomachs with some good meat and cheese. Turned out that it was already midnight and swear to god, it was the first time I got to eat BBQ pork and beef (asado), downed merrily with a good Malbec, at such a late hour of the day (night)! That night I got home at 2 am and slept at 3 am after completing my Spanish homework, still with a full stomach. As usual, i had to wake up at 8 am in the morning to rush to my Spanish class. And then this routine repeats again day after day! As my Spanish classmate Szilvia succinctly puts it, every day a little part of us dies slowly because of this crazy lifestyle, but at this moment I am proud to say that I am enjoying my slow death immensely =)

Speaking of Szilvia, I am very grateful to her for introducing me to the whole new world of Salsa dancing. Szilvia is an avid Salsa and Zouk dancer, who is currently visiting Argentina and then Cuba and the Carribean to learn different dancing styles and to attend various Salsa congresses. Szilvia took me to the local salsa club Azucar Abasto last Saturday night, and this was how my Salsa adventure begun. It started off as a lovely wine and cheese gathering at her flat, and perhaps because of the wine, by the time I reached Azucar I felt like my feet were not as awkward on the dance floor as they normally would be! We ended up staying hours in Azucar, dancing with different people (for me, it translates to stepping on different toes and bumping into different bodies), and managed to have loads of fun. Wanting to explore the world of Salsa further, since last Monday I have been taking two hours of private Salsa lessons every day with a lovely couple, Emilio (from Mexico) and Ines (from Argentina). Honestly, my lessons sometimes feel like a dancing bootcamp (like the programmes you see on TV where an unfortunate professional dancer had to teach a completely clueless student how to dance perfectly and to compete in a professional dance-off in the span of 4 weeks). Emilio and Ines have a lot of energy and even though I still suck at Salsa, the most important thing is that I am having loads of fun and I look forward to my lessons every day!

Also uploading some pictures of my lazy afternoon strolling last Sunday with Lautaro in San Telmo (famous for its Sunday markets), Plaza de Mayor (we watched the flag “closing” ceremony…by the way, what is the opposite of “flag rising”?) and Puerto Madero (a lovely harbour front area, being the most expensive residential district in Buenos Aires). Lautaro will be heading off to Barcelona to search for his dream and a new life. We both think that this has something to do with us getting more mature by the days (read: older) and realising that there are other things more precious than a stable job and comfortable living, which we would like to achieve in our life in order to truly feel that we are alive. I will surely miss my first good friend I made in this town, his puzzling dedication to Irish and English pubs, his wonderful photography work and his dry sense of humour. Bon voyage Mazzi!

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